Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Ice Climb VNotch --- Traverse to Tbolt--thoughts

We have this wild idea to ice climb the VNotch and traverse to tag Tbolt and back down--car to car.

Welcome anyone's input who has traveled any of the section and has some beta. Appreciate info specific to time, conditions and gear.

Lori, that's a wild idea. I love it!

I imagine myself doing that and it would probably take over 24 hours. I assume that you are already acclimatized as you will go from 8k' to 14k' in a short time and stay at 14k' for a long time. I'm assuming you are going to rope up for portions of the ice and rock climb? If that's the case your daypack is going to be heavier. You probably have a light ice/rock rack/mountaineering boots/rock climbing shoes, ice tools, crampons in your pack. Probably at least 2 liters of water as there's no water up high. I assume that you are not going to hike 8 miles in your mountaineering boots.

As far as logistics, you are looking at an ~8 miles approach with the last 2 on one nasty boulder field through the glacial moraine followed by the Palisade glacier to reach the bergshrund. The bergshrund will probably be big by now. I'm assuming this will take you 6.5 hours. V-notch will take you ~3 hours.

Getting down to the U-Notch from Polemonium is class 4/low 5th. From the U-Notch it is two pitches of 5.4 to the base of North Palisades. From North Palisades to Starlight then Polemonium is exposed class 4 in some sections and some 5th. If you solo the whole thing it'll probably take you 6 hours. If you rope maybe 8. Route finding can be tricky. I've gone from Thunderbolt to Mt. Sill in 8 hours and that without roping up for any of it and with two guys that have done it before and without a big daypack full of sharp stuff. Coming down from Thunderbolt you use the Underhill Couloir which is low 5th at the top and 4th the whole way down.

Thunderbolt looks very close standing from Polemonium but looks can be deceiving. All estimates are wildly inaccurate so carry bivy gear.

Awesome idea!

Good luck!

Kevin

THANK YOU--YOU ARE JUST AWESOME!!

Seriously your beta is great--and everyone of your assumptions are absolutely in line with what I was thinking. (Especially hiking in the mountaineer boots--did that too many times. Have been actually thinking about getting five fingers for the approach since it wouldn't add weight but that is another story.)

Anyway after reading your timing you confirmed some of my concerns about feasibility--I may end up sleeping on the traverse somewhere along the way

Do you know of any bail out options or good bivy options along the traverse?

There are lots of bail options but the quickest ones exit towards the west. After reaching the summit of Polemonium you can descend down to the U Notch and bail. Bailing west is 2nd - 3rd class. If you bail east you'll need to rappel the U Notch.

From the top of North Palisade you can descend the LeConte route down the west. You can also bail from Starlight down the west side. After Starlight you can bail down the Underhill Couloir.

There are lots of bivy sites but most won't offer access to water. The U Notch has access to the U Notch Couloir which is made of mostly ice. You can melt it for water otherwise there aren't any more places for water on the route.

Thank you Kurt--excellent information which gives me more insight into options.

Okay I now have an outrageous plan with a potential exist strategy---I do believe I might have to give it a try.

Thank you again guys!

Carrying heavy boots, crampons, two axes, and (I assume) a bunch of screws would take a lot of the fun out of the rest of the traverse. I would go lighter and save the V-Notch for another day.

I've done a similar traverse. I started from NF Big Pine Creek, went up Gayley, soloed the Swiss Arete on Sill, and then traversed Polemonium, North Palisade, and Starlight to get to Thunderbolt. Some friends met me on Thunderbolt with a rope for the summit block. We hiked out to South Lake.

I carried a filter and no more than 2 quarts of water at a time. I had light boots, rock shoes, no crampons or axe, and no rope. I had done every inch of the route before (but not all at once), so I knew exactly where I was going. 18 hours, car to car. Way more fun than carrying a bunch of gear.

If you aren't up for the whole thing in a day, camp at the glacier on day 1, do the traverse on day 2, and hike out on day 3. You can save time by doing the easier route on Sill. If you're running short on time at the end, you can skip Thunderbolt and just head down the Underhill couloir. Ordinary mortals who move efficiently can do this without a bivy.

You can bail/rap the Clyde Couloir between North Pal & Starlight. Bail/rap the U-Notch/Clyde Couloir might require you leaving webbing/gear. Bailing on the West side would probably require you to set up car shuttle at South Lake as I assume you going back to Bishop Pass.

IMHO this is especially good advice. Its a tough area to do all the route-finding correctly on-sight in a hurry. I just tried to day hike Thunderbolt from South Lake on Sunday. My partner and I spent an hour near the summit trying to find the easiest way to the base of the summit block... then we couldn't even agree on whether we were poking at the correct summit and we then spent another hour inspecting what I understood to be 'the lightning rod'. We ended up without a summit but I felt happy to have explored the area for my first time. It took us 13+ hours car to car with 2 30-minute cat naps and what I thought was an easy pace the whole way. I wasn't acclimated and the altitude jumped on my back pretty good after several hours above 13k. Getting back under 11k north of bishop pass was just lovely.

(Edit..oops I just re-read Lori's post again and realize she plans to do the route in a very long car to car day. I originally saw some discussions of bivying in the thread so assumed this was a multi-day traverse...either way still impressive).

Interesting thread and this sounds like a very neat trip. Sorry for a bit of a thread hijack, but you really have my curiosity up as to how you guys & girls can go light enough to make these multi-day traverses work on 5th class terrain like the route Lori is describing. All of my multi-pitch experience has been either on day multi-pitch routes like Cathedral Ledges or a place where you hoof year gear to the bottom of the route and then go up and back down to your camp on the same day, (Tetons, etc). I am trying to wrap my brain around carrying everything you need for a multi-day point to point traverse over 5th class rock. Obviously the pitch leader is carrying his/her share of the load too.

I can imagine your rack is pretty small, (9.2-ish 60m rope, light harness, 6-8 nuts, maybe 3 cams (.5, .75, and #1), 2-cordelletes, belay device, 4-6 slings, and a few biners). If you have to add screws, crampons, ax/tools, now you are into some weight.

Obviously you have to go super light with the rest of your stuff. Are you leaving out "normal items" like rain shells and just going with your action clothes and a 4oz windshirt with a puffy? Are going sans sleeping bags and just using an ultra light bivy sack and toughing it out in your jacket? Food must be kept to the minimum........GU's, GU's, and more GU's?

No matter how you do it, it is very impressive to climb light enough to do a multi-day traverse over technical ground. Good job.

Thanks,
Kent

Kent W.

Basically the ability to go light is agreeing to have only minor comforts.

I have been in the area before and was contemplating the option as stated. I am always looking for the next big adventure and this one sounded interesting. It all started because I wanted to ice climb the Vnotch, get up Tbolt after weather prevented the final summit black several months ago and do some of the traverse--hence big idea and question for beta.

As expressed, I am not sure if we can even come close to pulling this off but we do have a couple of bail options if needed.

(My ideal situation is that some how my ice gear would mysteriously make it back to my car after the Vnotch--highly unlikely.)

To answer your question this is some of what we will be packing.

My climbing partners proposed gear list:

Clothes: t-shirt, capilene long sleeve, nano-puff, hardshell, light hiking pants, super-light shell overpants, 2 pair light gloves, 1 pair extra liner socks, baclava. Most of this is worn at all times.

Gear: 1 8.2 60m half rope (doubled for simul-climbing), 6 screws, 3 cams, 6 alpine draws, 2 doubles, 1 cord, 1 belay device w/ locker, helmet, harness, 2 tools, mountain boots, climbing shoes, headlamp, first aid, spot

Food: 15 goo, 4 bars, small bag of cashews, 2L water (fill 0.75 for approach, rest for climb).

I can deal with most on the list but would like to add a few more interesting morsels.

Anyway--Kent hopefully this answers your question---I don't want to get anyone on a should-shouldn't discussion-- just wanted beta--which I appreciate everyone for helping out as I will be using all the advice given.

Will report on the big "if"--tentatively, we plan to head out next Saturday (9th)around 1am.

Thanks Lori..that is interesting. I think it is pretty cool that some of you have it dialed so that you can go light enough to pull off a such a big day(s)over technical terrain. One of the things that I don't like about cragging is that you don't really get to see all that much. A big traverse like you are planning is pretty neat. I know guys like Colin Haley, Steve House, Josh Wharton, etc can go super light and do amazing multi-day trips that involve really hard climbing over a lot of miles/vertical. It is good to see that some "mortals" can get to the point where they can do big day's or even multi-day technical outings without having to haul 50 lbs of stuff to a base camp and then be handcuffed to your camp.

I hope you don't have to bivy. It would be a long and memorable night if you have to curl up on your rope with just a Nano puff, (however those kind of adventures are always fun too after the fact and provided you survive). I am also impressed that you guys can lead and simul climb on a skinny cord like that.

Have a great trip and let me know how it goes.

Kent

And now its going to snow!

Good luck

Stay warm

Wes