September 22nd to 24th, 2017
Mount Starr King (9,092')
Day 1: 10 miles, 1,800'
Day 2: 3.3 miles, 2,000'
Day 3: 8.2 miles, 1,700'
Mount Starr King is a granite dome located near Half Dome and is one of the 247-ish peaks on the Sierra Club Sierra Peak Section list. It's higher than Half Dome though it lacks the massive cliff overlooking Yosemite Valley which makes the other so iconic.
Also unlike Half Dome there are no cables or other mechanisms to get to the summit of Starr King except for doing a bit of 5th class climbing. This means it's visited a lot less often than it's neighbor.
This would be the 4th time on the summit for Jack Kieffer and I. We've been leading it biannually for a number of years now and have settled on a relaxed 3 day schedule camping well off the trail. The nature of the climbing lends itself to being able to safely bring along a decently large group of varying experience levels which makes it ideal for an exciting Wilderness Travel Course Experience Trip.
This time around we had along a group of 16 people with an additional 30+ more who had requested to join but we didn't have room for them on the permit. And this time it got interesting right off the bat when our trailhead ended up being closed due to to both being technically on fire while also covered in snow...
- Posted By: Matthew Hengst
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