TR: Mt. Sill via Bishop Pass and Potluck Pass shortcut After our Labor Day fiasco this year, and an aborted attempt last October (the East Couloir Route) this would make three tries in less than a year at climbing the famous Mt. Sill. I am not normally much of a summit register fiend, but knowing that Norman Clyde's signature is in this box has driven me to frustration.
It would be a quick trip, James & I departing at 5:00am on Friday 9/25 and snagging a walk-in permit at the Lee Vining Station at 10:00am, breakfast at Jacks and off to South Lake TH. Alas, I (we) have never been there before, and the aspen trees on the way caused us to get lost on Rt. 168, not once but twice. Anyway the upper lake (Sabrina Lake) was beautiful, and James took a gazillion pictures.
Departed TH at 1:30pm, cleared Bishop pass at 5:30 and descended into the Palisade Basin; staying on the trail to far to the south, met a nice group of three women having afternoon tea, and then jogged cross-country to the north and set up camp as the sun went down on the west shore of the large, unnamed lake in Dusy Basin. We could see Mt. Agassiz and Mt Winchell right above us, and our early am destination (Thunderbolt pass) above us to the east.
We slept in a bit (7am) which turned out to be a bad idea; departed an hour later with day packs, heading north in order to get closer to Mt. Winchell and check out the slot canyons we had downclimbed a few weeks prior. This took a bit of extra time, but it was something James and I had discussed earlier, and both really wanted to do. Got some good pictures of the Dolphin Fin (Winchell Col from the south) and the harder slot (unnamed class 5) several hundred yards to the west. Reached Thunderbolt Pass at 10:00am. We both stashed a liter of H2o here (we had 6 liters each).
The reason we had so much water? Reports had said it was totally dry beyond ThunderBolt pass. Our plan was to traverse at approx 12,200-12,400ft all the way to the ridge above Potluck Pass, hike over the Polemonium shoulder staying around 13,000ft, then down to the base of the Polemonium Glacier, then do the SouthWest Chutes route to the Sill summit. The water issue was to hold true, the only water we found beyond Tbolt pass (without descending 700+ ft) was glacier melt at the base of Polmonium Glacier.
We failed to reach the shoulder just north of Potluck Pass until 12:30; in retrospect we should have descended to the basin and reclimbed the lost elevation under Potluck, it would have been much faster. We climbed up the shoulder and exited over to the East side at about 12,600', dropped down to about 12,400' and continued around to where we could see Sill, stopping there for a pow-wow at 1:30pm. We had originally intended to top out over the shoulder at 13,200' but I found a slot to get over/around at 12,600, and my curiosity got the better of me and this resulted in a slightly differant approach... traversing here saved lots of energy and time... too bad it hadn't worked between Tbolt and Potluck!
We only had an hour left until my pre-determined turn-around time of 2:30pm; I announced to James that I wanted to see the only North-facing Glacier remaining in CA, and took off up the dry drainage. A few minutes later James yelled up that he was done and heading down to the east side of Potluck Pass, and then over and home. I convinced him to come up to 13,000 ft with me, take some pictures of Polmonium Glacier and than climb over the top of the shoulder and we would exit together, faster than retreating...
Well, he caught me so fast; this part of the trip being so much easier than the boulder hopping down lower, that after taking pix and resting next to the glacier, he wanted to go on. He said his turnaround time was 4:30pm. Sometimes it is nice to climb with someone so nieve! I surely took advantage of him, knowing we would likely spend much of the night out hiking. We both climbed up the leftmost chute in bliss, not thinking about the return, only the unbelieveable nice weather and nearly perfect Class2 route to the top of Sill. There were a couple of easy Class3 moves, and not much gravel or rubble to worry about. What a dream.
4:00pm found me on the summit. I was determined to leave by 4:15pm no matter what. James arrived just a couple of mins later, and I appealed to him to get out the camera ASAP, and also help me find the register, which was quite well hidden. We never found a geographical marker. We did get to browse the old portion and find Clyde's signature (of course a copy, but still pretty cool).
The descent was fast and uneventful for the first hour, and even faster down the shoulder of Polemonium where we literally ran down from 12,600 all the way to the basin and Barrett lake. We were running out of light fast, and knew if we traversed back on the same track we came in on we would be moving very slowly, so we traded elevation for distance.
Dark found us at the far NW side of Barrett lake, Tbolt pass above us about 700 vertical feet, and I got a good bearing on the pass before we were operating by moonlight. We contemplated a bivy at this point, and spent a good twenty minutes resting, eating and drinking. We both knew the night would be plenty warm (as the previous one was) and we had plenty to eat; the issue was water. We were both down to a 1/2 liter each, and had already been rationing it for hours. The choice came down to quenching our thirst with unpurified lake water or climbing up to our stash at Tbolt pass. Up we went.
9:30pm and James was at the top of Tbolt pass (being 25 yrs my junior!). I was 10 min behind, and had also stopped to chat with a couple in a tent that thought I was a bear. They had just done North Pal and were asleep when I stumbled across them.
On down to the tent. What a nightmare. After a pause of only 10 min or so at the pass, we set off, not to find our tent until 1:00 am. That made for a 17hr day, with really only, as I recall, short stops at 10am, 12:30pm and 9:30pm, and two 20-min stops (at the summit, and when it got dark).
We never really got lost on the downclimb from Tbolt pass, but we had taken a circuitous route that morning (to see Winchell Col and Agassis Col), so we had never been on this direct descent. We alternated between trying shortcuts via headlamp (we also had our headlamps on now, as the moon was behind and below Tbolt pass ridgeline) and retreating and following my GPS track as we constantly ran into cliffs and dangerous terrain down by the lake. Fortunately the weather was warm, so I didn't have to wear gloves, but still, every time I had to check the GPS for contour lines or direction, I still had to put on reading glasses first... It just sucks getting old. And anyway, I was being extremely careful and deliberate. I know from past experiences that it is so, so easy to make a very bad mistake when you are tired (exhausted) and hungry.
I actually made some soup and noodles when we got back to the tent. James crashed as soon as his iodine pills were effective and was able to wash down some advil and lemonade.
We had a uneventful hike out the next day, getting up after 5 short hours of sleep. We took a quick look around the NW end of the lake, to see if we could have avoided the last miserable hour or two of hiking the previous night. Not sure, it looked a bit impassible down by the shore in a few spots, but you can be certain on my next trip up there, I will try that route.
Back to the parking lot at 12:30pm. Exactly 47 hrs, car-to-car. I think the bottoms of our feet were sore, but other than that, no issues. We packed up and debated our celebration meal. James had never been to the Willy Nilly Cafe at the corner of 395 and 120. He wasn't hard to convince, and after his gourmet swordfish steak sandwich and garlic potato salad he was a convert. I have been a believer for many years, and dug into my Cowboy Steak sandwich and chipotle dressing with abandon.
James unloaded his camera onto my thumbdrive on the way home, then plugged his IPhone into the LandCruiser stereo system, set it for 4 hours of assorted FooFighters, turned up the volume for me, and then promptly passed out in the passenger seat.
Unfortunately, probably the last trip of the year.
pix, as yet unedited and un-commented at:
http://melville1955.smugmug.com/Mountaineering/Mt-Sill-20090927/9789580_Zyh3x#664217001_tqx3F
