After a week in the High Sierra in winter, the Pullharder crew was ravaged. Konstantin downed a full packet of hot dogs and a pizza. Ben slept like a baby in the back seat of the car. Shay’s sunburn and stench were epic. And Pullharder Ducky, our fourth? Not an emotion. He don’t eat, don’t sleep, and never complains. More »
“I believe. I believe. I believe.” Staring at the ceiling of my car, parked at the foot of Lone Pine Peak. 2:45 a.m. on a February morning, trying to psyche myself through the doubts that kept creeping through my head. “It is within me. Believe.” More »
Marx said “the only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain.” Don’t know if who said it was Karl or Groucho, or some Marx in between. And I wasn’t sure that trudging through the snow at 4am on the way to solo several thousand feet of alpine rock was good for one’s mental health…yet driving back home euphoric, I once again realized the tremendous power of the mountains. More »
The Sierra season is short, we are told. July through September, then the snows come. True, but in the Range of Light, the sun comes out again after the storm and warms the rock faces. So Asa and I headed up this December for a chilly late season (or early Winter season?) ascent of the Strassman Route on Lone Pine Peak. More »
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
More »
Many cruxes were identified as we made our way up the drainage heading towards the Palisade Glacier. The perfect combination of conditions, psych, and weather had to come together before the mountains would permit our passage. More »
Training for Moonlight Buttress, Roberto and I were short on time one weekend but long on energy. We decided to hit Eagle Peak and just climb everything we could get our hands on! The plan was simple: show up and punch out as many pitches as possible with the time we had.
The piercing sound of gunfire rang out through the desert air, sending Charles, Asa and myself scampering for cover against the desert chaparral. Our panicked, semi-crouched positions belied our combat inexperience. Storms, avalanches, crevasses, rockfall — between the three of us we’ve faced our share of objective hazards. But the very real possibility of being shot was a new one. More »
Shay and I had been talking for a while about heading up to get the first free ascent (FFA) of Pipeline (5.10 A0) on Mt. Carillon. It’s a 1000+’ route that he and Andre put up a year ago, and the “money pitch” involves liebacking, underclinging and smearing under an enormous roof that looks like a giant crashing wave. In addition, we planned on adding some new pitches leading up to and after the Pipeline roof. Mt. Carillon is just north of Lower Boy Scout Lake in the Whitney region, and is in a beautiful secluded valley away from the crowds.
On Friday I emailed Nate asking if he wanted to climb at Tahquitz over the weekend and he replied with a “pass” as he was trying to put together a trip to the Sierra’s. A few hours later he emailed me again asking if I wanted to go attempt a new line up Mt. Langley. Shay had climbed on Langley the weekend before and attempted a ridge that dead-ended before reaching the summit – Nate thought he saw a ridge in the pictures Shay brought back that might connect to the top. He thought we’d try to do the route in a day but there was a good chance we’d face an unplanned bivy and a cold night on the rock at high altitude. More »
Last weekend Luke and I went up the South Fork of Tuttle Creek to check out the North face of Mt. Langley. We were inspired to go back there after seeing the information posted by Doug Robinson on Supertopo and Alois on Summitpost about the amount of virgin rock that was available back there. More »
With the road open Shay, Josh, Konstantine and I returned to King’s Canyon to retrieve our gear stash, but also to snag some more of the low hanging FA fruit. An ominous weather forecast had a couple of us doubting whether we should go, but then Konstantine called us on our shit. More »
The plan was perfect. For almost a year now I had been regaling anyone with a set of ears about King’s Canyon, a magical place Lin and I visited for the first time last summer. In my opinion King’s Canyon is an untouched Yosemite, replete with vast first ascent potential, minimal approaches, perfect rock and a beautiful setting. Nate and Shay were keen, so we planned a 3 day trip over April 18-20. The plan was simple: 1) drive to King’s Canyon, 2) walk 10 feet and put up modern megaclassic multi-pitch first ascents 3) enjoy the hedonistic luxuries of a well stocked car camping site. More »
Winter Ascent of the Complete North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak from the Owens Valley.
Climbed by Scott Nelson, Nathan Ricklin and Charles Ince, January 30th 2009.
More »
The Michael Strassman Memorial Route climbs the South Face of Lone Pine Peak following an impressive right leaning dike, dubbed the Super Dike. This prominent feature rips across the otherwise blank wall for nearly 500 feet, offering up some incredible climbing along the way. The first ascent was accomplished on September 30, 2008 by Scotty Nelson, Charles Ince and Nate Ricklin. More »
Scotty had promised that we would do an FA for our birthdays back in July. Unfortunately the weather had other plans for us that weekend (We were able to do the FFA of Kostas and Nate’s route Cleavage Dreamer, with a direct start). A promise is a promise, so the next chance we had, we were headed back up to the North Face of Mt. Russell to give it another go. Things went smoothly enough (I have yet to go on a Scotty vacation). We got up at 4am on Saturday and got to the base of Mt. Carillon where we set up camp and had a leisurely afternoon of bouldering, top-roping, among other things… More »
Teased by reports of big virgin granite up the Cleaver Valley, Lindsey, Shay Andre and I found ourselves parked at Whitney Portal late one August evening. We immediately started hiking up, bivying on the sandy bench above LBSL. I think this is a useful strategy for mitigating altitude sickness, and it also allows one to enjoy the hike in the coolth of the night. More »
The pipeline is perhaps the most imposing roof in the Eastern Sierras. Flawless granite extending itself from the wall more than 30 feet. Andre and I spotted this obvious feature while putting up Sweet Carillon. This weekend we went up to explore it. More »
Last weekend, Kostas and I went to explore the West Face of Polemonium on the Palisades crest. After a lot of hiking from South Lake and a ton of talus scrambling, we managed to put up a pretty fun route that tops out on Polemonium Peak. More »
There I stood, perched on a small face hold hugging the arete trying to surmount the 5 foot roof that marked the middle of our 3rd pitch. This was my first look at the wall above it and it looked blank. Would I be able to downclimb? Was there an alternative path? More »
Nate and I ventured up to the Whitney region last weekend. After gawking at the possibilities, we bagged two new routes: More »
Scotty and I spotted The Cleaver while we were on the NERLPP, and after getting home and looking it up saw that it had only one route on the South face. Sick! We made loose plans to check it out, but Scotty suggested the idea to Kostas before taking off on a 3 week roadtrip. More »
Nate and I went up George Creek to try a new route on Shaw Spire.
The route ended up being chossy, cold and scary. We climbed 8 pitches before bailing 2 pitches from the top. That night there were 100mph winds over the crest. More »
Well I would like to report a successful Hell Hike on Wednesday in rural Escondido.
A luring road promptly sent us to a small trail that passed by some graffiti and then dumped us in friendly chaparral to thrash about for awhile. More »
