Middle Palisade TR

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aa-lex

climber

Livermore

Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 15, 2008 - 11:30pm PT

So I decided to finally write some of my summer TR's.

This was my trip to Middle Palisade to climb the North East Face. It was my first fourteener and was incredible!

This was in the end of May, so there was still a fair amount of snow.

The start of a long 28ish hours! Awesome scenery...

The first glimpse of Middle Pal and the glacier...

Early enough that there was lots of this...

Awesome view of

Got some nice altitude sickness at about 12500 at the top of the glacier. Here's my bivy that I used to rest and recover. I would have just slept in the snow but I didn't bring any pads so this seemed less cold.

After some sleep, I felt better and went for a late summit. Here's a view of the route.

And the view from the top of the summit...

And, of course, the obligatory summit photo of myself...

Then, I realized that it was 7:30pm and I should probably be getting back down, since I was originally planning on doing it in one day. The sun started going down as I was coming down to the glacier.

Shortly after this, the sun went down and I began making the descent in the dark. Not too hard except for finding the path of least resistance. Once I was having a hard time seeing, I decided to sleep a few more hours and wait for the full moon to come up. Looking tired...

I then hiked a bit more when the moon came up, but ended up finding out why they call it Willow Lake. This is the lake at the top of the initial elevation gain of the trail, and I found myself pushing through about a million tenacious plants (I assume willows). This made me incredibly tired and I figured it was getting pretty late so I just decided to sleep until sun up.

I then woke up to this...

The snow that was supposed to come in over the weekend came in about a day early, and it was pretty freakin' cold. Anyways, it was time to get back and make the drive home, so I packed up and headed out. Things were much easier to find when there was light out.

All in all, this was such an awesome trip. I got some much needed relaxation after a busy semester...

Flashlight

climber

Aug 15, 2008 - 11:31pm PT

Pretty darn cool! What I want to know is why are you posting such a cool report in the middle of jtcrip's Obama orgy?

climber

The Outer Limits of my Inner Sanity

Aug 15, 2008 - 11:41pm PT

Dang Aa-lex! You like to suffer, don't cha?

Your bivy for sleeping off altitude sickness looked like a bed of nails would've been more comfortable. I loved the shot of you at night, too. Funny!

Great photos--thanks for the TR. Glad you survived!

Flashlight

climber

Aug 15, 2008 - 11:50pm PT

Ditto on the bed of nails!

I liked this comment...

I got some much needed relaxation

Sounded real relaxing to me. :)

TGT

Social climber

So Cal

Aug 15, 2008 - 11:56pm PT

Good!

Now go get the other 14. ;-]

This was one of my favorites. Going a little slower, with a few more amenities is a lot more enjoyable though.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Aug 16, 2008 - 12:04am PT

ahhahahahaa!
Yer self po-trits are a total crack up!!!
('hope you get that I mean that in the best way...)
'Speshly the second, "deer in the headlights" type-routine.

Thanks for the brisk & spiffy report.

Zander

Trad climber

Berkeley

Aug 18, 2008 - 07:48pm PT

Great Trip Report aa-lex!
I would love to do that climb again.
Zander

Jilli

Trad climber

SAnta cruz mtns, California

Aug 19, 2008 - 02:50am PT

awesome Alex! next up... Temple Crag!!

ya, those 2 photos of you are pretty damn funny... you really look like ur havin fun,eh?!

;-)
Jillian

Brutus of Wyde

climber

Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA

Apr 12, 2009 - 09:13pm PT

Bump!

I love those photos with the dilated pupils!

Brutus

Crimpergirl

Sport climber

Boulder, Colorado!

Apr 12, 2009 - 10:20pm PT

I love this! Missed it the first time around - glad it was bumped.

squishy

Mountain climber

sacramento

Apr 12, 2009 - 11:42pm PT

I missed this as well, cool TR, thanks for sharing..I did MP as my 1st 14er last summer and it was a blast, took us 4 days to get 7 people up and down, good job..