Glissading is a blast. Its basically sliding down snow slopes in the mountains. You can cover great amounts of distance in a few seconds, and on top of it, its ridiculously fun. Take a look at how far Shane travels, he’s just a speck by the time he hits the bottom. This slide was the last, and one of the most mild slides down Bear Creek Spire.
Within my group of ‘buds a lot of stuff was happening at the beginning of June. Shane and Jayna quit their jobs, moved out of their apartment in Santa Barbara, and were beginning a trip to explore Europe, which would eventually lead to them settling down in Salt Lake City. Lane was losing a fiance’ and gaining a wife. Chris would be leaving behind everything he’s known, to share what he loves with others. Lots to celebrate! And what better way to celebrate than planning a big ole’ backpacking/climbing/backcountry trip in the Sierra’s.
Lane and Shane began putting the trip together months before. As word passed around, the trip started to take shape as a four day weekend, with a high altitude base camp at one of the Gem Lakes, in the Little Lakes Valley outside of Bishop, CA. Most of the crew drove up Wednesday night, and spent a chilly day Thursday hiking into the lake-filled valley. Unfortunately, I had to work on Thursday, so I would be coming in late on Thursday night.
I arrived in Bishop at 8:30pm on Thursday night. The plan was to make the late night hike into the lake system and find the guys, then have breakfast Friday morning with everybody. Keep in mind I had no clue where they were going to camp…Lane assured me that they would lay me a ‘trail’ though. By 9:30pm I was hiking up the dark trail, singing and whistling to calm my nerves and scare away any giant Marshall eating bears that might be roaming the darkness. I hiked for a little over an hour with no sign of the guys, or that I was on the right trail when I came to a sign. “Chicken Foot Lake”, with an arrow pointing to the left. This only added to my confusion. I had a trail map which clearly showed Chicken Foot Lake, but it was supposed to be on the RIGHT side of the trail. I stood there for a good while trying to figure out where the heck I was to no avail. I had no clue, so I did the only thing I could, and just kept on walking.
I came over another dark rise, and saw something that made me immediately shut off my headlamp. Several hundred yards ahead of me on a hillside something was glowing! A glow stick! The guys had been true to their word, and had laid a trail for me. The above yellow beacon contained directions (and much relief) on how to get to the camp. Within a few minutes I was happily sleeping in my sleeping bag, a half mile from the first glowstick, on a hillside surrounded by the tents and tarps of my friends.
Shane and Lane went all out with the food. I was told to only bring snacks and lunch stuff, and was expecting to be living off of oatmeal and freeze dried meals for the two days in the backcountry. I was pleasantly suprised, as I munched on a fantastic breakfast burrito! The amazing meals wouldn’t stop there either, as I would find out later.
It wasn’t long after we’d finished breakfast that we decided that with the great weather and good spirits of the group, we should really try to pick off one of the peaks surrounding the valley. Dan, Kevin, and Allen decided to make the scramble up Mt. Dade, while the rest of us would make a push for the Bear Creek Spire, Ulrich’s Route.
Up we went, with Greg in the lead. The route is moderate, with lots of snow fields to cross, and a small rocky headwall near the summit which required some delicate footing and a little ropework. Greg once again confirmed that he is the strongest climber I’ve ever been around, as he proceed to climb twice as fast, and twice as much as the rest of us. He’d get 500ft or so above the group, find a big ole’ flat rock, and leap down into a snow chute, plummeting down on his make-shift sled. Look closely below and you can see him sliding by as we trudged uphill.
The climb went without a hitch, besides wearing us out. The downclimb was exciting at times, and involved a lot of high speed glissading, which turned out to be ridiculously fun. I felt like a five year old at the old sledding hills all over again.
Another good meal was awaiting us when we returned to camp, and we crashed out early. The next morning we all didn’t feel much motivation to gain altitude again, so we hung around camp and occupied ourselves. A slackline was installed, as well as a little top-rope to do some cragging. A fun relaxing day that was topped off by an amazing stew. We caught a handful of fish in the streams below camp, which made for a tasty addition to the meal.
We hiked out Saturday night, and crashed out on the Denio’s front lawn. After a great day in Bishop on Sunday, we all parted ways, and headed back to real life. Great times, and a great trip. Good memories for sure!
Big thanks to Eric Byers for helping me out with upgrading my site to the newest version of Wordpress. I’m going to have to find some way of paying him back for his internet-savvy-ness.
One benefit of the upgrade is my photo album plugin works again, so when I post photos, you should be able to click on them, and it will pull you directly into my photo galleries. Usually I put a few photos in my posts, and have much more hiding within the albums of my flickr gallery.
The above is one of the frosty lakes on the way up to Bear Creek Spire. I wish the photo conveyed how emerald green these pools actually were. Awesome spot, wish I had picked up the top right corner of the pano, it looked down the valley towards camp, must have missed it.
I made this nifty header collage, and while I was doing so, I decided I had enough of my previous theme. The current theme (unless it’s changed since posting this) doesn’t really show the whole header…I may have to do some tweaking. Full size is HERE.
I tried to get a bunch of photos of memorable times stuck in there that would work well together. From left to right they are:
1. Mollie and I on our trip up the Subway in Zion.
2. First big backpacking trip with Shane and Keith. I was looking towards Forester Pass, and feeling some altitude.
3. The gals, in the Sierra’s, tent view.
4. Mollie and I doing some sillyness in the Sierras on the Green Lake trip with Shane/Jay, Cara/Landry.
5. Classic powder day at Mammoth.
6. Mollie exploring the murky pools in the Subway, Zion.
7. Mollie and I in front of Multnoma Falls, on our honeymoon.
8. Wedding photo, with some character.
9. Joshua Tree climbing…I think I was leading a route on the Headstone. Thanks for the photo Chris Cobb.
10. Mollie and I after a backpacking trip…not sure where.
11. Me with the goofy hat, holding a fish.
12. Nyah, the mountain dog, on our way up to Piute Pass.
13. Wedding pose.
14. Mollie and I keeping warm, looking over Thunder and Lightening Lake towards the Palisades.
15. And last but not least…improvised glacier goggles. Don’t burn your eyes, its bad news.
I’m messing with themes…so things might look strange for a while. My old theme is bothering me in a few specific ways, and I’m searching for something new. Lemme know what you think.
Just a little preview from this weekends festivities. I’ll post up more in a bit. Full size photo is HERE.
