Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board University Peak

Has anyone been up University Peak yet this season? How are the north slopes?
Thanks

I climbed the North Face of University Peak on Friday 8/16. Route to the summit was clear. Given that I hadn't heard any reports about the conditions about University Pass I decided to take a peek from the summit and couldn't conclude if it was worth it so decided to descend the way I came up. Here are some pics:

Looking up the North Face


Looking down toward the tarn


Class 3 slabs


University Pass from University Peak summit (with Mt Bradley in the background)

BFR,

Thanks for sharing!

Another great day in the Eastern Sierras. Looks like the fine weather is going to continue. What are you thinking of climbing next?

Jim

Not sure. Maybe Middle Palisade.

I will be interested to hear what you find at Middle Palisade. I went up last year and could not get onto the rock by the "normal" route to the left of the moraine. Did not try the red rock route, which I did years ago and is kind of sketchy. I thought that the glacier/snow field had receded to the point that one could not get to the "walk way" to the main chute. But when I spoke with Kurt Wedberg, he believed that some of the rock had caved off.
Wondering what it looks like after a high snow year. Pictures would be great.

If I recall correctly, the winter of 2004-2005 had heavy snowfall. I went up Middle Palisades on the Northeast Face on August 3, 2005. For the first half of the ascent I was far south of what Secor recommends and had no particular problems. This brief TR (late by 14 years) might be of some use:

(1) Left the ridge that divides the Middle Palisades glacier and headed to the highest snow on the southern half of the glacier. This is generally where the "ramp" up the headwall had lived for many seasons. (But, perhaps it is now gone, per Kurt W update.)

(2) Identified ramp and approached headwall. Left ice axe and hiking stick in snow to mark location for descent. Climbed down into trench (a few feet wide and maybe 10 feet deep with solid bedrock floor) separating headwall and glacier. Used counterforce/stemming between rock headwall and snow to ascend onto start of ramp.

(3) From top of ramp, headed straight up, rather than north around a bend to enter the big bowling alley that starts above the red rock stain (the route depicted in Secor).

(4) Took the path of least resistance to obtain the summit ridge trying to stay left when practical. Still managed to top out on the ridge a bit to the right of the summit.

(5) Once on the ridge traversed to very recognizable (finally!) summit rocks.

Yes, I too am curious how things are playing out currently up there. Will take some binoculars on next pass through Big Pine on the 395.

Jim

PS Before the ascent, I kept in mind where the summit should be and constantly updated. Also careful attention was devoted to useful landmarks for assisting in descent. It would not be fun to be up on the face trying to figure out one's location/escape route if the weather suddenly deteriorates!

Thanks Jim,
Yes indeed, it is the "Ramp" leading off the snow that we could not find. Even though I have found and used it previously. It has either caved off (as Kurt suggests) or the snow/ice/glacier has receded far below the ramp entry. On his Mid Pal climb last year, Kurt climbed from the glacier using protection and his ample rock climbing skills.
Gary

I climbed Middle Palisade for the 7th time yesterday. I don’t remember exactly how I got onto the route the first six times, but it was certainly different yesterday. I agree that a bunch of rock must have come crashing down. I spent what felt like a half hour searching where the route used to be. I finally found a way to traverse up and left on decent class 4 rock to an easy, low-angle, rotten chimney. The chimney went up and right. I continued up and right until I was on the regular route, roughly where the old route went.

I came down through the red rocks. It was really rotten and unpleasant, but it wasn’t very difficult or dangerous.