Cirque Peak Overnight

I had signed up with a Facebook group called SoCal Hiking. I was interested in doing some hiking with someone other than myself. Not too long after I signed up, they had posted an overnight trip to climb Cirque Peak in the southern Sierras. This looked interesting to me and so I indicated I would go. I was looking forward to something new and meeting new people.

The plan was to meet at Horseshoe Meadow Campsite near Lone Pine at 8 AM. I got up very early at home and drove there Saturday morning. The drive up Horseshoe Meadows Road was pretty dramatic. You could see it from 395 snaking up a steep incline, and the trip up was pretty and did not disappoint. I got to the parking lot of the campsite and saw someone who looked as if he was waiting for people and sure enough, Johnny was part of our group. Another gentleman showed up named Mario and he was going to hike with us as well. We were still waiting for our leader Eylene Pirez. She showed up shortly after with a young man name Sante Kotturi and his dog Sitka. Our group was assembled and we started up the Cottonwood Lakes trail.

This trip was an out and back of about twenty-two miles with about 3,500 feet in elevation change. There was some discussion about making it a loop but it was decided that we would make that choice on Sunday after summitting Cirque Peak. The trail up was pleasant and we all got to know each other a little bit. Johnny and Mario were sort of new to hiking and overnight camping. Eylene and Sante were clearly very experienced. We got about halfway and it started to rain. Shortly thereafter it started snowing but it was more like frozen rain. I was a bit surprised as the day started very sunny. The Eastern Sierras are notorious for afternoon showers and I guess I should have not been really too surprised. I figured it would let up in about ten or fifteen minutes, but it did not.

We got to the first Cottonwood Lake and hiked along the shore. The second Cottonwood Lake was close to the first and we then found an area out of the wind which important in these seemingly wintry conditions. Everyone set up their tent and got in our of the wind and frozen rain. I did not want to put my tent out and have my tent get all wet and then have to deal with that all night. So I decided to wait it out. I could see blue sky in the cloud breaks. It had to end soon, or so I thought. I ended up waiting under a pine tree for close to two hours. There were a couple of moments where I thought maybe I would just hike out and call it a day.

I finally put my tent out and cleared off the snow down to the gravel so the floor of my tent would be dry.

Things cleared up quickly and we spent a fair amount of time hanging out. Sante had a drone and we played with that for a while. After dinner and some drinks, I called it and decided to sleep. It proved to be pretty cold. I had purchased a liner for my sleeping bag after the Mt. Whitney experience, and ended up pulling that out and using it sometime in the evening when it was clear my bag by itself was going to be cold.

Finally, morning arrived and we all got up and had some hot oatmeal. This was very welcomed. We had talked to some people the day before that had attempted the New Army Pass but there was a cornice that they could not get over. We headed towards Cirque Peak and ditched the trail pretty quickly as it was all snow. We just headed towards Cirque Peak to see how far we could get by going straight up it. There was a fair amount of snow interspersed in what was a rock field up a pretty steep incline. After some determination, we made it to the top. Mission accomplished despite not being the recommended route.

Summit conquered!

We headed down after enjoying the peak for about a half-hour. We new where our campsite was and just bushwhacked our way back. This required a river crossing that was way more exciting than it should be. There was a lot of post-holing but at long last, we were back to our tents. We packed up and started down to our cars which was another eight miles. This took a while and I must confess that the last few miles were tough. I was ready to get back and sit on my ass. And at long last, that goal was achieved.

This was a good trip for me as I went to a place I probably would not have done on my own and met some really nice and interesting people.

Redemption - Bagging Mt. Whitney

Everybody loves a redemption story and it is especially meaningful when you live it. As previously documented in this journal, my son and I tried to climb Mt. Whitney last year. I will not recount the shortcomings of this effort here, but I will summarize that trip as optimistic and overly ambitious. Needles to say, I wanted another shot at it!

There is nothing like getting the lay of the land to build some confidence which was certainly the result of the first attempt. After that experience, the next attempt would be different. The first change is that we would do it within the permit window. I put my request into the lottery system within minutes of the window opening up. I requested an overnight permit in September. My thinking was doing an overnight broke the hike up into two pieces thus improving our chances of success. Second, September seemed an ideal time in that it was certainly better than November when we first tried, but also it would be clear of snow and still somewhat warm.

Unfortunately my lottery request was rejected. They offered up days where there were still opening and I quickly elected an overnight permit starting Monday, September 25th to the following day on the 26th. That it was a weekday did not bother me what-so-ever. I just wanted a second chance. And my son would miss some school, but in my mind, these two days were going to be significantly more meaningful to his ‘education’ than any days in a classroom.

My son and I checked out the Mobius Arch again in the Alabama Hills. We took the obligatory photo with Mt. Whitney in the background.

Finally the day arrived to leave for Lone Pine. We had all our equipment and were ready to climb Whitney. We drove up Sunday and spent the night in a motel. We woke up at a sane hour unlike the year before, had breakfast, packed up and headed to Whitney Portal. We had met some other people at the motel that were climbing as well. We then met them in the Whitney Portal parking lot. One of them would be with us for the majority of our trip. We got everything together at about nine’ish we started our journey. We showed our permit to the ranger and away we go!

It was nice to start on a sunny day and we were feeling good. We worked our way up over the next couple of hours to High Camp where we had planned to spend the night. This was the highest point on the mountain where you could camp legally. We were a little anxious about getting a spot, but we showed up early in the afternoon and had our pick of spots. We spent some time thinking about finding a spot out of the wind. We ended up with a really good place.

This seemed to be about as ideal as we could do from a wind perspective. We built a wall around the tent as well. Cold was one thing, but add wind to it and I thought we might be in trouble. The wind never came.

We had a lot of free time and did some exploring. We spoke to someone who told us that the previous night had gotten so cold that people got up in the middle of the night and headed down the mountain. This was both alarming to me and a little stupid. Our sleeping bags were three-season rated to the mid-twenties. It seemed that we should be fine, but we were definitely a little nervous. We spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring, resting and enjoying the nice weather.

As evening approached, our plan was to stay up and out of the tent for a while so we were good and tired when it was time to go to bed. The sun was setting behind the mountain so it got dark early. By six the sun was gone. There were people standing around talking and we did this for a while. The temperature really dropped quickly and we really did not have heavy jackets like some of the other people. They had definitely thought through this part of the experience. After about a half-hour, we decided to get into the tent, stay warm and do some reading and look at our phones. Although I was worried about my battery and did not want to run out of battery so we could not take pictures at the top; that would have been a fate worse than death. We had decided maybe we should put on a fair amount of clothing in our sleeping bags to stay as warm as possible.

Finally we went to sleep. However it only lasted for a few hours. It was definitely cold. I could feel my feet getting cold. We slept back-to-back as that was helpful. When we were in town the day before, the local hiking store had sleeping bag liners for rent which I thought about for a moment but did not get. I thought about those liners all night wishing I had pulled the trigger. Only my nose was sticking out my bag and I could feel the cold air in my lungs. We tossed and turned the rest of the night waiting for the next day to arrive. It seemed as though it would never come.

Finally we could see a little light through the tent and we began to hear others rustle around. Shortly we mustered the energy to get up and start to get ready. We scrambled around and got ready. We were pretty much dressed so much of the effort was about getting the blood flowing. We ate some food, put things away so the Marmots and Chipmunks would not get into our stuff. I did my morning business which horrified my son but was necessary. We were as ready as we were going to be. A bunch of people had already headed up. And so we started for the peak.

The infamous Chains. This area on our first attempt was all snow and ice. There were only single foot prints to walk in and a very steep snow field down to the right. It was a deciding factor for turning back last year.

We had a clear day and there was very little wind. We could not ask for much more. The conditions were about the exact opposite of what we had the previous year. And so we began our march toward the 99 switchbacks. We worked our way up to Trail Crest pretty quickly. This was a milestone as it was where we turned back last year.

We rested a little at Trail Crest. The view was amazing both from where we came from, but also Mt. Hitchcock and the Hitchcock lakes were very impressive on the other side. We had also met up with the friend we made at the motel and the three of us started our push to the top.

There were some pretty dramatic drop-offs and views particularly in the first portion of the trail. We slogged our way past the needles. This portion was definitely taxing on our bodies. The trail itself was not particularly hard but the altitude began to be felt in a serious way. We pressed on. You work your way across the backside and you can see the top. There is an area where it turns hard to the right and you are at the last portion. When you can really see the Shelter at the top in a real way, you know you are going to make it.

The best part of this was doing it with my son. A close second was redemption after failing the first time.

It was not a sprint, but there was a point where we knew we were going to make it and the pace for the last few hundred yards definitely picked up. Finally, this peak was officially bagged! What a great feeling. At least a year in the making and really longer when the notion of making this attempt first cropped up in my mind.

The weather at the top was about as perfect as I think it could be; sunny, little wind and a very comfortable temperature. We spent about a half-hour soaking it all in. The views were pretty amazing. I remember thinking that I really need to absorb it so I could remember it. My efforts to save battery life up to this point paid off and we documented all aspects of the top. I am glad we did because I rely on those pictures to really recall the experience. After a while, we realized that we were only half-way done and that we needed to get going. And so after some reflection, we headed down.

Going down is always the hardest part for me from a physical perspective. We were moving at a good pace and got back to Trail Crest relatively quickly. This portion of the trail is pretty dramatic. Although the very last part of it you have to go back up, and while it was not really hard, going down was the mindset I had locked into. I again attempted to really soak it in and make it stick in my memory banks. We headed down the 99 switchbacks and back to our tent. We packed up our camp, ate some food and did some stretching to get ready for the last push. We worked our way down noting each spot that we had seen on the way up and the previous year. The first year we screwed up on the way down at Lone Pine Lake and made sure not to make that mistake again.

Victory!

Finally we made it back to the parking lot and our car. Wow, what a feeling. We were parked next to a van with a couple in it who were going to leave in the evening. They wanted to know what it was like. With the success and the trip in the rear-view mirror, the only thing I could say was ‘it was great’.