Trapezoid, Johnson, and Hurd Peaks Alpine Beer Tasting Climb From Treasure Lakes

Last year a trip to Mineral King to climb my namesake peak happened to occur around the birthday of my good friend Victor Gomez. Seeing as how he is a fellow beer aficionado we turned the latter part of our first day into a lakeside alpine beer tasting event.


It turned into such a photogenically good time we just had to plan another! And so this summer we decided to visit Treasure Lakes in August and climb a few easier (-ish) end 3rd class peaks. And we filled up pretty much instantly.

Day 1: Hiking In And Alpine Beer Tasting

Fires have been a major issue for the last few weeks and we could smell smoke as we drove up the east side Friday night. I'd heard it was particularly bad down low and sure enough when it got light there was almost no view along 395.


Since we had a relaxed day ahead of us everyone met up at Great Basin for great coffee, amazing cookies, and merely functional breakfast items.


After that it was up the hill to the South Lake trailhead. The peak in the background is Hurd which was one of our goals for the weekend.


We ran into the common problem which was that all the backpacker parking at South Lake was full. That meant we had to drop off the gear and then run the vehicles down below Parchers Resort to park.

This is a bit of a pain. (Also I can't drive past Parchers without being reminded of the incident back in 2010 when a tow truck we believe was associated with them left feces on the front windshield of one of our vehicles during the Sierra Challenge). But fortunately we had people with better knees than me willing to drop off the vehicles and run back up the road.


Treasure Lakes splits off the Bishop Pass trail about 2/3 of the way across South Lake and it's only about 3 miles total to where we camped. So it makes for a nice relaxing day and a really pretty camp.


So, of course, we had to find some way to pass the time and spontaneous pushup competitions with full packs along the trail fit the bill.

Our vague plan was to camp somewhere around the lakes at 10,600' and we ended up staying pretty much on top of Point 10718 since there are ample nice sites up there.

People went about setting up tents and for a change we had the entire afternoon to hang by the lake and just relax. Granted it was a bit on the cold side but we had talked up lake swimming so much that about half of us decided to take the plunge while the rest watched incredulously.





You can see the smoke in the air but it was far better than I'd initially feared. By 4 pm everyone was out of the lake and had mostly managed to warm back up leaving us ready for the main (non peak related) event.


Alpine beer tasting! In typical fashion we'd gone from a reasonable beer selection last year to a collection bordering on slightly excessive.


A certain hiking organization that we run trips through had objected my enthusiastic mention of beer combined with rock scrambling in the trip write up for liability reasons. In an effort to be helpful I changed all mention of refreshing alcoholic beverages to hot tea and then went the extra mile and packed in some classy looking Alice in Wonderland teacups well suited to be*cough* tea tasting while sticking out one's pinky.


Beer was drunk, bacon wrapped weenies and miscellaneous beef products were eaten, and life was good.


And of course a few beers in Miss Tequila Wonderbread was kind enough to lay down some philosophy on us all.


By 8 pm we were all quite happy with the world and ready to turn in in anticipation of our peak climbs the following day.

Day 2: Trapezoid & Johnson

The wind was howling when we woke up and left camp at 6 am.


The chill made it extra exciting when we had to do a slightly precarious log crossing almost immediately out of camp. Sadly for the trip report we didn't have any big dramatic falls.



After that we followed a trail to the upper lakes and then took the eastern fork to lake 11,175'.



From there we aimed for the north / northwestern ridge of Trapezoid.



And this is where things got interesting. We were expecting 3rd class terrain but we did end up a bit surprised by just how rough the going was along the ridge.





Keep in mind we had a sizable group of mixed experience which meant everything was magnified.


We did end up having a few people turn back as it became clear we just weren't moving fast enough. They ended up backtracking our route and making it back to camp only a little ahead of us.



The crux of the entire ridge came when we were just about directly under the peak. There we had to do just a few moves with good feet and hands but with a bit of exposure.

After that we were home free as least as Trapezoid was concerned.



With our delays on the ridge we didn't make the summit of Trapezoid until 1 pm. That meant any thought of continuing past Johnson to Mount Gilbert was dead but we were fairly sure we had enough time to make Johnson and descend in the daylight.



We could see Johnson about a mile distant along the ridge. Which sounded really easy on paper.



But again it just wasn't a ridge conducive to fast movement particularly for a large group.



We couldn't get 200 ft without having to scout our way past an obstruction, slowly get everyone past, and then have to repeat the entire procedure almost immediatly.

A few people decided to bail out when there was an opportunity along the way. They were able to take a second class route and wait for us down at Lake 11,630' where we could see them as we did Johnson.



Our remaining stalwart peakbaggers continued on towards the summit though we were all dragging by now. And of course consistent with the rest of the route the backside of Johnson proved to be a challenge especially right at the top.



For the record I'm pretty sure we could have cut to climbers right when we ran into the challenging bit and saved ourselves some trouble. But we were all so beat at this point we had blinders on and just went straight up doing a few big moved to finally gain the summit.


We made the summit at 6 pm.




The good news was that we could see the lake where the rest of our party was waiting and the descent down the southeast face of Johnson was the most straightforward pleasant part of the entire day.



Of course that still left us a good mile and a half from camp and most of it in an endless sea of loose rocks.



And then it got dark! Fortunately at this point we were basically back to the use trail and could pick up our pace a bit.



We made it back to camp at about 9:30 pm and found that the group that had turned back below Trapezoid hadn't beaten us by much.



We ended up having a surprisingly jovial happy hour despite the exhaustion and a few remaining *cough* tea cans from the day before didn't hurt. Everyone went to bed the moment they were done eating.

Day 3: Hurd & Out

The previous day had been rather rough on everyone so only Victor and Kristen were even willing to consider Hurd the next morning and even then Kristen was iffy on going until the very last minute. As a result we slept it a bit later than usual and didn't get moving until 8 am.



We left the others having a leisurely breakfast next to the lake, crossed an only slightly precarious stream crossing or two, and started up the side of Hurd.

Hurd seems to have been climbed from pretty much every direction likely due to its close proximity to the south lake trailhead combined with how much it stands out.


Here you can see it on the far left from when we camped at the South Lake trailhead during the 2010 Wilderness Travel Course. (Yes we packed in lightsabers)



We planned to do the western slope since it was right above camp and after some debate we picked the chute I marked with red which was fairly straightforward and had some fun 2nd / 3rd class. The Yellow chute is where we decided to come down and it was tricky involving some 3rd / 4th class towards the bottom. From what I could see I'm guessing the far left chute is a bit easier then either of those.


The approach to the base of the chute was straightforward though we were shivering due to the fact we were climbing in the shadow of the peak.


As I mentioned it was mostly a mix of 2nd class and light 3rd class.


Higher up we stuck to climbers left which got us off some of the loose sand an onto more solid rock.



The ridge consists of several bumps around the same height but according to the map and the location of the register the actual summit is the one to the south. Once up to the ridge it was an easy 2nd class scramble.


The summit had amazing views of Bishop Pass, Treasure Lakes, and our peaks from the day before.



And as an added bonus there was a pinnacle a short distance away for suitable epic hero shots. On the left is Trapezoid, to the right is Johnson. In between is that hellacious ridge that caused us so much trouble.



As expected the register had numerous sign ins from every direction including quite a few friends.

We made the summit around 11 am and spent a good chunk of time screwing around and taking pictures. After that we looked at the time and decided to take a chance and try a more challenging route down. After all, we had the trip report to think about!


From what I'd seen from below and from the summit it looked like the chute directly below the summit (yellow line on the initial image) was workable.


And it was...


...after a fashion.


This is the point where it started to get a bit spicy. We ended up using the tree (after suitable testing) to get down to the next ledge and continue.


There were a few other points where we had to do some 3rd / 4th class moves and at that point the sides of the canyon were high enough we couldn't traverse to another chute without climbing back up a significant distance.

Right near the bottom I briefly thought we might cliff out but I was able to traverse out on climbers left and make my way down.


All in all it was a worthy adventure.


We made it back to camp around 1:30 pm and found our friends had enjoyed a nice morning relaxing around the lake and finishing off the last of the beer.


The hike out was only 3 miles and we made it out to the trailhead by 3:45 pm.


Since we'd had to leave the cars below someone had to run a few miles down the road to fetch them. Emily was gracious enough to volunteer.


We entertained ourselves while we waited chatting and reading the notes left for other hikers including this one about a lost kilt.


And of course nothing wraps up a fun-filled Sierra weekend better than Mexican food and then a beer next door at Mountain Rambler.


While we'd gotten lucky with the lack of smoke this weekend I found out a bit of bad news while we were eating.  Thanks to an allegedly kooky arsonist (this thread in particular is an interesting read) the Holy Fire had started that afternoon back home and shot up the side of Santiago.


Aka the peak that I live rather close to. As we drove back into town we could see the peak burning.


And the next few days were a bit touch and go at times as the flames burned a few miles away.



Ultimately the fire was put under control but there were some tense moments both at the summit and the homes on the Elsinore side.

Sadly while up to this point the summer had been a rousing success this would mark the point where things started to get a bit rough as I struggled with some health issues that would cost me a few of the planned weekends in the Sierra. Still I'd be back in two weeks for another 3rd class climb of Sawtooth and Needham in the Mineral King area.