My time on rock has been less than I would like in 2015 as I finished up my masters, teaching credential, second year of teaching and had baby #2. It also seemed like most of my trips, although super fun, ran into weather, missed summits, or other interference.

Now that summer break has started and I have babysitters lined up for every tuesday I was happy to hear that two friends who work as cave guides in Sequoia also have Tuesdays off so Brian and I planned the first exploratory trip of the summer. He sent a message saying, "I would like to try a bigger FA." And I responded, as I usually do when people want to do an FA, with, "How do you feel about walking?"

The north face of Mount Silliman! Well, this is the west face, the north face is the sunlit sliver that falls behind the ridge on the left.

There are a couple routes on the west face, a 5.7 going up the northwest ridge and a short 5.6 on the far east end of the north face, but I haven't found any history about the wide and remote north face. Neither one of us had ever seen the northern aspect or knew anything about the rock quality or how tall it was, the perfect way to start a day!

After a few return walks to the car at Lodgepole to get stuff we forgot we hit the trail at 4:45, about 7 miles away and 5,000 below the summit.


It was a beautiful off-trail hike past streams and small lakes. It wasn't until we reached the sharp ridge running off to the northwest that we got our first view of the north face. Crap, it looked steeeeep! We both hoped this wouldn't turn into some sort of project.


We stayed on the 2nd and 3rd class ridge until we found a spot to drop off on the left. It was really fun and the views were outstanding!

But then we had to decide were to go. One of the most fun and stressful parts of exploring rock. We did not think it would be so steep so we brought mostly nuts, a few cams and no bolt kit. With this gear we decided to play it safe and take that chimney system towards the right that tops out just left of the point on the skyline. It had roofs but at least it looked like it would protect the whole way. There are definitely some harder clean lines to be had right up the middle of the grey rock.


We kicked our way up the ever steepening snow for the scariest part of the day and Brian took the first pitch, working his way right to reach the big corner and roof that marked the start of the chimney. A more direct approach would be possible if there wasn't any snow. This was Brian's third time in the high Sierra, first alpine climb and first long FA so he was almost as excited as me!


We swapped leads the whole way and to our surprise the whole thing went at a moderate grade. Every roof had some sort of way to work around or through it and while the rock directly in the chimney wasn't always the best there was usually at least one solid wall to work with. It was exceptionally fun and had a little bit of everything; loose rock, perfect rock, smearing, jugs, chimneys, splitters and a non-stop panorama of Kings Canyon wilderness to the north.

Wooooo! Did I mention it was steep? If you pooped yourself on the last move it would probably land in our steps in the snow, 600 ft below.

It turns out we're not fast enough for a self timed summit selfie.

New register, we get to be on the first page!!! Oh wait, this "J. Netha" character put a new register and took his pencil home with him.

A hop, skip and a jump and we were back at the car 12 hours after we set out. It's not often that days go this perfect and it's basically the reason I started climbing. If you haven't tried something like this you must! Grab your gear, pick some obscure chunk of rock with no info and see if you can get to the top. It's essentially the heart of climbing (for me) and you won't forget it!


Thanks for looking and I hope your summer gets you to some cool spots. PS: get dorky and learn to identify plants and long approaches become scavenger hunts. Here's a bleeding heart. Nature is rad.