Dave Gillanders and his friend Phil were kind enough to let me tag along on their dayhike of Thunderbolt Peak, yesterday July 17th.
We departed the parking lot at 4:05am, by my watch, and made Bishop Pass on schedule, and TBolt pass at 9:30am. They were shooting for 5 hrs and were pleased with the time. Their pace was a bit fast for me, the first hour, and I felt some form of altitude sickness... I just slowed down a bit and seemed to recover fine as the sun rose along the upper lakes of BPT. Along the way we experienced deep snow in patches at all the lakes except the first (SouthLake),
flooded creek crossings,
and above Bishop Pass many, many, many, minor berqschrunds which needed care in bypassing:
Just below TBolt Pass, snowcups by the billions....
At TBolt pass we stopped for twenty mins for a bite to eat, and to check out the snow level in the first SW chute on Thunderbolt peak. I knew without looking that I was in trouble; with the snow we had already encountered, there was certain to be an abundance of snow in the chute. I had opted to take my rock shoes along, instead of my regular crampons. Neither Dave or Phil was taking rock shoes for the final pitch, so I thought it a good idea at the time; opting to just bring my YakTrax (mini crampons) to save weight. Bad decision.
We climbed several hundred feet up the base of the chute and put on our crampons at 11am. Dave led and Phil followed, both "frontpointing" only about the forward 40% of each foot digging in. I had hoped they could kick side steps, that I could easily utilize but that wasn't working. I followed for only a dozen steps before reluctantly quitting. The runout below us was very long, and all nasty sharp boulders... not worth a major injury. We shouted goodbyes:
and I headed out, my attempt finished by only 11:30. Fifteen minutes later the clouds rolled in, and by noon I could tell we were in for a thunderstorm... Unfortunately Dave and Phil were so deep in the chute I don't think they had any idea it was approaching, and they were already beyond earshot.
An uneventful return trip, back to the car by 4pm (12hrs). UN-eventful except for the rain and hail, and later being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
I got a text msg from Dave just before midnight. Success. They had reached the south summit although had not climbed the final class 5 pitch due to the thunderstorm, getting back to the car at 11pm (19hrs). I was very relieved to find they were safe, the weather had been nasty as I decended the face of Bishop Pass (slightly below 12K) at 2:30, I can't imagine what it was like on the exposed summit ridge at 14K.
For those of you planning on doing Mt Sill this week checkout the snow level in the Dusy and Palasade basins; the view from Thunderbolt Pass looking at Potluck Pass:
), but enjoyed nice conditions until we got up to the summit block. Then, while we were signing the register and plotting the final effort, the air started buzzing and down came the rain and graupel. As the mountain trembled with each thunderclap it didn’t take long to decide what to do, and with the lyrics to 
