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Misha
Trad climber
Woodside, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 22, 2006 - 10:33am PT
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Prologue
Labor Day weekend. Pavel's and my first attempt of the ridge with our significant others. One 30m rope and a few cams between the four of us. Holy canoly, this ridge is huge!! Down we go from its half point. Four hour epic descent brings us to the somewhat firm ground... This photo from Sixty Lakes Basin is the only thing I can show for.
Photo (c) Misha Logvinov
Approach
Two weeks later Pavel and I find ourselves hiking for 13+ miles over three high passes into Kings Canyon's Sixty Lakes Basin, again. This time the weather is not so good, 50 mph wind gusts and cooold! Finally (7.5 hours later) we get there and settle for a good night of sleep. I wake up the next morning and check my thermometer... 14F! We convince ourselves that we should get out of our sleping bags when the temperature rises a bit. It does indeed rise to 27F when it is time for us to leave. Thanks to the balmy weather, we take all our clothes with us on the climb. We would thank that decision later!
Climb
After a couple of hours of scrambling, we get to the ridge. At last, we can rope up and start simul-climbing. Here we are, moving together over beautiful and clean granite at the beginning of a gorgeous Indian summer day. Unbelieavably, it gets warm!
Photo (c) Misha Logvinov
Traversing, more traversing, a little bit more traversing... damn, that thing is long! Finally, we can see our objective. It should not take us longer than a few more hours to get to the plateau before the final rise to the summit ridge!
Photo (c) Misha Logvinov
A couple of hours stretch to six. Pavel runs out of water. I start to run out of energy. We are running out of day light. "Dude, we may have to bivy...?" "At least we have all our clothes with us!" "Let's worry about it when we get there". On the East/NE Ridge plateau at last with our route behind us. It is almost 6pm. From here it should be but a simple stroll to the summit via the easy East Ridge (Grade I, 5.4 according to a well known guidebook). Yay, we may make it down from the summit before it gets dark!
Photo (c) Pavel Kovar
Easy stroll!? We belay again and climb steep 5.7-5.8 cracks to gain the summit ridge. Grade I? 5.4? A classic obscure Sierra sandbag. Two more moderate pitches... this final rise to the summit seems longer than we thought!! Crap...
Photo (c) Pavel Kovar
Not happy campers!
After spending eleven cold and dark hours on a small granite shelf that overhangs the SE Face, we are still alive and almost kicking. Thankfully we took all our clothes with us and the night is not nearly as cold as the one before. Still below freezing though :(. Sun rolls out and blasts the peak in front us with a glorious alpenglow. Shivering and with wooden hands, we continue for three more moderate pitches to the summit. Twenty six hours since we left our camp, we are on the top of Mt. Clarence King!
Photo (c) Misha Logvinov
Epilogue
Down the South Face we go. Back to the camp at noon. Food and hour-long power nap recover some of our energy. Reluctantly, we pack and head back to the trailhead at 2:30pm. Somehow we manage to cover 13 miles and nearly 4000' that separate us from civilization and not puking. Back to the car at 10pm. In the Bay Area at 5am. I still have time to take a hot shower before rushing to the office to attend my first meeting of the day!
Photo (c) Misha Logvinov
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TKingsbury
Trad climber
MT
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Sep 22, 2006 - 10:49am PT
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wow wow wow!
Looks really fun. very cool(cold?)TR
I liked all the shots, but I looked at the 3rd pic for a long time...
perfect thing to read with the morning coffee...starting my day right!
This is why I enjoy the ST
cheers,
Tom
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Kartch
climber
belgrade, mt
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Sep 22, 2006 - 10:50am PT
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Sick, I love it, you guys are hard men for sure. This TR exemplafies all that is good in climbing.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Sep 22, 2006 - 10:53am PT
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Sheesh, I'm with you Misha:
Who woulda' thunk the whole thing would take that long from a high camp!
'Nice overall representation of the "structure" known as Mt. Clarence King.
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Misha
Trad climber
Woodside, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 22, 2006 - 10:56am PT
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Thanks guys!
Tarbuster - no kidding! I did a quick topo! of the route after we came back. Cose to 1.5 miles of technical terrain from where we gained the ridge. My personal impression:
Matthes Crest (full ridge) x2
Thunderbolt to Sill traverse x1.5
Much more sustained than either one of these though...
:)
Misha
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Sep 22, 2006 - 11:07am PT
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nice trip report Misha...
and another great adventure in the mountains!
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rhyang
Ice climber
SJC
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Sep 22, 2006 - 11:26am PT
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Nice work guys !
Not happy campers!
I know what that's like ...
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bobh
climber
Bishop, California
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Sep 22, 2006 - 11:30am PT
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Hey, I think I ran into you guys above Onion Valley on Labor Day weekend. My wife and I were going in to do Charlotte Dome. Nice job on Clarence King.
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yo
climber
The Eye of the Snail
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Sep 22, 2006 - 12:04pm PT
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Молодци, ребята!
I believe Clarence King was the fifth Beatle, does anyone know for sure?
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piquaclimber
Trad climber
Durango
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Sep 22, 2006 - 12:26pm PT
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Excellent post Misha! That one pic is probably worth the first attempt. :)
A very fun read.
Brad
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curlie
Trad climber
SLO, CA
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Sep 22, 2006 - 12:38pm PT
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Nice job, Misha! Wow!
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John Vawter
Social climber
San Diego
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Sep 22, 2006 - 01:05pm PT
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Well done! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.
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Nibs
Trad climber
Humboldt, CA
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Sep 22, 2006 - 01:22pm PT
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Thanks for sharing!
Love that area - your photos capture the feel.
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Misha
Trad climber
Woodside, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 22, 2006 - 03:56pm PT
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Thanks for your comments, all!
bobh - I think I remember you too! What a funny coincidence. How was Charlotte Dome?
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Sep 22, 2006 - 05:14pm PT
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All right Misha!
Good report. Thanks,
Zander
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Misha
Trad climber
Woodside, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 22, 2006 - 06:04pm PT
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Damn, I just saw that... It is definitely not grade VI. We were reluctant to even call it Grade V since it is only somewhat longer than several Grave IV routes that we've done in the Sierra.
For some odd reason, they also used a photo of Dusy Basin for the "hot flash".
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nutjob
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Nov 22, 2010 - 09:16pm PT
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BUMP for some sweet climbing content!
Holy Bajeebus this looks like an awesome adventure.
Any repeats yet?
And what do they have to do to call it a full TR?
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Misha
Trad climber
Woodside, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 22, 2010 - 09:27pm PT
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Hey nutjob... I don't know if there were any repeats. It is a fun route that should see more ascents! Gorgeous area too
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Nick
climber
portland, Oregon
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Nov 22, 2010 - 10:09pm PT
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Thank you for that trip down memory lane. I did this route back in 78' and really enjoyed it.
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