Race/trip reports and random musings: August 2022

North Palisade – at 14,242 ft – is the third highest mountain in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Unlike the two that are higher in that state, there is no hiking trail to the top. My goal was to try West Chute + Clyde variation – a Sierra “Class 4” route. The overall climb is nicely divided into 4 distinct sections – starting with hiking on a well-developed trail, then by talus hopping, followed by going up (and sometimes sliding down) a steep, loose gully, and, finally, by some fun scrambling up reasonably decent rock. Total round trip is about 20 miles. Many years ago, I had tried twice to get to the summit of North Pal by other routes without success. Although I hadn’t been to the Sierra in a few years, all the hiking and scrambling in the Pyrenees this summer had been good training and I felt in good shape to attempt North Pal.

On the drive in through Westgard Pass, one gets amazing views of the Sierra crest just south of North Pal. Whatever mental intimidation factor I had was overwhelmed by the views of Middle Pal and Norman Clyde peaks during the drive. When I got to Bishop, I went for a short walk to stretch my legs while admiring the views of Mount Sill (just south of North Pal and on the same ridgeline). North Pal, however, was hidden from my view by another mountain.

Next day, Friday, the alarm went off at 3 AM. I had some coffee, drove to the trailhead (South Lake Trailhead at 10,000 ft), and started off with headlamp at 4:30. The first 6 miles to Bishop Pass (12,000 ft) are on a good trail. There are many lakes and streams along this section. When I was about 2/3^rd of the way to the pass, the sun started coming up and I enjoyed the morning glow on the mountains. The trail section went smoothly and I got to the pass a bit before 7. At the pass, I left the trail (which goes down another 6 miles in another direction to meet the famous John Muir trail) and started going cross-country on some nice benches towards Thunderbolt Pass (also ~12,000 ft)

The region between Bishop Pass and Thunderbolt pass is called Dusy Basin. There are several nice lakes in this basin. On the left edge of this basin are two 13ers – Agassiz and Winchell. On the south edge of this basin is Thunderbolt Pass. One can also see Columbine Peak, with its unrepeated Death Dihedral route, just to the south of this basin.

The section between Bishop and T-bolt passes ends with a mandatory and annoying talus (mid to large sized) hopping section. Going a bit below the two passes on the bench section allows one to traverse the first part fairly easily. This, obviously, requires gaining back some altitude to get to T-bolt pass. However, this tradeoff was worth it. This whole section of about 2 miles took me about 1.5 hours, and I got to T-bolt pass at about 8:30 AM.

Whatever annoyance the final section to T-bolt pass brought melted away instantly when I got to the pass. South of pass is Palisade Basin. This is my most favorite area of the Sierra – which itself is my happy place. There are alpine lakes to my right, big steep mountains to my left (including North Pal), and an expansive panorama of other Sierra peaks to the south and the east.

However, Palisade Basin is more than just views for me. Many years ago, when I first went to this area to climb Mount Sill, I camped in this basin. In the evening, the alpenglow on the west face of North Pal along with the light shimmering on the surface of the lake near which I was camped was mesmerizing and very calming. I remember just lying on the sleeping pad outside the tent and gazing at the lighted west face of North Pal till the evening light faded.

Just south of T-Bolt pass is perhaps the most prominent part of this crest. The 5 peaks just south of the pass are all over 14,000 ft in the following order bearing south: Thunderbolt Peak, Starlight Peak, North Palisade, Polemonium Peak, and Mount Sill. None of them have an easy path up (the easiest would perhaps be Mount Sill where one can keep the difficulty down to class 3 with careful route finding).

After taking in the experience from the pass for a few minutes, I started towards the largest scree/talus fan closer to the other end of the basin. This is where the west chute of North Pal begins. The level was similar to that in Dusy Basin – a bit annoying, but just straightforward talus hopping. In about 45 minutes, I was at the talus fan at the base of the west chute.

Going up the first hundred vertical feet or so in the talus/scree chute is more annoying than steep – it is just a bit loose. After that, although the steepness increases, there are well-worn climbers’ paths (multiple) and the going, though tedious and tiring, is not particularly sketchy. I stayed closer to one or the other side of the chute to be closer to a more solid terrain. It was mostly class 2, with some class 3 thrown about 2/3^rd way up the chute leading to the narrower part of the upper chute. This narrower part of the upper chute is where tings get a bit more sketchy: steeper and looser. Two steps forward and one step sliding backward. It was very tedious and, for the first time, I started to feel tired – mentally and physically in equal measures.

This upper chute deposited me on the so-called U-Notch (between North Pal and Polemonium). At the notch, one can see the other side (east) of the Palisade crest. Looking down the other side of the notch, one can see Palisade Glacier and a very “glacial silted” green lake. I admired the view for a couple of minutes, and then got back to trying to see a way up the headwall to my north.

I had a decent Summitpost description of the route (Clyde Variation) from the notch. Most of it made sense as I looked up the headwall – expect I couldn’t see where the left turn from up the class 3 ledge was. I guess I will have to find out. The broken chimney up to “a” ledge seemed class 3ish. Fairly confident that I could downclimb that if that led to a dead-end, I went up it. The leftward ramp was obvious from the top of the ledge, but getting to the ramp required one tricky (but still class 3ish) move and one a bit harder move (class 4 or very easy class 5). Although there was some mild exposure, I felt confident and secure.

The next 30-40 feet on the ramp were fairly easy and I passed one rap sling. Around the corner from the ramp, I got into another mini-gully. This one was very solid class 3 gully with decent rock for almost 2 full pitches. Heaven! I made a small cairn to guide me around the ramp when on the way down and also made a mental note of the surroundings. This fun and secure scramble deposited me on the very ridge. An airy traverse on to the other side opened up to more spectacular views – I could see the summit of North Pal for the first time (and it was tantalizingly close). To the south, I could see Sill not that far off (maybe 0.25 mile). And, probably the most eyepopping was the first part of the ridge between Polemonium and Sill – the very definition of a spectacular class 4 knife-edge! I had seen pictures of this knife edge – but seeing it so close (a few hundred yards from me) in real life was amazing, even if I was not going to be on it this time.

Back to the fun part I was going to do this time. Traverse the ridge to north – keeping on the east side shortly before crossing back over to the west side. This traverse was fairly straightforward, but required some concentration. When I got back to the west side, I, for the first time, saw North Pal’s summit bowl – with the summit just about 100 ft above that. The description I had said something along these lines – “You have made it to here, you can figure out the rest”. It required some zig-zagging up through some easy class 3 blocks to get just below the summit block.

There are apparently 3 types of ways (from other descriptions that I had read) to the final summit block from just below it. One requires going up a narrow squeeze chimney, one requires jumping from one block to the summit block, and the last one requires some very slightly exposed boulder problem. My claustrophobia made the first option moot. The second did not appeal to me at all. So, that left the third option. The exposure was almost non-existent, so I decided to try it. Right foot high step smear the summit block (hiking shoes), layback the edge of the block just below the summit block, grab the top of the summit block, slight pull-up, left foot on a decent foot hold, let go of the right foot smear, mantle on to the summit block. Voila! I was on top of North Palisade!

The views from the summit are just amazing – Palisade Basin to the west, Palisade Glacier to the east, and Sierra Crest running north to south. As North Pal is part of a very jagged crest/ridge, sitting atop North Pal, one can’t see the bottom of the notches between it and Polemonium to the south (this is the U-Notch) and between it and Starlight to the north. So, basically, you see two immediate, lower summits sort of floating in the air. To make matters more interesting, there was a party climbing up the summit block of Starlight at the same time.

I spent about 30 minutes on the summit. Now, it was almost 1:30 PM. Time to head down. Repeating the boulder antics down from the summit block felt reasonable. As did the zig-zag down and the ridge traverse to the solid class 3 gully down from the ridge. I kept an eye out for the cairn I had made to notify me of when to look for the ramp around the corner. Yep – there it was. The ramp down was okay too. Downclimbing the crux (from the ramp to the ledge) required some concentration, but I was soon down to the chute.

The top part of the chute had felt sketchy on the way up, now that sketchiness was magnified on the way down. Even the more benign middle part which had felt okay on the way up was cumbersome of the way down. It probably took me over two hours to get down the chute. And, I was getting pretty tired by now. I still had plenty of daylight (and, a headlamp), so I wasn’t worried per se – just had to mentally prepare myself for all the tiresome talus hopping that needed to be done while already tired.

It was still daylight when I made it to Bishop Pass and the trail. Halfway down the trail to the trailhead is when I needed to turn my headlamp on. Finally, at about 9:30 PM, I reached the trailhead – very tired. The last mile – downhill on good trail – took me 45 minutes (it had taken me 30 minutes on the way up). Overall – 20 mile round trip in about 17 hours. A very tired, but a very happy, puppy.

Postscript: On the drive back to Vegas from Bishop, I drove via Death Valley. The last time I was there was in July 2011. Usually, I don’t dwell much on what I have done in the past – I am only as good as what I can do now. And, for various reasons, I don’t run much now – so, doing Badwater now is out of question. However, as I drove through Death Valley (in reverse) and saw the road signage, I was filled with this feeling that there are certain things that about onself, even if they were in the past, one can’t always discount. Sure I can’t do it now, but I have done Badwater!