My friend Dave and I set out early Saturday morning with hopes of reaching the top of Mt. Russel via the east ridge, followed by a brief trip to Russel's neighbor, Mt. Carillon. Thunderstorms were in the forecast, so we decided to wake up at 2am for an early start. We hit the trail at 2:45am. We were surprised to see only 2 other parties of two departing at this time on a Saturday morning. We passed one party that headed up before us that was heading for the Fishook Arete on Russel. They knew about the weather, and were carrying an extra rope incase they had to rappel the route. We didn't see them on the summit.
Despite a lack of sleep, we were making good time. NF turn-off by 3:00, Lower Boyscout around 3:45, and just below Upper Boyscout by 4:45am. We knew we had to head up the slopes just before Upper Boyscout, so after heading up the slabs for a ways, we made our way over and started heading up. Luckily, although the sun wasn't quite up, it quickly became light enough for us to stop using our headlamps.
For me, this was where my pace really slowed down. Much of the slope is really sandy/loose, so it's kind of like kicking steps in sand for much of the way up. We didn't realize it at the time, but there's actually 2 slopes you can ascend. We ascended the first one you come to, went up to a notch, then traversed over (left/west) into the main chute. There are numerous possibilities here, and basically you just keep going up and up. Close to the top we ascended a chute on the left, had some brief 3rd class, then came out on top of the plateau with our first view of the east ridge.
We crested the plateau around 6:30 a.m. From there, it's about a 20-30min. walk over to the base of the ridge. We started heading up the ridge around 7:00am after a brief break.
The first part of the ridge is pretty straightforward, and for the most part you stay directly on the ridge. Then, for the rest of the route, you basically stay on the north side of Russel's Ridge. Cairns are, for the most part, helpful, but sometimes there are varying ways. We found it best to stick with what you're comfortable with.
It seemed like forever when finally we had reached the East Summit. At this time is was around 8:25 and with weather approaching, we were having our doubts about reaching the west summit. Dave went up to take a look and scope the route and ended up sticking on the ridge all the way over to the West Summit. I found a "path" that made getting over to the west summit incredibly easy, and in probably 20 minutes we were there. 1 hour and 25 minutes to reach the east summit, and 20 minutes to reach the west summit... 6 hours from the trailhead.
AFter a brief break on the summit, we decided to head back on the "path" I found that skirted underneath the ridge. We quickly got back to the east summit and bypassed the only snow we found on the entire route. We ended up getting slightly off-route and too far below the ridge. We scrambled up some slabby 3rd/4th class until we reached the ridge proper again, then followed it for the rest of the way off. Time to go from the west summit back to the base of the ridge was about 1 hour.
Dave was feeling a boost of energy and convinced me to head for Mt. Carillon. It took a total of 40 minutes to get to the top and then return to drop-in point of the sandy slopes back to Upper Boyscout Lake.
Heading down the slopes was much like heel plunging in snow. It seemed like it took forever, but we eventually got back to the slabs below UBL. It was time to fill up with water, as I had run out at the top of the sandy slopes. It was now around noon.
After a great lunch and lounging, we really saw the clouds start to build up. We had only seen one other hiker heading up the east ridge right when we were getting off. Up until that point we had the entire climb to ourselves!
We eventually started heading down and only passed 1 person on the way up. We asked him how far he was headed, and he said, "To the top of Whitney, then down the main trail." We were in shock, because it was already past 12 and thunderclouds were forming. We were awestruck, told him to watch the weather, and made the mad dash down to the portal.
We passed about 3 parties on the way down. One party had gotten to the notch of Whitney the day before, then turned around because of weather. After passing a ranger fixing the cairns on the ledges, we started a brief trail run down to the portal and were back by 2:00.
I opened the car door and it started raining... talk about perfect timing! AFter jumping in the creek, we stopped by the store to see if Doug was in, but he had stepped out. Not seeing too many people around, we headed out to Bishop for dinner, then over to the White Mountain trailhead for the next day.
When we got there, noone was around. The next day we woke up to storm clouds and figured we'd head up the trail as far as we could go, with hope that it would clear up. It didn't. We arrived at the base of the ridge up to White and storm clouds hovered around the summit. We decided to call it a day and head back for breakfast in Big Pine.
IN all, a fantastic weekend. Russel's east ridge is truly amazing, as is the entire Whitney Region. Whoever said Russel's East Ridge was one of the best 3rd class routes ever was right on.
Gusto
<a href=http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jgre1955/album?.dir=7981re2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jgre1955/my_photos]http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jgre1955/album?.dir=7981re2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jgre1955/my_photos>Pictures here.</a>
