Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Lost camera on Russell (and NF/Russell conditions)

A five-person group from Caltech spent the Thanksgiving weekend in the NF intending to climb Russell. We got in Wednesday night when it was still snowing (our thanks to the snow plows!) and headed up Thursday into beautiful, albeit slow, first snow conditions.

I'll spare the conditions on the NF as Kurt just posted an update, but as for Russell: the snow on the ridge was stripped by gusty winds on Friday, but there are shoulder-deep drifts on the north side where the climber's path is. I encountered no ice, but the unconsolidated deep snow was prohibitively slow, and much of everything else was inadvisable without protection. My partners opted to climb Carillon instead of Russell after sizing up conditions, so I was turned around at the saddle between the east and west summits due to steep, snow-covered slabs, no obvious way around, and want of a lifeline should I slip in my clunky plastics. Still, it was fun times for all, and we got to ice climb on the hike out thanks to a tantalizing trip report from Kevin T.

Oh, and speaking of Russell, my camera bag must have worked itself loose while I struggled in the drifts or scrambled along the ridge; I don't know the precise spot it fell off, but if anyone sees a Canon A650 or a blue 2GB memory card magically perched atop a rock waiting for the first investigator, do please send me a PM. Thanks!

And since no TR is complete without pictures: pictures!

Great pics. So pristine.

Absolutley awesome pictures!!

If I'm not mistaken, Tulainyo Lake is the highest freshwater lake in the Lower 48.

I can only hope that the outcome of your lost 2GB camera chip comes out as well as it did for mine in 2007.

CaT

Topo gives Tulainyo as 12825'. There is an unnamed lake between Caltech Peak and Forester Pass at 12920'. I don't know what the highest in CA is.

I suppose that "Lower 48" might mean the states besides the two with the highest peaks (AK, CA). Right? So, going to Colorado there is Upper Crystal Lake at 12920' next to Crystal Peak and an unnamed lake at 13438' on the south of Pacific Peak. These peaks are near Quandary Peak (a 14er) in the Mosquito Range. I don't know what the highest lake in Colorado is.

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

I believe that the lake's claim to fame is the highest *named* lake, in the lower 48 (I think)

That claim might fly in California, but I've already given a counterexample in Colorado for the Lower 48.

Dale B. Dalrymple

The following link supports Dale's comments about the high lakes in Colorado. The list shows nine higher lakes in Colorado than Tulainyo Lake, with the highest in the state of Washington, and a high lake in Hawaii (which is not counted among the "lower 48").

http://www.highestlake.com/highest-lake-usa.html

The "lower 48" applies to all the continental states which excludes Alaska and Hawaii.

Dale, I'm not sure, but I don't think the "upper Crystal Lake" is actually the USGS official name for that body of water, it doesn't list a name on my topo of the area

I'm certainly not advocating for anything, but just trying to be clear.

Hey, enough of the speculation! Here is the definitive site!
The problem is apparently not with what is an elevation, but what is a lake:

http://www.highestlake.com/index.html

And:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=106:3:3675901995486805::NO::P3_FID:2025767

Which is the official USGS list. On that Tulainyo is listed 8th.
I was quite surprised that there were no Alaska lakes even in the top ten!

Ken, the USGS geonames site has problems with links, as noted in their faq. Can you copy/paste the list, or give the search criteria to find the list?

One might speculate that there are no high-altitude "lakes" in AK because they're either frozen solid or covered by glaciers. Guess the USGS doesn't count ice cubes as "lakes!"

So many replies, and all good ones, but was the camera ever found. I gotta know.

What topo would that be? I have a 100K series topo that doesn't list "Upper Boyscout Lake" in the Whitney area. So, by your logic, would you say (but not to advocate for anything) that "Upper Boyscout Lake" is not a USGS official name for a body of water?

I looked at Topo 4 on the 7.5' Map Series and the U in 'Upper' is capitalized there, just to be clear.

Dale B. Dalrymple

Thanks, Ken, for your LINK. It is a fascinating read! Carl Drews went through Herculean efforts to prove and name Pacific Tarn at 13,420 feet as the highest lake in the lower-48, and perhaps the United States.

And Gary, I think we may have to wait for the spring thaw to find the lost camera, or what is left of it, if it is ever found!

Dale - Apparently what Ken said after your post above was what I must have read at one time. Thanks to both for the correction.

CaT

I really loved your pictures. The snow really changes things. Having been on the Russell Carillon Saddle a few times, I couldn't help but wonder how cold it would up there this time of year.

Thank you for sharing

Here's the thread of the lost camera: Of cameras and granite

Darned if I know, Dale. The map I looked at online listed the lake as Crystal Pond, I think. I'm only saying that it is not clear, at least to me, that that is an officially named lake, and if it is not, then it cannot be the highest named lake, or am I missing something?

However, the USGS list includes it, so it appears that your interpretation and maps are correct, and what I was looking at was ??????

Pacific Tarn
Lake Waiau
Frozen Lake
Ptarmigan Lake
Sloan Lake
Upper Crystal Lake
Summit Lake
Tulainyo Lake
Porphyry Lake
Cooper Lake
Lewis Lake
Crater Lake
Rock Lake
Columbine Lake
Abyss Lake

If one goes to the following link, it is the query page, enter for the "feature class" Lake
enter for elevation "higher than" and 12000 (NO comma), and it gives a nice table

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic