Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Lone Pine Peak via Grass Lake

Hi All,

Anyone been up LPP using the Meyson lake trail
from the portal? Especially curious about cond.
in the chute.

Thanks for your input.
Rick

Conditions in the chute: Loose!

Make sure you take the right chute down, I walked right by it and got cliffed out, spent some time and energy getting back.
Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the advise....Going to attempt
this again in a couple weeks. Tried it last
fall after the first snow and the chute was
a mix of knee deep snow and slushy crud. Was
short on time so bailed out a hundred yds. up.

Any thoughts on the path to take once
you get to grass lake... seems not
to be a easy way around/thru the blocky boulders.

Thanks,
Rick

As I recall, once you reach the Grass Lake sign you just generally work your way upstream and to the left till you're on the other side of the drainage, taking whatever path is easiest. The chute ought to be totally dry by now, in this very dry year. I found that it's best to stay to the left all the way up. On the descent, just remember that it's the last (southernmost) chute on the mountain. Last time I was there, a huge cairn marked it.

chute is very obvious from the lakes area...though it looks intimidatingly steep until your right up on it. i'm headed up the north ridge route last weekend of june - if its still light by the time i come down the chute i'll take some pictures.

john

It's not a bad idea to take a climbing helmet. As stated, it's very loose and it easy for a partner kick stuff down on you.

We have spent the night at Grass Lake a few times and you hear rock fall all night lone. We had a pretty significant cascade of rock go by us on the way up a few years ago.

We did the North Ridge a few weeks ago and came down the chute. It's completely bone dry and the usual slip-n-slide. The usual cairns mark the top.

Rick... went up yesterday. Will try to write up a report and post it. In the meantime:

http://ranboze.smugmug.com/Other/Lone-Pine-Peak-12944-June-9/23478446_kpX6Hg#!i=1897426486&k=MV3vRfq

Trail Trekker and I did Lone Pine Peak from Grass Lake 6/9/12. A few notable things I remembered:

The Meysan Lakes trail remains in pretty bad shape in some areas due to wash outs and flash floods. The route out of Grass Lake is as advertised... scree slog. Our ascent route is in red.


Our route was a mix of ball bearings on top of rainpacked dirt and loose boulders.


We took the first chute on the left from the scree slope and oh joy, more scree. Although I felt the chute was steeper than the slope I felt I had better purchase here. The top of this chute is currently marked with two large white rocks; if these are gone, I do recommend marking this chute, as Ridgeline recommended.


One on top of the ridge, you'll notice the obvious "bump", which is NOT the summit, nor does it lead to a nice summit plateau. What it does lead to is a lot of large boulders and ups/downs to get to the summit at least a quarter mile away from the top of the "bump". Alternatively, one can walk the base of this summit mound and diagonally and gradually work one's way up to the summit. However, I can't blame anyone for choosing the large boulders over more scree at this point.


The views from the peak are absolutely incredible, and as Doug said, these are the BEST views of the area peaks.


I was thrilled to make it back in time for the best burger and fries on earth!

Robin, cool pics, when I did this peak I went up the first obvious hump and wandered beyond all the way to the north ridge which looks like a cool climb. I never found what looked like the summit or a register of any kind. Going to do this again here real soon and sit on the official summit!

Nice pics Robin!

Thanx Dave and Tracie. Register is intact

Robin,
We signed the register right after you, Saturday. I did LP Peak via the North Ridge. No scree on the ascent, but a whole lotta of challenging climbing. We did get to enjoy the scree on the descent. Wheeee! What a beautiful day.

Awesome pix Robin! Love the pano shot!!!
Looks like you and Sooz had a great day

Stacy

Norma, would love to see your North Ridge pictures if you have any - headed up there last week of June, will be my first time on the route. Thanks in advance!

John

Norma... congrats on the North Ridge. The peak is great, but the only way I'll do it again is via one of the climbing routes. I wish I were skilled enough to give on of those a go... perhaps one day.

Norma, did you need a rope? are there ways to work around the first two towers? did you rap off the south sides of the towers? thinking about doing this solo.
Thanks
Dave

Dave,
Yes, we used a 70m rope with a decent rack of cams & nuts. Our second pitch was a 5.7 variation and it was too vertical to have been done free, for me at least. I am no Alex Honnold. In fact we ran into two guys, one i knew from the SGMDF and they brought a minimal rack and one twin rope. They led the first pitch but on the second pitch realized they didn't have enough pro to continue safely, so the lead came back down and my partner Ron lead, i followed and left in the gear so they could climb and belay from what we placed. We finished the remaining Class 4 and low Class 5, free. A bit spooky for me and slowed down our pace.

As with most alpine climbs route-finding is the challenge and LP Peak is famous for keeping you guessing, where you go over from east to west, where you traverse, etc. We found the route-finding after the second tower the most challenging. We scrambled around both the first two towers and if we had our gear would have roped up at least once near the third tower. We didn't do any raps but came down the hiking trail and enjoyed the scree descent. The other two guys said they got off route a couple times as they tried to follow us and after summiting descended too soon and had two raps down which they didn't enjoy much.

Ron had done LPP 5 years prior but he referred to the TR's he printed out from Summitpost a number of times, one writted by Joe LeMay: http://www.summitpost.org/lone-pine-peak/climbers-log/150606/p6 The guys found us back at camp so we exchanged gear and experiences of the day. We definitely had more fun and a shorter day since we had more beta, Ron's memory and enough pro to feel confident.

If you go, Good Luck!, it's a great route with awesome views from the moment you start scrambling. Here's the link to my pix: https://picasaweb.google.com/115294945060799740619/LonePinePeakNorthRidgeJune2012#

Norma

Thanks Norma, guess I wont be doing this alone anytime soon.
Dave