These days I struggle a bit to come up with peak based trips to lead for the Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course that are accessible but that I haven't done before. In 2017 I'd lead a climb of the SPS peaks Koip and Kuna from this trailhead and found it to be a nice trip but a bit on the long side for a mixed group. So I'd decided why not revisit the area and climb one of the multiple peaks around Mono Pass.

And so this two day climb of Mount Lewis was born. The peak itself is on the Vagmarken Sierra Crest List if you're into that sort of thing or if you are not peak motivated then it's a relatively lightly used trail that takes you past waterfalls, gives you multiples lakes to pick between for camping, and lets you visit a historic mining site before presenting you with an epic view of June Lakes.

August 17th & 18th, 2019

Mount Lewis (12,320')
Day 1: 3.5 miles, 2,200'
Day 2: 11.1 miles, 3,200'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Those that follow this site know that I'm a volunteer instructor for the Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course down here in Orange County. I run Kaweah Group which is one of three groups in the area and so my schedule tends to be dominated by the class in the January to April timeframe.

The class began on January 22nd and we have had three of the ten Tuesday night classroom sessions so far but we'd yet to actually get outside with the new crop of students. That all changed this weekend with a full day hike excursion to Sierra Peak.

We'd originally planned on Mount Wilson from Sierra Madre but the seemingly endless series of storms we've been experiencing this year resulted in temperatures in the 30s, high winds, and 3-5 ft of snow up top. That the prospect of a steep trail with a big drop off to the side less than ideal so we ended up changing at the last minute.

So off we went to Sierra Peak with a forecast of temperatures in the high 40s, high winds, and rain pretty much throughout the day.

February 10th, 2019

Sierra Peak (3,045')
15 miles, 3,000'

[Pics] [Caltopo] [Map]

Ian Campbell is a relatively minor named peak near Florence Lake in the Western Sierra. It's not on any list and doesn't particularly stand out from a distance but its located above a spectacular lake that's only a few miles in along a seldom used trailhead. Combine this with the fact the campsite is low enough to allow campfires and the lake warm enough to be ideal for swimming a good chunk of the summer and you have all the ingredients for one of my favorite WTC Experience Trips to lead.

This is the second time I've done the trip with the first time being with Jen Blackie in October 2016. The only real downside is that the drive is on the long side but that can be helped that by having people camp along the way and starting later than usual since it's such a short day in.

This trip happened in the middle of a bad fire season with the Ferguson Fire outside Yosemite causing massive smoke problems across the Sierra. In fact Yosemite itself was evacuated during this time. We decided to do the trip anyway after looking at the smoke modeler here and for the most part it wasn't that bad except in the late afternoons but be aware the views are usually even more spectacular. Unfortunately conditions like these are just a fact of life in the Sierra particularly with the last few years of drought conditions and warmer weather.

One of the things I've always commented on about WTC is that is that the course is amazing but once someone finishes the class, does their experience trips, and graduates we often do a bad job of staying in contact.  Some individuals return year after year for trips but there's always a limit to the number of trips we lead and spaces on permits so I've always wanted to put together something low key where everyone could come back together.

Hence this weekend.  I've done climbing weekends like this in the past but always at a smaller scale.  This time invites went to area staff, current and former students, and a smattering of people outside of Orange County leading to around 50 people driving out to Alabama Hills in the Eastern Sierra.

Of course we planned this shindig back in the December / January timeframe when all we knew weather wise was the average temperatures for the area. And then when the dates drew near we found we had a slight complication...

April 7th & 8th, 2018

Paul's Paradise

Hillbilly Pillar

The Tall Wall

The Sharks Fin

[Pics] [Map]

Each year the 10 week Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course builds up to a three day two night winter backpack outing into the Sierra Nevada.  And each year the staff nervously watch the snow forecast hoping we don't have a repeat of 2015 where we barely had enough snow to set up tents on.

This year it looked grim until right before the snow travel outing at which point a series of storms starting hitting both the local mountains and the Sierra.  By the week before snow camp we knew we were in for something memorable.


Even if the weather fizzled (which it didn't) this was looking to be the coldest snow camp in years!

March 16th to 18th, 2018

[Pics] [Map]

Joshua Tree is the second of four outings that make up the Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course.  Two weeks ago everyone joined us for a 15 mile -ish dayhike and now we had an entire weekend bus trip out to Indian Cove to focus on rock scrambling skills and navigation!

And since we're Kaweah Group (one of the three groups in the Orange County area of WTC) we like to throw a theme into the mix for our summit shot and potluck.  Themes are suggested and voted on by the class and previous years have run the gamut from simple to elaborate.  This year the winner was Medical Misadventure beating out Business Casual Murder Clowns by a very small margin.  The result is what you see above!

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts by me about WTC can be found here.

February 17th & 18th, 2018

[Pics] [CalTopo]

It's that time of year again where we start taking the new crop of Wilderness Travel Course students on outings!  After three weeks of classroom sessions we spent Saturday hiking Santiago Peak via the Holy Jim Trail.   It's an Orange County classic it involving 15 ish miles and 4k gain all on trail making it a great fitness assessment before we continue on to the rock scrambling, snowshoe, and finally a winter backpack in the Sierra!

February 3rd, 2018

Santiago Peak (5,687')

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Past the break is a very long quasi chronological sequence of photos following the 2017 Wilderness Travel Course in Orange County with most being specific to Kaweah Group led by myself and Paul Warren along with a staff of extremely hard working volunteers.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts on WTC by me can be found here.

This was the sixth year since we launched Kaweah Group as the third group in the Orange County section of the Wilderness Travel Course.  After having such a strong group in 2016 this year's had a lot to live up to.   Fortunately we ended up with an amazing group of people who blew us away the very first night with how much fun we were having and followed that up with one of the most active years on record.

This was also the end of an era as it was the last year volunteering for a good number of the staff including long time Whitney Group leaders Edd Ruskowitz and John Cyran and Kaweah staffers and personal friends Paul Warren and Laurent Hoffman.

Due to this 2018 will see Modjeska Group and Whitney Group being retired and the launch of two brand new ones named Olancha and Ritter.  And of course the concentrated awesomeness that is Kaweah will continue.

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...

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'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This trip came about as an attempt at finding something WTC Experience Trip friendly using a less heavily utilized trailhead without repeating a peak I'd done before.

Koip Peak is on the Sierra Peak Section list while Kuna is the 3rd highest peak in Yosemite behind Lyell and Dana.  Since the peaks are only about 500 ft apart they're easily done together once you get all the way up to 13k.  As an added bonus there's a plane wreck to explore on the saddle between them and some mining ruins at Mono Pass.

September 16th & 17th, 2017

Koip Peak (12,962')

Kuna Peak (13,002')
Day 1: 8.4 miles, 3,300'
Day 2: 16.3 miles, 3,700'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Baldwin has been on my radar for a number of years.  It's most commonly done from the top of Convict Canyon which is an area I looked up at for years while fishing with my father at Convict Lake.  I finally got to go up there in 2010 when I led a trip to climb Laurel and Bloody.  The area was spectacular but the creek crossing on the way had caused us a bit of trouble.

Jeff Atijera and I had tried to do Mount Baldwin a few years later only to be told by the permit office that the stream crossing was too difficult and they wouldn't issue us a permit.

Kristen and I decided to try again this year scheduling it in September when theoretically the stream crossing would be at its most manageable.  And as an added plus we got a nice view of the peak from the top of Red Slate a few weekends before.

September 9th & 10th, 2017

Mount Baldwin (12,598')
Day 1: 6.35 miles, 3,100' gain
Day 2: 10.93 miles, 2,500' gain

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Labor Day happen later enough in the summer that we're all usually in fairly good backpacking / climbing shape. After a particularly memorable outing to Seven Gables and Gemini a few years back a few of us made a minor tradition of going out and doing something fairly significant with the weekend.

Last year's Labor Day trip had been a rough one after we froze our butts off on Royce and Merriam and ended up coming out a day early. This time we were hoping for something a bit more pleasant.

Jeff hit on the idea of approaching the SPS peaks Rogers and Electra from the south via the Isberg Pass Trailhead. This had the advantage of being a less heavily used area (we barely saw anyone) and getting us a fair amount of new trail.

He did happen to slightly underestimate the mileage to Twin Island Lakes but hey, what's a few bonus miles between friends...

September 1st to 5th, 2017

Electra Peak (12,442')

Rodgers Peak (12,978')
Day 1: 16.1 miles, 4,400'
Day 2: 7.3 miles, 3,100'
Day 3: 7.1 miles, 3,600'
Day 4: 15.4 miles, 2,100'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Duck Lake Peak isn't on the Sierra Peaks List (or any other lists that than I'm aware of) but it's a moderately accessible named peak in a spectacularly beautiful area of the Eastern Sierra that lends itself to a two day overnight backpack with the option to camp beside a lake.  So pretty much exactly what I look for in a WTC Experience Trip except for the fact it's too high for campfires.

I was also particularly excited for this trip because we planned to hiked between trailheads of Lake Mary and Lake George in Mammoth Lakes.  I've been going to that area for fishing trips with my dad since long before I started climbing mountains and I was looking forward to finally getting a good look at the terrain I'd been staring up at for all of those years.

This was also the trip that resulted in Jen Blackie having to sell her trusty Toyota Scion after mechanical issues stranded us on the way back home.  Because you can't have things going too smoothly.

August 26th & 27th, 2017

Duck Lake Peak (12,051')

Day 1: 5.3 miles, 2,000' gain

Day 2: 11.2 miles, 3,000' gain

[Pics] [Caltopo] [Map]

I'd been back in town for three whole days following last weekend's trip to Red Slate so of course I was chomping at the bit when Thursday night came around and it was time to head for Mineral King!

This was a repeat of a trip I'd led back in 2011 which I'd really enjoyed despite suffering through legions of mosquitoes.  In addition to including my namesake peak it's just a really pleasant three day trip on the easier end and the Mosquito Lakes area seems to be a little less trodden than a lot of the other areas where we run comparable experience trips.  And of course it's Mineral King so the views are always spectacular.

August 18th to 20th, 2017

Hengst Peak (11,146')

White Chief Peak (11,159')

Miners Ridge (10,823')

Miners Nose (9,423')

Day 1: 6.4 miles, 2,100'

Day 2: 7.7 miles, 2,400'

Day 3: 6.4 miles, 700'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This trip was originally a two day to Kern Peak led by Garry McCoppin and Ross Doering.  That changed to Deer and Crag after the trailhead for Kern still wasn't opened a week before the trip.  And then when Garry needed a last minute replacement leader I jumped at the chance to get out from under the aftermath of moving the previous weekend.

I'd already been out this same trail just one month earlier scouting route options on Crag which was a bit of a bummer but on the other hand I already knew a really nice campsite and a pile of firewood that hasn't been used.  And as this trip was primarily intending as a Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course experience trip we had a nice diverse group.

Friday night 13 of us drove for Kennedy Meadows and spent the night at the campground.

This was the second weekend outing of the 10 week Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course (aka WTC).  Previously the group had joined us for a long dayhike designed to give everyone an idea of the fitness level required to complete course and now we would be spending the weekend scrambling around on rocks in Joshua Tree and practicing navigation using compasses and topo maps.

And since we're Kaweah Group (one of the three groups in the Orange County area of WTC) we like to throw a theme into the mix for our summit shot and potluck.  Themes are suggested and voted on by the class and previous years have run the gamut from simple to elaborate and we carry the costumes with us to the summit of the peak.  This year the winner was a combined theme of enchanted forest / animals the result of which you can see above.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts on WTC by me can be found here.

February 11th & 12th, 2017

Peak 4377 (4,377')

[Pics] [Map]

February 4th, 2017

Mount Wilson (5,713')

[Pics] [Map]

This was a free weekend for me WTC-wise falling between the conditioning hike and Joshua Tree for Orange County.  Normally I'd run out to the desert and climb something however those plans were killed at the last minute due to the need to stay local and reserve WTC campsites for next year.

Jack Kieffer was nice enough to invite me along to do the conditioning hike with his group so I decided to take the opportunity to see a new trail.

The 2017 Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course has been running down here in Orange County for three weeks which means it's finally time to start hiking!

For the next 2 months in addition to class on Tuesday night we'll spend every other weekend hiking, rock scrambling, doing map and compass navigation, snowshoeing, and finally backpacking for two nights and three days into the snow at 9000 ft.  And if you've been paying attention to the snow levels this year snow activity is looking damn promising.

But first we get everyone out for a good long dayhike to prepare them for what's to come.  This year the heavy rains caused us to make a last minute change from Santiago Peak via Holy Jim to Mount Wilson from Sierra Madre.

January 29th, 2017

Mount Wilson (5,713')

[Pics] [Map]

Past the break is a very long quasi chronological sequence of photos following the 2016 Wilderness Travel Course in Orange County with most being specific to Kaweah Group led by myself and Paul Warren along with a staff of extremely hard working volunteers.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here.  More posts on WTC by me can be found here.

This was the fifth year since we started Kaweah Group and the students this year were some of the strongest and most active we've ever had.  The best years are the ones where you can feel the group starting to gel early on and this year they were all planning hikes and other get togethers on top of coming along on any trips, paddles, or other activities we threw at them.  It made all the classes and outings a joy to participate in and the post class summer trip season one of our most active.

We also had more snow than last year's abysmal showing which is hopefully a trend which will continue.

Ian Campbell is a relatively minor peak in the Sierra Nevada.  It's not on any of the major peakbagging lists and doesn't appear to be visited all that often but it does feature a reasonable approach, a decently cross country summit climb, a lake to camp at, and on top of all of that it's low enough to allow backcountry fires.  All of this makes it a nice fit for a WTC experience trip.

This was the last of the WTC trips I led during what turned into a rather busy climbing season.  With my knee noticeably improved post knee surgery I managed to lead 17 weekend trips in the period between the Spring and Fall Sierra Club Advanced Mountaineering Program class.  Several of the trips were a little more laid back but this was more than I'd been able to manage for several years and the quantity of trips tied with my all time season record.

It also made for a gloriously hectic few months of running out of town, coming back late, and working my rear end off at my job so I could leave town again a few days later.  And so it was with a mix of relief and disappointment that I reached this weekend and the final trip of the season before Fall AMP started and took up my weekends for the rest of October.