March 29, 2012
Our Mt Whitney trip got off to a great start as all nine folks were super strong heading up to Upper Boy Scout Lake (Camp 1). Unfortunately, the weather turned for the worse as winds picked up throughout the night and a low pressure system settled in. With that in mind, we got everyone together for a team meeting to discuss our options. In the end, we decided that descending was our best bet.
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- The crew. (Photo by Karsten Delap)
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- Ice Climbing. (Photo by Karsten Delap)
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- Harsh weather. (Photo by Karsten Delap)
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- Belay station. (Photo by Karsten Delap)
Once back in town and settled-in, we met back up for a pitch-in BBQ, told some stories that were way too good to be true, and made a plan for our next few days in the Sierra. Just because Whitney was out of the question didn’t we were packing up and heading home – we had options. There is great rock climbing, ice climbing and backcountry skiing in the area. We discussed all these options and some folks decided on going ice climbing, while others did a day of rock climbing. The snow stability ruled out the backcountry skiing.
Lee Vining, the local ice climbing area, is massive this year! We spent day honing our skills and getting comfortable on WI3-4 type terrain. We were all psyched on the climbs. The next morning we woke up early and headed into Owen’s River Gorge for a great morning of rock climbing.
We didn’t climb Mt. Whitney, but we had one heck of a trip!
Karsten Delap