Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mithral Dihedral & Whitney Portal Stuff July 16-18

On Friday (7-16) Marty and I tried and failed to get a Saturday Whitney Zone day-permit at the 11am lotto, so after heading up to the Portal for lunch we returned and were successful a snagging a day-permit at the 2:00 no-show permit offering. After a shopping spree up in Bishop and waiting for the temps to cool down a bit, we got back to the Portal with dark skies overhead.

We hustled up to the Whitney Portal Buttress and I took a stab at the Tanager Crack (10b), but melted in the warm & muggy conditions about half up. Marty finished it off with the “aid” of some Sierra afternoon drizzle. After I finally got up it, we headed back to the Portal Store for some grub, brews and chat with the Portal Gang.

On Sat (7-17), we got started a little after 5am and headed up the North Fork trail. At Upper Boy Scout Lake (UBSL), we headed up the NW drainage to the L-col (aka, the Saike Col, sp?). We got to the base of Mt Russell’s SW corner and the start of the Mithral Dihedral around 9am.

We met Myles and Nate at the base (they were going to climb the “Bloody Corner” about 70’ to the left of Mithral). After a crummy first pitch, Marty got things started by getting almost to the start of the main dihedral. Marty led the very long 3rd pitch (the money pitch) in the main dihedral in fine style. After I struggled and cussed in the ~15’ off-width section, I finally got to the belay station exhausted (damn that was hard, great lead Marty!). The next pitch up the remaining dihedral still had some spicy jamming and stemming, but ended on a super comfy ledge. Some local thunder cut any napping short, as we had to get up to the summit and down off the ridge-line quickly. We chose to go down the SE chimney, so we could get off the ridge quickly.

Once down the gully, we headed back down via the L-col (aka, Saike Col, sp?). We got back to UBSL ~5pm, LBSL ~6, and finally down to the Portal just before 7pm. We noticed a helo hovering over the Girl-Scout lake area ~6pm. After a big chicken salad and a brew, I was knocked-out.

On Sunday (7/18), we got up around 7am and made an attempt on Mt Pancake with the aid of a few cups of coffee. After breakfast, Marty appealed to my exhausted state and lack of arm power to give the “cabin lieback” a try on toprope. Although I only managed to get up it about ½ way, Marty did 3 laps on it; Wohoo!

Totally tuckered out, we headed home around noon and got back to Claremont just before 4pm. Overall, a great weekend in the Sierra with great company!

http://grahamcracker.smugmug.com/2010/MithralDihedral/12985310_LY66H#939422973_qNkQv

Nice pictures Graham. Sorry I missed you at the VC at 2pm. I got there right at 2 and think I got the last available of the no-show permits left. We chatted with Nate and Myles at EF Lake for a bit while refueling before our groups headed out. I thought I had some pictures of both of your groups on route; but that must be some of the fuzzy ones I had to delete. We could make out both parties while we sat at the notch watching.

Outstanding, Graham! Great to hang with you and finally meet Marty this weekend. Looks like a phenomenal route.

And since Marty has now mastered Pancake Hill, it's time to put the full mountain in front of him!

-L

Brilliant work, Rick. Marty is one mean machine!
That rope looks familiar--I believe it may have contributed to my continued longevity on the EB last summer

Nice pics and climb, looks like quite a day!

Sorry, but I forgot to mention in the notes above that it was great to meet so many WPSMB folks this past weekend (too many to name, but you know who you are). It’s always a treat to share stories with the gang and as Bulldog said, “great to put a face to the name”

Tom, thanks and yeah we must of just missed you. I’m not really sure how we got our 2:00 permit, cuz it didn’t seem like there was much keyboard clicking…..he just seemed to fill out 2 day permit pack tags. But I wasn’t going to question the process. With permits in hand, we skedaddled before any additional checking occurred.

The conditions were so calm on Russell that we could easily hear folks talking over on Whitney. Also, I took a little mono-scope and could see folks all over Whitney – some climbers near the PeeWee on the EastButt, some crossing the “easy traverse”, lots at the notch, on the summit, etc. It looked very busy over there.

L, thanks and the M’hedral is a definitely 5-star route. But truth be known, it kicked my butt. The fact that Wes free-solo’d it is UNFreaking%^@&%($^$)&*@&*)*$&%*()**#**%)(&^#~#@...believable

Dave, thanks and yep that Petzl Fuse 9.4mm X 70m has done a few laps on the EastButt

He sure is. I recall some wise ol' dude said that everyone should have at least one lawyer, doctor, and a rope gun within the family

Congratulations Rick & Marty. Awesome job! Nice pics too. Thanks for the kind words. You guys rock. How did you like the wide section? What's next?

Wes

Thanks Wes!
I’m still blown away by your solo….you da’ man

Since I really really suck at the wide stuff, that ~15 foot off-width section was the crux for me. I somehow managed to face-climb the left side with hands and feet while pressing my right shoulder against the dihedral….like I said I really really really suck at off-width I just barely managed to get up the thing and get a good right-hand jam at the narrow part at the top of the off-width, but was so spent that I had to “take”….dang, my only mistake of the day.

So “what’s next”?
Getting and reading “Off-Widths for Dummies”
Seriously, I would like to lead all of Fishhook. I haven't done it yet and it looked so cool from the M'hedral.

Marty


Rick


Marty



I'd have called the Upside Down Lieback!


BTW, if you need someone to follow you up Fishhook let me know.