Sierra Scrambles

I just did the east arete of Carl Heller and thought it was fantastic it would be physical to do it in a day but doable if you were going super light and enjoyed a lot of elevation gain. 5-6 hrs to the base of the ridge less than 1 hr to climb the route... less than 1 hour to down climb the route and 3-4 hrs to hike back to your car. though this would be close to 7K of elevation gain. I just created my first MP pages if you want to check out some recent driving beta and info for route finding on the george creek approach here

mountainproject.com/v/mt-ca…

Other Great scrambles not mentioned are the east ridge of mt. Muir, red and white mountain, and the east ridge of lyle, ritter and banner scramble, any kind of peak bagging in the minarets the list is endless

The Little Lakes Peak-Mt. Morgan traverse is terrific and, I thought, pretty soft for class 4. When I first did LLP about 15-20 years ago, the register only had a about 10 entries for the 10 yr. period preceding it. Certainly some ways to find an interesting class 5 to the summit of LLP if you want to bring a rope and rack.

The Yellow Brick Road looks interesting, though loose and kind of committing. Someone just died soloing that last week I believe.

Viren, great pages for Bernard, Carl Heller and TT. Thanks for contributing. Enjoyed the story about Galen Rowell and Tim Auger doing the FA of the pillar on East Bernard.

Fat Dad wrote:The Little Lakes Peak-Mt. Morgan traverse is terrific and, I thought, pretty soft for class 4. When I first did LLP about 15-20 years ago, the register only had a about 10 entries for the 10 yr. period preceding it. Certainly some ways to find an interesting class 5 to the summit of LLP if you want to bring a rope and rack. The Yellow Brick Road looks interesting, though loose and kind of committing. Someone just died soloing that last week I believe.

Do you have any more information on the accident? I know someone who was going to be climbing out there at that time...

Optimistic wrote: Do you have any more information on the accident? I know someone who was going to be climbing out there at that time...

Based on what he told others about his plans he was on Venusian Blind, although he was found in gully between VBA and MGA.
mountainproject.com/v/soloi…

Fat Dad wrote:The Little Lakes Peak-Mt. Morgan traverse is terrific and, I thought, pretty soft for class 4

Which way up Little Lakes Peak?
I'm guessing you mean SW ridge of LLPk (from near Morgan Pass) followed by SW ridge of Mt Morgan.
Or maybe not, since my edition of the Secor guidebook (p345) lists SW ridge of LLPk as class 5.

Ken

Not sure about directions since I don't have a topo or the guide in front of me but from the Morgan Pass trail, LLP looks like a big isosceles triangle. On the lower right edge I climbed up to a ramp that you can follow around the corner to the right, where you climb a series of class 3 ledges to the top. Every other option looked pretty solid class 5.

OK - I'll guess that you left the Morgan Pass trail somewhere near Chickenhead Lake, so the WNW face would be the "triangle", and its "right" edge would be the SW ridge. Secor's book says there are class 5 sections on that ridge, so it's sounding like you avoided those by starting on a ramp to the NW side of the SW ridge.

Thanks a lot for your report about this traverse in an earlier thread, because it stimulated me to go for Little Lakes Peak (which then led me to try climbing the NNW ridge).

Ken

Got to try Mt Russell East ridge yesterday. Supposed to be a classic Sierra scramble. On my ascent I tried to take it direct on the ridge as much as possible -- find some interesting class 5 moves, and lots of interesting class 3. Seemed like a real lot of climbing. I continued on to the West summit, and staying on the crest made that interesting too. One-way about 2000 ft (600 meters) long of climbing (like 10 pitches).

So classic indeed for the "semi-direct" way.
Only disappointment was that several of the gendarmes I could not climb up -- or (more disappointin) I could climb up but not down the other side (so I had to retreat). Toward the summit I skipped trying a couple of them because I was losing faith that I could get down them -- and I was worried how long it was going to take me to descend that length of climbing.

On my way back I tried staying mostly down on the north side of the ridge. It was like a completely different climb. Lots of class 2, a few moves of class 3 -- so I got back to the Russell-Carillon col pretty fast. I didn't think most of the moves were all that interesting -- I would not have called it a "classic" scramble or thought it was worth the work of the approach (unless you just want to bag another Sierra 14er).

Then after that fast descent, I felt I had extra time, so
... Carillon ...
I tried climbing the W ridge of Mt Carillon, again trying to stay on the crest of the ridge as much as possible. Felt more fun than Russell: higher density of interesting class 5 + 4 moves, was able to climb up onto more gendarmes -- and always down more or less the other side. So I continued over the summit a little ways down the SE ridge, including an interesting large gendarme (with an interesting S descent). Then returned staying to the S of the summit and ridge which was again much easier.

But only about 1000 ft long of climbing (half of the Mt Russell E ridge).

3000 ft total interesting climbing for the day - on excellent ridge-top granite - felt like plenty for me.
. . (with 5300 vertical feet approach not a bad trade-off)

Ken

I just climbed the east ridge of lyell and thought it should be added to this list of recommended scrambles...

Viren Perumal wrote:I just climbed the east ridge of lyell and thought it should be added to this list of recommended scrambles...

What did you like about it?
- (? or What not like?)

Did you descend the same way?

How difficult + long is the approach before you get to the interesting climbing?

Got back into the Rock Creek valley and took some photos this time.

Here's the NNW ridge on Little Lakes Peak seen from the NW

Little Lakes Peak from NW, with NNW ridge route marked

Can also see the detailed route on MP .

For context here's LLPk between Mt Morgan and Rosy Finch
Mt Morgan (South) + Little Lakes Peak + Rosy Finch peak

I know some people have liked the traverse from Little Lakes Peak over Mt Morgan, but I haven't tried that yet (instead descended the talue gully north from the col between LLPk and Mt M).

Ken

Also took a look at another section of the traversing of the ridges around the Rock Creek valley. The Moynier + Fiddler guidebook describes a traverse from Mono Pass to Bear Creek Spire to Morgan Pass. What I like about Rock Creek is that the approach is shorter than say the Palisades or Evolution traverses.

So here's some photos of the west-side ridge by Ruby Peak and Mono Pass ...

Looking SW to Ruby Peak from the Mono Pass trail ...

SW to Ruby Peak : W ridge + N ridge
The West ridge (on left) and the southern section of North ridge look like might have some interesting climbing, but the northern section (near Mono Pass) of the N ridge of Ruby Peak looks mostly like hiking rather than climbing.

Looking NW up to Ruby Peak ...
NW to Ruby Peak and its W ridge
with the summit upper left and the W ridge diagonaling down to the right.

Next looking SW to the ridge between Mt Mills on the left (south) and Ruby Peak right (north) ...
SW to ridge between Mt Mills + Ruby Peak
Looks like could have some interestiing climbing sections.

and South across Mills Lake toward Mt Abbott ...
S to Mt Abbott + Petit Griffon + Mt Mills
Mt Abbott to left with its rather wide North couloir (not much snow in it this year), and Mt Mills to the right, with the Petit Griffon in between (not much snow below it this year). Perhaps N couloir could be a way to get on or off the ridge between Ruby Peak and Bear Creek Spire. Guidebooks say S ridge of Mt Mills has at least one big step which can be taken on rappel in the N-S direction, or difficult up-climbing in the S-N direction.

I'd be glad to hear stories and ideas about climbing on and near those ridges. to help guide my further explorations.

Ken

Viren Perumal wrote:I just climbed the east ridge of lyell and thought it should be added to this list of recommended scrambles...

West Ridge from they Lyell-Maclure Col is nice too. Southeast Ridge Maclure also nice.
NW ridge descent off Maclure I thought was loose and scary. Anyone have a better way over to Florence from there? Perhaps back to the Col and south?