(PART I) Mounts Williamson and Tyndall: A Two Part Adventure

Mount Williamson #6: 14,380 ft; 2nd highest peak in California

Mount Tyndall #7: 14,026 ft; 10th highest peak in California

August 9-10, 2014

By: Stefanie Notte

Ah, Williamson and Tyndall.  They go together like peanut butter and jelly.  Rarely do you get one without the other... but they are both fantastic (and could get messy?) individually.  This trip officially started on Friday, 8/8/14 at 12:46am and ended on Monday 8/11/14 at 2:03 pm, and let me tell you, there was a whole lot in between to keep one on their toes!  This weekend rounded out numbers 6 and 7 for the Summit Fever Challenge 2014, getting me two steps closer to finishing one of the most epic adventures of all time.  

Like most stories, the more crazy shit that happens, the more exciting it is to read.  However, that was not my intention when the MINI-fiasco occurred in the middle of the night, 8 hours before the planned start of the trip.

Happy MINI

PART I

It all started when I was car camping at the corral just before the Shepherd Pass trail sign. I slowly and methodically packed my bag for the next three days and eventually drifted off to sleep. So nice and peaceful, I was going to meet the girls here and go up to the trail head together. Then, at 12:24 am, I was awaken by a car driving passed me towards the trail head... a car with low clearance! I was a bit confused at first since my book: Climbing the California Fourteeners states clearly that driving past the corral where I was camped could not be done without a car with high clearance, and the ranger at the permit office confirmed this as well.  Since I had such good cell phone reception, I pulled up the summitpost.com site on Williamson and it contrarily stated that low clearance cars could make it all the way to the trail head. That was that. I packed up, jumped in the Mighty Mini and off I went at a staggering 5 mph up the road... Until I got to a split in the road that was totally washed out by the recent down pours making this stretch impassable with the mini. Damn. Okay, good run, time to head back... That is... Until I got this car stuck on the side of the road trying to turn it around. So fucked. 

The front bumper was buried in the shitty dirt road and the front tires were spinning... Deeper and deeper, while the car was angled ass up/ nose down, perpendicular to the road. Now, at this point I am still optimistic. I grab my poo shovel from my packed bag and go to town digging out the mini. 2 minutes into this task and I have successfully shredded my knuckles on both hands. Hmmm. As I was tearing through my now unpacked bag for some medical tape to bandage my bloodied hands, I noticed my ice axe. Score! I spent the following 2 hours in the middle of the night trying to dig a trench under the bumper by jacking up my car on  one side, then the other, eroding away the dirt road.

This was two days later, just imagine the feeling every time you reach into your pack.

 The moon had finally disappeared and darkness fell around me. The batteries in my headlamp died while I was hard at work mining my mini but I still wasn't giving up. I replaced the three AAAs without skipping a beat and started sticking rocks under the elevated front tires. I'm feeling confident.  I was both eager and nervous to test out my progress.  I get back in the driver’s seat when I tried backing up and out of the now (wo)man made ditch. Nothing.  No, worse.  The rocks spit out from under the tires and the MINI went even deeper into the soft road, making my awesome trench disappear in just seconds. Well, fuck. 

Oh wait, a car is coming! Blue Subaru.  It's now just after 3am and this guy was on his way up to day trip Mt Tyndall; he didn't have the time to help me.  Yes, that’s right, Blue Subaru passed by me and my MINIsituation because he had quite possibly a mild case of summit fever.  Well that's okay, summiting sometimes blinds the nicest of people, and you better believe I was not going to act as if I needed help, no matter how fucked I was.  He drove around my trench, a little displeased on how close he had to squeeze pass the bush that could potentially scratch the paint on his precious functional car, and went on his way. Defeat. I finally called a tow guy (in Lone Pine) around 3:30am and his best answer for me was, "call back at 8am". Emergency tow my ass. At this point I threw in the towel and tried to get some sleep, I was a new kind of exhausted. 

Sad MINI

The sun came up way too soon and there I was, now in day light, in the --so I wasn’t dreaming after all-- MINIsituation. Okay, back to jacking up the car and trying the rock thing again.  Finally, luck swayed back in my direction.  It was 8:02am and another Subaru was approaching my car.  This time it was red.  But best of all, my two hiking partners, Jill and Leslie, were in that car and were hell bent on getting me out of there!  Jill grabbed the brand new unused Subaru jack from her car and Leslie grabbed the full sized shovel.  Together this team of women worked diligently to bust that MINI free.  And you know what? IT FUCKING WORKED!  Is anyone surprised? Hell no.  And now the trek can finally begin.

The Subaru Jack, an amazing invention

Progress!

SUCCESS!

The Plan: 

Day 1 -> Anvil Camp, about 8.5 miles in and 4000 feet elevation gain

Day 2 -> Summit Mount Williamson from the western approach as a group, and I was to solo summit Tyndall via the North Rib

Day 3 -> Bag Tyndall if I didn’t the day before, and exit by dark

Day 1: Friday

The three of us hit the trail at 9:50 am from the Shepherd Pass trail head at 6300 feet. I forgot my trekking poles in the MINI.  My car was parked down by the corral again and it was too far to go back.  Dang, what else did I forget?  By 10:28 am we reached the fourth and last water crossing on Symmes Creek before switchbacking up to the first pass.  We filtered water here.  The trail was well defined with soft terrain and was pretty nice if you ask me.  We reached the top of the pass at 12:40 pm, and boy was I feeling the elevation at this point.  We continued down the other side until we got to a shady spot with a stream and decided to take our lunch break here, at 1:10 pm.  It wasn’t until just before 4pm when we reached the section of the trail that was washed out by an avalanche in 2007.  Tricky icky icky!  Steep down, steep up.  We managed just fine.  This is also where we had our first sighting of real Trail Ninjas.  Where did these two guys come from?  We had no idea. Hmmm. 

Washed out trail, approx. 15 foot walls

Moments later, a man was coming towards us, I recognized him immediately.  Blue Subaru.  No, I wasn’t bitter... We chatted a bit, he got his summit, and then I volunteered the info that there was no longer a MINI blocking the road on his way out.  HA!  To much of his surprise, I told him that we got that car out with minimal trouble, yes, the three of us LADIES.  Okay, maybe a little bitter.  But, either way, it was a win win. 4:14pm and we had arrived to camp.

The Trail Ninjas were sitting on a log checking their map.  I didn’t realize ninjas used those.  We chatted with Steve and Pryor for a few minutes longer, until something remarkable happened.  Steve asked me confidently, “are you Stefanie?” Holy shit.  This ninja had read my blogs before, and KNEW WHO I WAS!  So cool.  I have to say, this moment was a true highlight for me.  Off they went to camp up at Shepherd Pass, and here we were at home sweet home. At 7:54 pm I was tucked into my super cozy camp bed.  I laid down for nearly 30 seconds before completely passing out, dead to the world. 

Day 2: Saturday

“3:15am: first alarm, NO!

3:33 am: second alarm: not yet but better

3:43am: third alarm and I'm up, time for some coffee.”

We fueled up with some delicious coffee and I had some super oatmeal: Oats, chia seeds, almonds, dried berries, BANANA POWDER (yes, I created this epic electrolyte filled sugar substitute), cinnamon and a dash of salt.  4:49 am and we were on trail, next stop Shepherd Pass (12,000 ft). 

Mount Tyndall from Shepherd Pass

We crested the Pass at 6:13 am.  The sun was rising and casted a beautiful morning glow on Mount Tyndall.  It was breathtaking. 45 minutes later we reached the northern edge of the Williamson Bowl.  Shit just got real.  Snow capped Williamson dominated the south eastern sky, whereas Tyndall stood closer to us, directly to the west, but 300 feet lower than it’s behemoth neighbor.  I felt small.  I’ve learned by now that although this mountain appeared close, it certainly was not.  Now for the much anticipated High Sierra cross country expedition across the great Williamson Bowl. We descended south into the bowl, following cairns to the lake closest to Tyndall.  We hugged the eastern perimeter of these two lakes (continuing onto the lake directly south of the other) and finally and accurately located the “black stain” marker on Williamson.  At 10:00 am “...we ascended the class 2 western approach, the route became more clear and the black stain was the landmark after all.  There was water running down it, most likely from the snow melt from last week's storm. The chute is directly above that section and the route with the chimney is on the left side, NOT the right.” What is that over there?  OH!  The Ninjas.  Where do they keep coming from?  They are about 45 minutes ahead of us and moving all stealth-mode and fast-like. 

The chute to take, GO LEFT!

Crux. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines this word as: “a puzzling or difficult problem, an unsolved question; an essential point requiring resolution or resolving an outcome”.  I define it as the Williamson Chute.  Our route was covered in hard snow, unstable rocks of all sizes, and was of a humbling steepness that demanded respect.  About half way through this beast, the giant rock I was standing on dislodged, and I watched with bewilderment as it rumbled and tumbled its way down the chute. It took an eternity for it to meet its final resting place, and that’s when every hair on my body stood up in the erie silence. Fuck.  I just want to get to that chimney. At some point around this time, Leslie handed me one of her trekking poles.  It was an essential piece of equipment that I was missing all along.  Finally, some stability.  Keep on truckin.  It was also at this point that I officially gave up on trying for Tyndall later that day.  Focus.  This chute demanded undivided attention.  

Roughly an hour later we got to the chimney.  YESSSSSSSS!  Now, looking back in hind sight, this was another highlight of my trip.  Sure, it may not seem tricky to the rock climbing population, but since I am technically not a rock climber, I was soooo stoked to get through this part!  It really was a challenge, but with the guidance from my experienced team, it was a piece of cake! Oh, and this was also where we met up with the Ninjas again.  Don’t ask me, this was an ongoing thing.

Photo cred: Jill Wilson 

Moments later, at 12:26pm, we reached the snowy summit of the 2nd highest peak in California!  Woohoo!  Mount Williamson has now been checked off the list, #6 for me and #7 for Jill and Leslie (in the conquest of the CA 14ers).  The three of us shared our summit experience with Steve and Pryor, but none of us could find the damn register!  It was buried under the snow, and there was no way we were going to find it.  Whatever, it still counts.  

Snowy summit of Mount Williamson!

And now, the descent.  Down the chimney, down the chute, down down down.  At 3:27pm we reached the Bowl, but still had to face the class 2 rock scramble over to the other side.  As we were doing so, dark clouds rolled in, taking over our blue skies.  My legs were getting tired.  And my feet, well, I was rocking the swamp foot.  They were saturated and there was nothing I could do. Go go go. My decision to skip Tyndall started to feel like a good idea after all.

Down the chute, it all makes sense now, huh?

At 4:53pm we reached the northern end of the Bowl once again.  As we were ascending, it started to hail.  No big deal, right?  And then, it came down harder and faster.  The hail was growing in size, about 1/2 a centimeter, and then.... the lightning and thunder.  We were perched in the Williamson Bowl Amphitheater with front row seats to one of those crazy High Sierra storms.  First the flash of lightning, then the crackling thunder, and then the booming echoes from the thunder bouncing off the giant mountains all around the Bowl.  It really was incredible.  We were crouched down with our feet together trying our best not to get struck by lightning.  

Just one short week before this trip, I was standing on top of Mount Tallac (9738 ft) in Lake Tahoe during a thunderstorm and my hair was sticking straight up.  Later that day I did some research about lightning strike prevention and HOLY SHIT, I was so close to getting my ass zapped when I was on that mountain!  Too close.  I now have a healthy fear of these electrical bolts.  

Tallac Thunderstorm: Yep, this really happened 

After about 30 minutes, the seconds between lightning and thunder increased and we were on our way.  That is, until a few minutes later when the storm decided to circle back over us... and back to the defensive position we went, this time for only about 20 minutes.  Now I’m freezing.  This is when I could have used my mid layer, beanie, and gloves... all things that were in the original packed bag that ended up left behind in the MINI.  Awesome.  Remember my swamp feet?  Yeah, this didn’t help that, either.  But one thing is for sure, I will not act casual around lightning again.  Thank god I wasn’t on Tyndall for this shit!  Uh oh, I hope the Ninjas didn’t get stuck in it up there.

Milestone Mountain (in the middle)

Oh, HAIL no! 

Jill and Leslie en route to the Pass

We reached the top of Shepherd Pass at 6:32 pm.  The ground was now covered in a blanket of white hail/snow mixture.  It was pretty. But more importantly, we got back to our base camp less than an hour later.  Camp held up well.  My castle was completely dry, it looks like it benefited from that waterproofing it endured shortly after the episode in Mount Rainier two months prior, where I had a moat around my Thermarest Island for roughly 36 hours.  Jill, Leslie, and I gathered under these awesome LED lights at camp and prepared our dinner: I had mashed potatoes with the Mountain House fire roasted veggies. Delish.  Hot and filling.  And hot.  Funny how hot and filling can make someone so sleepy, and with the addition of a 14 hour hike, sleep was the only thing I desired more than that shot of Jim Beam.  Looks like I’ll be taking it to the top of Tyndall tomorrow.  Oh yes, I still haven’t forgotten about the jelly to my peanut butter.  Looks like I’m headed back up Shepherd Pass tomorrow.  Did I bring enough food for an extra day of hiking? No.  I really thought I could have done both peaks in one day.  Fat chance!  Once again, these two ladies come to the rescue.  They resupplied me to get through another full day of hiking.  What a team, I tell ya.  Buenas noches.  

Dinner at Anvil Camp