Just got back from a three-day hike to Williamson via Shepard’s Pass. I cannot believe it took me so long to get into this area of the Sierras. Some have reported the toughness of this hike. It’s worth the effort. I am posting this trip report and will follow up with a link to pictures as soon as my Club Photo gets back on line.
We had a group of seven on this outing. My hiking partner and myself took off on Thursday evening at about 6:30 PM with the intent of gaining the saddle south of the Symmes Creek drainage by dark. We both took skis in with the intent skiing in the Williamson bowl and some time saved coming out. My pack plus AT skis and boots weighed in at 54 pound. For those that do not know, there was a huge avalanche in that drainage some time this winter. I would guess it is probably the larges ever. The avalanche debris covers the drainage from about 100 yards east of the crossing to the south side of the canyon and up the drainage about two miles. It includes trees over two feet in diameter splintered apart and quite a lot of rock debris as well. We were lucky to meet one of the other hikers in our group coming back down the drainage having missed the trail crossing as we did. We only wasted about 30 minutes. He had been looking for the trail crossing for about 3 hours. Once found we of course could not believe we missed it in the first place. Stream crossings going in on Thursday evening were not a problem at all. Totally different story coming out Sunday afternoon.
Due to our late start time, the hour wasted in the drainage, and pretty heavy packs we did not quite make it to the saddle. By 9:00 we ran across a nice level spot on the trail a patch of snow to melt for water and decided to bivy there.
Friday morning we took off at 7:00 with the intent of making camp at the top of Shepard’s Pass. Trail is essentially free of snow to Mahogany Meadows, patchy to Anvil Camp and consistent after that. Post holing common after 9:00 each day. Moderate to severe thunderstorms started to develop around 2:00 and when the thunder started at 3:00 we found some boulders to hunker down in just above Anvil Camp. The storm finally let up by about 6:00 and we hiked into _____ Pit where we camped. Friday evening was very nice. No wind and temps never got below freezing.
Saturday morning left camp at 7:30 for Williamson. Snow was perfect for booting up to Shepard’s pass and then we skinned and skied to the start of our climb on the west side of Williamson. We both decided not to haul our skis up the chute. If temps stay as high, small snowshoes would be good for those walking in. In several locations we were “post holing” 6-12 inches with our skis on. The west chutes are all completely packed in with snow. There was significant post holing up the chute as well but probably not enough to warrant the extra weight of snowshoes. My back was bothering me before we left and the affects of post holing several time going up the chute forced me to turn around just before the chimney at 1:30. The rest of the group (five) summated at about 2:30. As reported earlier, they could not find the register. Still buried in snow somewhere.
My trip out was uneventful. Got back to camp at around 5:30. The rest of our group learned a good lesson regarding turn around time. Three had to descend from Shepard’s Pass with headlamps. Temps dropped to just about freezing and the wind was blowing 40-60 mph. It took them almost two hours to descend. One of our group got lost on top and had to bivy in his clothes overnight.
Our “lost” hiker showed up at 11:30 and my ski/hike out was fun while I was on skis and grueling the rest of the way out. That trail down to Symmes Creek just never seems to end. The creek was running about twice as high as when we went in. I decided to bypass the fist crossing by hiking along the north side of the drainage until the trail came back across and the last crossing there was a large log running across most of the creek that I balanced against and just walked through the creek. If I had a smaller pack, I would have probably not taken the extra time to bypass the first crossing.
All in all a great trip. Beautiful scenery and great company.
