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Keeping things fresh and new is healthy in all aspects of life: changing up the diet to experience new things and find a new favorite dish, travelling to a new global location lending perspective to our developed, comparably posh American living, swapping authors to get a new literary taste.
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It was high time to change things up a bit in the Sierra. Five straight weeks of ridge traversing: most all un-roped outings following precipitous ridgelines and experiencing constant movement at the various altitudes throughout the range. Though it did involve multiple trailheads, one neglected origin of Sierra adventure was noticeably neglected, and the more I thought, I remembered it had been over three years since my last outing out of Pine Creek Canyon. Funny, because a pair of ski tours originating from the area since, and the last time I left for a summer soiree all left me with the desire to explore the area more.
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| Pine Creek Canyon and all her glory |
There is a presence in the canyon that is unmatched – in my opinion – by any other trailhead in the Sierra: You’re looking at 6k feet of vertical relief from the road to the Wheeler Crest, and coupled with color of the rock at all angles, the view is never old. Some might view the Tungsten mine and its accompanying aging infrastructure as a visual blight to the canyon. Sure, it’s a rusted metal vestige from postbellum times long past, but it gives the canyon scale: Like the clouds necessary to give dog-fighting jets a backdrop showcasing their maneuvers, the mine is the stationary, human scale at the bottom of the picture, giving a reminder to visitors they are surrounded by a nature that makes our mortal influence paltry in comparison. It doesn’t hurt that the roads constructed to reach the tunnels far above the mine evoke an image of access to the world’s great ranges, and you have a stage from which many good things can – and will – happen. Not a wonder Galen Rowell purchased stock in the mine back when he had the opportunity – if I knew it gave me a piece of the area and a stake in preserving its beauty for future generations, I would do the same.
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| On the mighty switchbacks by 0500: Lets get this party started |
The trailhead also serves as another takeoff point for a variety of adventures in the Sierra. Are high-country fishing or low-key hiking, photography and backpacking your thing? It offers spectacular views of alpine lakes and peaks to sate your backcountry pallet. For Mike and I, it also offers a handful of alpine rock routes that are either queued for more ascents, growing in popularity, or patiently awaiting discovery. For this go, it was our turn to try our hand on the direct north buttress [DNB] of Merriam, a route many of our colleagues had done earlier this year with some fervor, and with some pictures posted begging a visit to the area.
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| Dawn, with her fingertips of rose. Views up were good... |
Mike being a stronger climber, his original sights were aimed at the newly established Croft-Rands route. When Peter and Lisa put up a first ascent and you hear rumblings it might quickly attain ‘awesome’ status should his encyclopedia of Sierra alpine climbing be updated, making it an objective makes sound sense. I was not strong enough for the sustained 5.11 climbing, however, so the DNB became the objective. Not interested in lugging overnight gear back to Royce Lakes and setting up a base camp, we aimed for a car-to-car schedule having us back in civilization at a reasonable hour. After sorting gear in Rovana, we were moving towards the day’s objective by 0430.
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| ...which also meant their accompanying reflections weren't so bad |
Now the optimism I mentioned earlier about the trailhead is not shared by all, and frankly when you’re doing the seemingly endless switchbacks under a cloak of darkness where you only see the rocks strewn in front of you illuminated by the beam of your feeble phosphorous-tinted LED headlamp, it’s necessary to rely on your other senses to make the approach more bearable. With a diurnal breeze filling the branches of old growth cedar along the trail’s lower reaches and the murmur of the surrounding creeks filling the breeze’s lulls with a delightful white noise, the miles tick by and before we knew it, dawn with her fingertips of rose were lighting up the clouds overhead, and giving a most delightful reflection on the creeks underfoot.
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| My, that buttress looks good |
“Pink in the morning, sailor take warning.” Mike mentioned. The forecast was ‘partly cloudy,’ which, when translated into Sierra dialect usually means abundant sunshine; as the hours ticked by, though, it seemed like we would experience a rare overcast day in the Range of Light. A novelty given the consistently good weather typical of these mountains, but given the approaching fall season and the aspect of our climb, such a meteorological projection was not conducive to being warm today. No matter…we came prepared.
After a quick stop to drop some gear, we finished off the talus approach to the base of the DNB, were roped, geared up and ro-cham’ing for the first lead by 0900.
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| "Damn I love rock climbing," Mike reports on pitch two, getting into the goods |
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| Triple cracks pitch: dreamy |
Mike took over for the next two pitches and pulled the cruxes with ease. Steep hands to ‘tenuous lie-backing’ to wide crack was not a recipe for me to send clean, so Mike welcomed the offer to do double duty, and he did so with style. Well done, sir.
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| The gratuitous a-cheval shot... |
One more pitch involving an airy fingers traverse under an enormous summit block was very memorable. 4th and 5th class scrambling with a gratuitous a-cheval move on a knife edge and we were sunning ourselves on the summit in a cloud break, sipping some cab and devouring the salty crunchy mix that justified bringing the Petzl Bug on the climb. 1330: not bad. The early start to the day, coupled with the 8+ mile approach and requisite technical climb almost caused a summit napping hour, but we delivered ourselves from the temptation in favor of attaining another objective: getting to the car without needing headlamps again.
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| ...and the traverse in better style |
“Should we go tag Royce because it’s there?”
“That choss doesn’t look like much fun.”
“Agreed.”
“Let’s bounce.”
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| A muse once said "Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy" |
The NE ridge descent was a delightful medley of well-behaved talus, boulders and sand. Within minutes we were gawking at the splitters on Merriam’s NW side and searching for the aforementioned Croft-Rands, and a few minutes more sorting gear at the nadir of Merriam’s north moraine as Mike was reunited with his stashed pack.
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| You have to look hard to see any sign of humans |
We took an alternative descent – opting for a direct line to Pine Creek pass that has us walking across the Royce Lakes Basin. You might as well photo-shop a person into the Mars rover pictures, as the basin is a saunter across rocks, sand and sparse alpine grass ringed by red and white mountains…nothing more.
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| The descent: Merriam's NW face is full of splitters, and that summit block is memorable |
I’m always slow on the descent as I oft sit, breath and liberally attempt to do digital justice to the scenes nearly unchanged from when the first trekkers visited in centuries prior. Sure we all lament at the end of a long alpine day how nice it would be to have the Sierra equivalent to the Aiguille du Midi or Montenvers to briskly shuttle us back to hot saunas and jovially-shared stories over libations of our choice, but it is also incredible to appreciate the efforts expended by our predecessors to ensure the only influence by man in our periphery are our foot prints.
Mike and I spent 2/3’s of our day walking in places we didn’t see another footprint. Humbling. When will I be back to Pine Creek Pass again? Another three years? I should hope not, now that I know the rock and vistas that await another sortie to the area.
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| "...and miles to go before I sleep." |
Mike and I spent 2/3’s of our day walking in places we didn’t see another footprint. Humbling. When will I be back to Pine Creek Pass again? Another three years? I should hope not, now that I know the rock and vistas that await another sortie to the area.
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| The hike out...solitude on a martian-esque landscape |
Due to travels this year, my Sierra alpine season was abridged; I was able to get some things done, yet there are still many objectives remaining on the list.
If Mr. Croft is still putting up memorable first ascents after spending the time he does here, I’m confident that objective list could balloon with a little effort and attention. For now, though, it is time to change gears: getting ready for fall and the adventures a changing season brings: keeping it fresh, and leaving some excitement for next summer’s alpine agenda.
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| One of Pine Creek's many rock flavors |
If Mr. Croft is still putting up memorable first ascents after spending the time he does here, I’m confident that objective list could balloon with a little effort and attention. For now, though, it is time to change gears: getting ready for fall and the adventures a changing season brings: keeping it fresh, and leaving some excitement for next summer’s alpine agenda.
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| The Profile shot: A splendid outing |
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| Pine Creek: Lots to love |
- Single rack camelot to 0.5, double rack 0.75 to 2, singles 3 & 4
- One set of stoppers
- 4 Alpine draws
- 5 biner'ed slings
- 70m 9.2mm bipattern
Nutrition:
- 2 gu's, 1 package gu chomps
- granola bar
- delicious homemade deli sandwich
- 250g salty, crunchy concoction [assorted sesame stix, fritos]
- 500mL vitamin W: 2011 Cab Sav