Be Sill My Heart (Mt Sill, elevation 14,153 ft)

Mount Sill
Elevation 14,153 ft (4,314 m)
California's 6th Highest Mountain
9th Peak Bagged in the Summit Fever Challenge
By: Stefanie Notte

It is quite safe to say I took a lofty break from this peak bagging challenge; the last 14er I summited was Mount Russell in August of 2014, with failed attempt on Split last October (2015).  A few life changing events occurred since Russell: completion of my first thru hike: the John Muir Trail, adopting the most amazing dog in the world, a sidelining ankle injury, graduating college, relocating back to Lake Tahoe... and everything in between.  Although these mountains were unattainable during that time, I never stopped thinking about the High Sierra.  As a result, I recently woke up on a beautiful morning here in South Lake Tahoe, enjoyed a cup of coffee while reading my bible, Climbing California's Fourteeners by Stephen F. Porcella & Cameron M. Burns, lit a fire under my ass, packed my bags, and drove south to the quaint foothill town of Big Pine, CA.

Mount Sill to the left 

On Monday, September 12th, I set off on this adventure. My stomach was in knots from anxiety, apprehension, excitement, and maybe a little too much coffee.  It had been two years since my last conquest and I was feeling out of sync, a bit rusty, and questioning if I was still capable of completing this challenge.  I was reflecting on my failed attempt on Split where I was attempting the summit push after gaining the Prater-Split saddle.  I ascended about 50 yards further up the northwest ridge until I ran into just enough snow to turn me around.  I have no doubts I would have been able to make it to the top, only a few hundred yards to go, but with my crampons sitting contently in my car, I wasn't so sure I would have been able to make it down safely.  Now this begged the question: have I lost my nerve, the confidence one needs to climb these mountains? Maybe was the answer, but these mountains aren't going anywhere.

I obtained my permit at the wilderness station in Bishop for the North Fork of Big Pine Creek trail, with the planned eastern approach of Mt Sill. I continued to Big Pine, about 15 miles more, until I deviated from the 395 and took the right on Crocker Street towards Glacier Lodge and to the trail head.  Note: I put Glacier Lodge in my GPS from the start of my trip and it led me right there. However, the backpackers parking lot is about 1/4 a mile on the right BEFORE the lodge.  You can't miss it.

Tom Harrison Map "The Palisades"

I started my trek at 3:50pm.  The trail had a gradual incline on super soft sandy gravel.  I walked at a mellow pace as I took in the scenery.  It was quite windy, the ranger at the wilderness center told me a storm was blowing in, but I was already invested in this trip and wasn't going to let some Sierra madness stop me.  I passed by First, Second, and Third Lakes awestruck by the color of these glacial lakes.  At 6:45pm I arrived to the split in the trail, Lakes 4-7 are straight ahead and the Glacier Trail heading to the Palisades is to the left.  At this point the sun was dipping behind the large surrounding mountains, yet the wind was still fierce as ever.  I was trying to get to the Sam Mack Meadow to camp but chose a spot tucked away in the trees about 100 or so yards from the fork.  There are a million flat spots to camp around here and a water source nearby.  Perfection.  This spot was 7.1 miles from the trailhead.

Temple Crag and Second Lake 

According to my new Dolorme inReach Explorer, camp was at an elevation of 10,542 feet.  From here, Sill is just over 3600 feet of elevation gain and roughly 3.5 miles away.  How hard could it be?

Wind protected camp site 

I went to sleep relatively early and woke up around 7:30am.  The skies were blue and there was a modest breeze in the air, nothing compared to yesterday's wind!  Awesome, the storm went somewhere else leaving me with perfect peak bagging weather.  I decided to leave camp where it was, quickly packed a day pack, and off I went at 8:10am.  I had 2.5 liters of water and decided that would be enough for the day.  After all, I was only going seven miles roundtrip...

Walking up to the Palisade bowl was quite uneventful, there are a million cairns to follow once the trail disappeared a little ways passed Sam Mack Meadow.  This is where I crested the bowl and ran into Matt from the REI store in Santa Monica.  I was checking out my options and discussed them with Matt, I then decided to take the dreadful moraine of slippery scree instead of following the cairns up Mt. Gayley.  One should always ask themselves, why do we make last minute impulsive decisions deviating from the plan when climbing a mountain?  Matt warned me the scree was sketchy yet I still went that way, it looked pretty okay to me!  This is where I chose my plan B:

• cross the scree moraine below Gayley
• gain the wall to crest the glacier notch (between Sill and Gayley) 
• traverse over and around Apex Peak (the little peak-let NE of Sill)
• finish up the class 3 route to the summit.  Solid plan.  

Scree Moraine and Glacier Notch

Palisade Glacier 

Palisade Bowl

I parted ways with Matt, the last person I saw for the rest of the day and continued on.  About five minutes into the scree-moraine I regretted my decision.  In comes type II fun.  Rock slides, scree slides, Earth moving events took place as I sloppily made my way to the wall, which took roughly an hour.  In a perfect world, you know, the one where you bring your crampons instead of leaving them in the car, I would have hiked across the glacier to the North Couloir and ascended from there. But no, I decided to take on a class 4 wall where I had to reroute three times to avoid class 5 moves and hand holds that just crumbled with minimal applied weight.

Class 4 up to Glacier Notch 

Glacier Notch route

It was around noon when I gained this nail biter.  It was slow going, so slow that I was behind schedule much more than expected.  I was four hours into this trek and was only here, the glacier notch.  But let me paint the picture, climbing this section was totally intense, I felt so ALIVE! This route is not for the faint of heart.  Yes, rerouting sucks, but the puzzle was exhilarating. Such a breathtaking view from the top of the notch!

Palisade Crest south of Glacier Notch 

Ridgeline to Apex Peak and Mt Sill

Playing in snow

I walked the ridge of the notch realizing I was going to have to go up Apex Peak a bit, then cross over the south side to get to Sill, which was now in full blown view.  This also took a bit of strategy to move across this section.  Up and down, rerouting over snow now trying to keep my shoes as dry as possible, needing every bit of traction they can provide.  Finally, I am at the base of summit push.  I approached Sill from the north, eventually wrapping around to the west, all the while following the cairns to, you guessed it, THE SUMMIT!

Summit of Mount Sill (with North Pal in the back)

I did it!  *On Sept 13th, not 12th 

Register on Mt Sill

Looking out to the west with the register

I summited the sixth highest mountain in California at 2:22pm on Tuesday, September 13th, 2016!  The view was second to none, North Palisade dominated the north, somewhere to the west was the epic JMT, and admittedly, I couldn't see a damn thing to the east because the clouds rolled just in time to block my view.  I found the register, a blue Nalgene bottle, and tried to dislodge it from its spot by pulling on the plastic loop attaching the lid. Guess what guys, I'm the one who broke this piece... sorry about it.  I found a nearby rock and whacked the register with it to free it from its home.  This worked.  I quickly established my name in the register and looked through a few messages before the clouds started overtaking me and I decided to get a move on down the hill.

To the north from Mt Sill 

The temperature dropped about ten degrees in the clouds.  I swiftly moved down the class 3 section to what appeared to be the North Couloir.  In a quick judgement call, I descended here thinking I could save time on my return to camp.  This couloir had an eerie feel to it, the gravel was loose, rocks were again falling, and I had a flashback to the time I was descending to the Williamson Bowl. Both descents were arduous, but this time, I found a treasure.  I took a break halfway down the couloir, enjoyed a can of Starbucks espresso with cream (such a great choice to bring one of these!), and noticed something sticking out of the Earth.  I went over to it and pulled out two pieces side-by-side; this treasure I found was a Black Diamond ice axe, SPLIT IN TWO!  Whoa!  This thing had a story, and I kept it.  This axe is exactly like the one I have, imagine the force it took to break it in half?!

The Treasure 

...and these are the breaks

As I got close to the base of the couloir I was faced with yet another challenge.  I didn't put much thought into this descent until now, when I made the most regrettable decision of the day.  Here I am now faced with the Palisade Glacier.  The better decision would have been to march my butt back up that couloir and take the Gayley descent down.  But no, I decided that even without crampons, I was going to traverse about 200 yards over this glacier to the scree-moraine.  Jesus Christ, this was entirely terrifying the entire way.  There was no way to stay close to the rock to edge my way over, I just had to commit, and commit is what I did.  I carefully articulated each step on this icy slope with the support of my trekking poles.  Luckily, it was sunny out, and there was about one centimeter of snow crust on top of the ice that saved the day. My left pole was all the traction I had to inch my way to the east and my right pole was shorter and the one I was going to use if needing to self arrest.  I dug in the best I could with my feet, creating tiny edges that supported me.  The downward slope was north facing, funneling into the glacial lake.  I can't even tell you how many times I pictured myself falling and sliding into the lake; picturing myself swimming to safety and hiking out unscathed.  The probability of this was largely unlikely, not the falling part, but the hiking out part.  Either way, I was determined to get off that glacier, minus the polar plunge.

During this harrowing experience, something incredible did happen.  A massive chuck of ice on the edge of the lake broke off and plummeted into the water creating a thunderous crash!  I could feel the vibrations throughout my body as the giant ice chuck was reduced to mini icebergs slowly spreading across the water.  Ahhhhhhhh... nature, so cool!  This is also when those clouds above started sending flurries my way, first snow of the season!!

At 5:30pm, I finally reached the scree field.  I can honestly say I have never been so happy to set foot on scree.  Ever.  I survived the glacial walk with nothing more than a pair of hiking shoes and trekking poles.  NEVER again will I do something so stupid. Now that I'm off the glacier I do want to tell you that I fell once, on the glacier.  I fell right next to a 15-20 foot deep crevasse.  I stood above it realizing I couldn't get around it without sliding on the glossy ice, I was completely surrounded. I had three options in moving forward: A) slide five feet down to the right to a snowy ledge, B) slide 15 feet straight down to a large rock to stop me, C) fall into the crevasse.  This is when my sympathetic nervous system kicked in and I started quivering, not because I was cold but because I was scared to death.  BAM!!  Before I could think another thought, my feet slipped out from underneath me and I slid to the rock about 15 feet below me, option B.  I sat here for a few minutes to get my wits about me and to stop shaking.  T'was a close call, that's for sure, unfortunately I was unable to get any pictures at this time, the ice formations in the crevasse were spectacular.

Just east of the bowl enroute to Sam Mack Meadow

And there you have it;  I made it back to my tent in a mixture of moon light and a dim head lamp, around 8pm.   I left a bright yellow bandana flag on a tree marking the entrance to camp, I was tucked away so well into the trees I couldn't see my orange tent from the trail.  I made some hot tea with the rest of the water in my Camelbak.  Dinner consisted of 1/2 a Mountain House Meal (chicken and rice) with a full bag of their roasted veggies. I had a packet of Tapatio that I added to it.  As I was letting it rehydrate with the hot water, I knocked the bag over and most of the contents spilled onto the ground.  I was so tired that I couldn't do anything about the mess until morning and crawled into my Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 where sleep was imminent.



The next day I woke up with frost on my tent and stayed tucked in until about 8am.  I hiked out taking the loop to Fourth and Black Lakes.  It was pretty but the route with Lakes 1-3 was better.  In the last mile before the car I ran into Matt and his friend Mike, also from REI, on the way out.  It was a pleasant way to end this adventure.

A reflective Fourth Lake 

Mt. Sill, you tested my mountain prowess to the fullest and I have become all the more wiser for it. You were a difficult mountain to get to and from, with the "easiest" climb being your summit.  Thank you for the challenge, I will never forget my crampons ever, ever, EVER again.

Cheers,
Stefanie

P.S. It took 12 hours for me to go the seven miles from camp to Sill and back; Six hours up and six down.  Oh, and don't forget your ice axe!