Tuolumne, Langley, and the Golden Trout Wilderness

I went to Tuolumne Wed evening to climb with my friend Drew the next day. We went out to South Whiz dome and toproped a few routes. I'd tried Shadow Warrior before when I was still kind of sick and flailed. This time I flailed less and figured it out. I doubt I'll ever go back enough to send it - which would take effort and knowing the sequence. The bottom is pretty hard.

I felt like I didn't get a good enough workout, so I drove back down to Lone Pine to finish Langley, which I'd bailed on last weekend due to the weather looking ominous.  I was at the top in 5 hours, so I decided to finish a big loop through the Golden Trout Wilderness. I think the total was about 22 miles. My feet hurt.

Right now I'm hanging out in Bishop trying to decide what to do with my day. I RSVP'd for a wedding in Convict Lake this afternoon, but I'm dirty and my feet hurt. I don't really feel like being social on a good day, and I'm not a big fan of weddings. Plus tomorrow I'm supposed to do Middle Palisade with Drew and his friend Pete (and possibly S. Watson). I don't want to drive all the way up there and then drive all the way back down to the trailhead outside of Big Pine (this after I drove from the trailhead outside of Lone Pine to Bishop this morning...).

Here are the photos:

 Langley in the distance. No storm brewing today.

 Marmots: fat, lazy, and cool with it.

 Old Army pass

 Summit register

 Summit views

 Summit shot

 Heading west down from Old Army pass. An unnamed trib to Rock Creek is on the left

 This creek was really pretty - amazing that water is flowing through such dry terrain

 An attempt at an artistic foxtail pine photo. I am such a crappy photographer.

 I thought the foxtail pines were really cool.

Slogging through a sandy forest was not that cool.

 A view east from Cottonwood pass

 A grouse hen and her chick

New and Old Army passes

The road to the Whitney portal splits around Lone Pine. The left fork goes to Horshoe meadow (and two trailheads). One is the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead and the other is the Cottonwood Pass trailhead (they are almost right next to each other). This is a good place to bivy, since it is at 10,000 feet and the Whitney Portal is a fucking zoo. I camped there Friday and Saturday nights.

Sunday I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, since I was kind of tired and I had a couple of blisters on my feet. I knew I didn't want to go home yet (I was already all the way down in Lone Pine and at a trailhead). I thought I might do Langley depending on how I felt. As it turned out, the weather looked a bit ominous. I ended up going up to Cottonwood Lakes, up Old Army pass and then down New Army pass for a loop. I think the loop is about 14 miles, but I can't be sure. I know it's at least 6 to get to Cottonwood Lakes from the trailhead.

I was excited to check out Cottonwood Lakes since I've genotyped trout from there. I like to visit places that I've heard of in my work.

Photos:

 Mt. Langley is on the right

 one of the Cottonwood Lakes

Cottonwood Lake 4. You can kinda see Old Army pass on the left of the cirque 

 looking down on #4

 view west from Old Army pass (the pass is about 12,000 feet)

 looking up at Langley

 There were a lot of Sierra primrose (Primula suffrutescens) on New Army Pass

 looking down on High Lake from New Army Pass

 The foxtail pines in this area are awesome. Krummholz.

 a giant field of moraine boulders

 it was a good decision not to hike up there.

 storm over the portal

I hit a huge cluster fuck on 395 near Mammoth. It might not be apparent, but the road is covered in hail/snow/sleet. There was a storm over the whole sierra from Lone Pine to Bridgeport. I saw a lightening strike fire near the switchbacks above Mono Lake. It was DUMPING rain at Crowley Lake. I stopped there for pizza on the way home.

East Ridge of Mt. Russell

So I've realized that blogging is a great way for me to journal places I've been and whatnot. On more than one occasion I've searched the blog for info on something I did in the past for information.

Since I've done some cool stuff lately, even though I haven't blogged in forever (it became too depressing when I got sick back in March), I figured I'd sort it out and put something on the record.

I made it car to car in 10 hours, which is 2 under what I'd anticipated. The weather was great, I didn't see anyone all day except for three 40-something dudes on the actual ridge. The typical response from older guys is "are you out here all by yourself?" Yes. I am. I'm a strange bird. The typical response from younger dudes is to generally ignore me. Oh yeah and I saw a freakin' platoon of guided guys heading up the slabs for an overnight at Upper Boy Scout Lake. They were going to spend the night and then get guided up the Mountaineer's route.  I applaud anyone for getting outside, but I have to say (with some shame) that I feel superior for doing something harder. All by myself. Yes, I'm a terrible egotistical person. Oh well.


A little bit of info for future reference: I approached via the rockwell variation (described on summit post) where you go up the canyon from Upper Boy Scout Lake rather than turning right at the lake. This reduces the amount of scree you have to climb, but deciding where to start up the blocky chute takes a bit of a leap of faith. At any rate it was fine, and I descended via the normal approach. I cannot imagine going up the scree. It would be...not fun.

I did the East Ridge of Mt. Russell Saturday. Here are some pics (all taken with iphone):

 The iphone got fogged up in my pocket

 looking up the Rockwell Variation chute

looking down the scree that I pawed my way up (again, Rockwell Variation approach) 

 Mt. Whitney looks cool from this angle

 looking at Mt. Carillon from the lower part of the East Ridge

 A cool lake on the north side of the Russell-Carillon col - the ridge does have some exposure!

 another shot of the pretty lake

looking back at the East Ridge 

 East Ridge again

 I can't remember what this is

 summit shot - camera is facing East

summit shot, camera facing west 

 another lake shot. It was so blue!

 Mt. Carillon

 Mount Whitney

 Mount Whitney - massive!

 East Ridge

 chocolate milk. nom.

 East Ridge

glad I didn't come up this shit.