With summer largely over and with my compressed JMT trip looming I wanted to fit in  trip or two with a little more relaxed party bent to them.

But of course I still wanted peaks!  To that end Neal Robbins and I planned a max permit size outing to the Saddlebag Lake area to grab the 3rd-class-if-you-really-want-them-to-be peaks North & Conness aimed at WTC students for the weekend before I was set to start the JMT.

September 6th to 8th, 2013

North Peak (12,242')

Mount Conness (12,590')

Day 1: 4.3 miles, 2,300'

Day 2: 8.3 miles 2,900' (Conness)

Day 3: 9.2 miles, 2,100' (North & Out)

[Pics] [Map]

Seven Gables was one of the trips I'd planned last summer only to have it derailed by the mystery illness that took me out for a good chunk of the season.

The trailhead at Lake Thomas Edison is a bit of a drive from OC but after hearing repeatedly how spectacular it was camping back there I was determined that the trip was going to happen this summer.

This time I decided as long as we were doing the long haul (the drive + 13 miles hiking in) I might as well add nearby Gemini and push it out from 3 days to 4 making it a relatively laid back affair as they go.

August 31st to September 3rd, 2013

Seven Gables (13,080')

Gemini (12,880')

[Pics] [Map]

After last weekends somewhat more relaxed three day weekend it was time for another Sierra Club provisional outing.  This time we were headed to the east side for the I provisional of the one the only the mightily bearded Laurent Hoffman.  Two days, a long drive out to Devil's Postpile aiming to grab Iron Mountain, and as an added bonus we were in the middle of mosquito season and in an area I've come to associate with relentless blood sucking hoards.  Fun fun!

July 20th to 21st, 2013

Iron Mountain (11,148')

[Pics] [Map]

Ah winter / early spring. Nothing like looking back at what was supposed to be a tightly packed climbing schedule to see the scattered weather wrecked remains.

Admittedly I’d set out a rather optimistic schedule trying to fit in Snowcreek, Whitney Mountaineer’s Route, and Red Slate all within a one month period but hey, one can dream.

Snowcreek was canceled due to a large snow dump leading to dangerous avalanche conditions and instead I ran around the desert with James Barlow grabbing 3 DPS peaks and poking around a few mines.

Whitney MR was initially derailed at the last minute to an unpleasant cold front sweeping in. The forecast called for 40-50 mph winds with a low of 9 degrees and my partner Steve Eckert neglected to be blown off the ridge like a frozen mountaineer shaped kite. Not wanting to do something drastic like stay home I repurposed the weekend and ran up three 3rd class DPS peaks out near Las Vegas with Jen Blackie and Kim Breul.

When Red Slate rolled around I was eyeing snow conditions and not liking what I was seeing. Things were still unconsolidated with fresh snow falling just the weekend before. After chatting with Steve we decided to repurpose the weekend and go grab Whitney MR as the weather looked much more promising.

April 16th to 18th, 2011

Mount Whitney (14,495')

[Pics] [Map]