Went on another solo alpine scrambling adventure... most likely the last one of the season! I was on a mission to go place the cache for the Tuolumne Meadows Hut, so we can go back this year to
SLAY it again. I didn't know what I should do while I was up there, but I've had Mt. Lyell on my list forever... so I decided to look into the logistics a bit more. Mt. Lyell is the highest peak in Yosemite NP at 13,120 feet. It's also quite a significant peak as it's the headwaters of the Tuolumne River and an
SPS section Emblem peak... for those that care. As soon as I started looking into Lyell, I found
Leor's TRs which has him doing Maclure and Lyell in 9 hours RT, so I figured I should give myself 12 hours and decided I'd want to leave by 6 am.
I also noticed that Florence is pretty close (as the crow flies) and figured I could do a loop if I did Florence after Maclure. According to my rough calculation, if I could do 4 mph (15 min miles for 6 hours = 24 miles) on trail, and I could manage 2 mph X-country (4 hours), that would be 10 hours of moving... then add 3 hours for some lunch breaks, water stops, summit selfies, etc.... so if I started at 5 am, I should be back by 6 pm to catch the sunset on Cathedral range...
Enough banter... I'll let the pics portray the rest of the day...
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| placing the cache... it's the red bin in the back. Looks quite empty this year... due to the Gov't Shutdown? |
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This is what I looked like for the day (summit shot on MacLure with Lyell behind). I tested out my Mizuno Wave Inspire 9s (I like the colors, but they failed... so I sent them back). The hat and gloves were key... it was cold.
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Loving my ultimate directions Jurek bag. Inside, I carried a headlamp, an external battery for my phone, headphones (I was listening to Aaron Ralston narrate "Between a rock and a hard place"... not recommended when going solo scrambling), emergency blanket, aqua mira (which I never used), a bunch of food, camera, sunscreen, mini-leatherman (to cut my arm off just in case...), map, and a bunch of food...
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| Bear tracks... pretty much the only sign of life other than bugs, fish and birds I saw all day. |
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yeah, it was cold... ice floating down the Lyell fork of the Tuolumne River. The trails are perfect for running here. Unlike other parts of the Sierra these trails are made for running. Tuolumne Meadows might just be my new favorite trail running location. Next year, I'd like to check out the Northern side... Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, etc...
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| My first view of Mt. Lyell (just left of the tree), and Mt. Maclure (to the right). |
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| Start of the X-country. That's the Lyell - Maclure notch in the middle. |
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| Mt. Lyell with Maclure in the middle. |
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Mt. Lyell and the Lyell Glacier. Biggest glacier in YNP. I was about to follow the rocks around the Lyell Glacier, but then I saw these fresh (a few days old) snowshoe tracks across the snow, so I decided to follow it. Which was a bad mistake as I'd posthole every other step and my feet were frozen, wet, and numb by the time I was done.
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| Mt. Maclure's scramble. .. coming up next |
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| For some reason there were a ton of dead bugs on the Lyell Glacier. |
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| The scramble up Lyell. I was sick of the postholing... so this was a pleasant change. |
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at this point my camera died.... it was quite windy on the ridge... and I was cold. And I had to choose between scrambling up wearing gloves or with numb hands. I chose gloves.
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| Lyell! Top of Yosemite! |
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| Looking SW towards Banner, Ritter and Rodgers peak. |
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| Thanx Anne for making those tracks on the Lyell Glacier for me to follow... kinda... |
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| Looks like there is a route on the S. Face of Lyell. Definitely much steeper than the West Ridge... couldn't see much from the ridge, but it definitely looked like a trail. |
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| The overhanging block on the west ridge of Lyell |
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A good shot of the X-country portion of my route... that's Mt. Florence to the left, and Mt. Maclure to the right. I wasn't sure if there was going to be a straightforward route between Maclure and Florence at this point...
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| Pano with Mt. Maclure in the middle |
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| Looking down the class 2 scramble down the west ridge of Mt. Lyell |
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| Pano with Mt. Lyell in the middle |
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| Looking back at Mt. Lyell from Maclure. Just follow that Western Ridge |
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| Looking down the Maclure Glacier and Maclure lake and the half frozen lakes above. |
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| Mt. Maclure! |
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| Vern! A Sierra Legend! |
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The first of my 2 rice balls. I also had 4 boiled potatoes, a bunch of cliff shots, gu, and a variety of bars to fuel me for the day. Didn't have to resort to my Perpetuem blocks... ugh
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| Looking back at the W. Ridge of Maclure. I wasn't sure if there was a route here... |
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| a quick 3rd class scramble takes you to the top of the ridge between Maclure and Florence. |
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| When I saw this at the top of the ridge instead of a sheer cliff... which I was expecting, I hollered out loud! Very stoked. |
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| Lake between Maclure and Florence. A nice spot with a beach on the eastern shore. Mt. Florence straight ahead... |
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| didn't bother treating water on this day... especially at this lake. |
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| Check out this couloir on Florence... Yowza! |
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| There are some fun overhanging blocks near the summit of Florence to hang out on. |
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| Skiable? |
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| Summit shot! |
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| Florence! |
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| The north face of Florence |
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| Another summit pano. |
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| The easy portion of the scrambling off of Florence. Looking back up where I just came... actually quite runnable. |
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And the tricky scrambling coming up. These rocks were just the right size that it made everything difficult. Not big enough to be too stable, and not small enough to just slide down. Plus there was lots of snow. So this was a tricky descent... this type of terrain really slowed down my progress X-country, and I was averaging more like 1.5 mph. So I knew I'd be running in the dark.
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| the lake above Florence Lake. Gets my thumbs up as a place to bunk for the night... |
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| I was quite stoked to be here... |
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| Half Dome in the middle... |
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| I was quite happy to see the trail by this point. It's mentally tough to be X-country in the dark... solo... |
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| Beautiful sunset... too bad I couldn't enjoy it a bit more... |
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a few min til sunset... from Vogelsang Pass. Vogelsang Peak just right of middle... Florence peak to the left. I was dreaming about adding on Vogelsang peak to make this a 4 peak day if things were going better than planned. Alas...
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| bye bye sun... |
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| At Vogelsang High Sierra Camp... now if these places didn't cost $175 a head, I'd stay there... |
For my next trail run from this area, I'd like to do Vogelsang, Parsons... and the ridge between Amelia Earhard and Simmons Peak looks fun...
Timeline:
7:55 pm - put Kai down after giving him a bath, brushing teeth, changing diaper...
8 pm - frantically packed the cache for the Tuolumne Meadows hut
9 pm - found out that the battery in the car is dead.... jumped it...
10 pm - left my house
2 am - found a place to pull over to nap...
4 am - my alarm went off...
6 am - arrived at the TM hut... placed the cache
6:30 am - after a morning poo, started running down the trail...
7:26 am - mile 5, sunrise
9:30 am - mile 12... start of X-country...
11:30 am - top of Lyell
12:30 pm - top of Maclure
2:45 pm - top of Florence
5 pm - mile 20, finally back on the trail... those 8 miles took 7.5 hours!
6:21 pm - mile 24, sunset
8 pm - back at the car... 31.4 miles.
12 am - back home...
1 am - asleep.
7 am - awake...
8 am - dropped off Kai at daycare
9 am - back at work.
Here's the strava link: http://www.strava.com/activities/91041209
Links:
- Leor's TRs - his blog has been my no. 1 inspiration for my adventures this year.
- SummitPost - always worth a look, especially for any route beta/pics...
- Bob Burd's TR - this guy has climbed everything...
Great day, great photos - you're the man!
ReplyDeleteYou are an inspirational machine.
ReplyDelete