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Mt. Moriah 12,067'
Point 10,018'
Point 10,006'
August 10, 2017
~4.6 Miles, ~2,500 Gain
TH: Some 4x4 road off FS 469 (4X4 mandatory)
Max difficulty: Class 2
Mt. Moriah
To break up the long Sierra drive, this high prominence ranked 12er in Nevada fit the bill. It took ~11.5 hours to reach the trailhead from my house. The last hour was a bit painful up the 4X4 road and I ended up sleeping near the end of FS 469 which could also work for a starting point. From previous reports, I knew another 4X4 to the west could get me a bit closer (signed as 368?); I found the road, a bit steep, and was able to start on Moriah's NW ridge.
I started hiking at 7:00 AM where pleasant hiking lead to the ridge proper. I took it slow up the talus ridge (class 2) to the summit where I arrived at 8:10 AM. With over 4,000 feet of prominence, the views in all directions were excellent. Since I had a bit of time to kill before needing to be in Bishop, I added two nearby ranked 10ers. Both were nice class 2 hikes with good views of Moriah. An excellent leg stretcher, acclimation hike, and break-up-the-drive hike.
Mt. Emerson 13,204'
âCheckered Demonâ 13,121'
August 11, 2017
~14.1 Miles, ~5,400 Gain
TH: Piute Pass TH (2WD)
~30 minute drive from Bishop
Max difficulty: Class 5.4 (Southeast Face/Gully Emerson)
The drive to Bishop from Mt. Moriah wasn't too painful where I met one of my co-workers from almost 10 years ago. Michelle is starting to get into harder Sierra technical climbs and scrambles so we had a slate of harder peaks on tap.
As usual, non-established camping in the Sierra is challenging. We woke up early and made the short drive to the Piute Pass Trailhead. Unfortunately, the day use parking is an additional 0.6 mile from the start of the actual trailhead. I dropped Michelle and our packs off, and after a quick road run, we started up the well-maintained trail that meanders through a few campsites at the North Lake Campground. After about ~1.9 of hiking from the trailhead (campground), we departed the trail at ~10,500 and headed directly north to the start of the climb. There seems to be some challenge in locating the start of this climb but we found the route to be fairly obvious as it's the only real black-streak chimney on the southeast side of Emerson. It's not the obvious wide gully between Emerson and Piute Crags.
Since Michelle is a newer scrambler, we decided to rope up for the first pitch which is also the crux (5.4). I was glad to lead the pitch along and have a very limited rack. After the first pitch, the climbing up the gully eases to 4th class along with a move or two of low 5th. Two long simul pitches led us to easier class 3 terrain.
Morning light en-route to Emerson.
Looking down the first, crux pitch on Emerson.
Simul climbing the lower portion on Emerson.
I failed to read the route descriptions and didn't veer left into a separate gully about ¾ of the way up the face. Instead we ended up heading right, following the main gully, to a roof at a headwall. It appeared a few parties had bailed at this roof. Instead of rappelling back down, I traversed left on some slab (belayed) and bypassed the roof to the left up a dihedral (5.2-4?). Once out of the dihedral, we had climbed through the headwall and were back on easier terrain. More class 3 scrambling led us to a notch in the ridge along with the first prominent gendarme.
The dihedral. Good climbing but off route.
We decided to rope back up and simul the remaining route since I didn't know what exactly the route did. The first gendarme was bypassed via a narrow class 3 ledge on the right side of the ridge. Once past the first gendarme, we climbed on the ridge proper up and over a few towers along with some excellent knife-edge ridge features. The climbing was 3-4th class, exposed, in an excellent position with good rock to boot. We arrived on the summit at 12:20 PM.
Bypassing the first Gendarme once on the ridge.
Fun ridge climbing on Emerson.
Fun ridge climbing on Emerson.
Fun ridge climbing on Emerson.
Fun ridge climbing on Emerson.
Clearly, I itch for Cali 13ers and instead of heading down the south gully of Emerson, we decided to descend the west face of Emerson and traverse north towards âCheckered Demon.â This was the most time consuming part of our day.
We stayed on the ridge crest until the scrambling became too unreasonable for quick travel. We dropped about ~200 feet below the ridge and traversed towards Mt. Emerson's west summit. Along the way, we encountered a short nuisance rappel. I'm sure we could have found a bypass if we spent more time looking for the easiest path. Due to cliffs, we climbed back to the west summit of Emerson and started down Emerson's obnoxious talus west slopes. A large cliff near ~12,000, blocked easy access to the high alpine meadow west of Emerson and âCheckered Demon.â
Nuisance rappel.
Looking back at the summit on Emerson.
On the west summit of Emerson.
Awful talus descent on Emerson's west slopes.
In order to bypass the cliff, we veered down Emerson's southwest ridge until we could descend a chimney (very loose class 3) and traverse back north along the top of a slab until it was reasonable to descend into the alpine meadow. Once in the meadow, time consuming talus hopping led us northward towards âCheckered Demon.â A ridge proper traverse between the two peaks would certainly be sporty and well within the realm of mid to high 5th class.
Mt. Humphreys
Once again, my lack of research provided us with route finding problems. The beta sources I used mentioned that âCheckered Demonâ shouldn't have been difficult from the west. Michelle, a little tired from talus hoping along with no obvious easy path to the summit, decided to wait at a lake below âCheckered Demon'sâ west face. Bob Burd's report, researched after I returned back to the car, indicated a class 2 path to âCheckered Demon'sâ southwest ridge. From the alpine meadow at ~12,200, this path isn't obvious. Instead, I ended up climbing âCheckered Demon'sâ west face directly to the summit following the path of least resistance. Secor mentions this face as class 2-3 (thus the lack of research). That certainly wasn't the case as I found the climbing more like class 3-4. Ahh, these California sandbags. At least the rock was stable.
Problematic, not so obvious west side of âCheckered Demonâ
I arrived on the summit of âCheckered Demonâ at 4:10 PM, took a few photos and returned back down to the lake where Michelle was waiting for me. Luckily, we could stay on snow for most of our hike back to Piute Pass. Our easy half day turned into a full value mileage and elevation gain day as we returned back to the car at 8:10 PM.
Emerson from âCheckered Demonâ
I see why it gets the name.
Humphreys from âCheckered Demonâ
Better shot of the ridge on âCheckered Demon.â A good alternative if you can get on the ridge.
âClass 2-3â huh Secor? More like 3-4
Looking down my ascent route â‘ the easiest looking line.
Direct route on west face of âCheckered Demon.â California âClass 2-3â
The rock is taking a piss!
Mt. Emerson start/topo.
Cloudripper 13,525'
âVagabondâ Peak 13,374
Point 12,362
Coyote Ridge 12,311'
August 12, 2017
~13.9 Miles, ~5,600 Gain
TH: South Lake/Green Lake TH (2WD)
~30 minute drive from Bishop
Max difficulty: Easy Class 3
Michelle needed a rest day, and I was too stubborn to follow suite. Camping and the drive between North Lake Campground and the South Lake Trailhead is pleasantly short. From the South Lake overnight parking area, I started hiking north on a trail that is not signed. ~100 yards beyond the start of the trail, I departed the trail at a pond and followed an old buried water line (local shortcut) to regain the Green Lake Trail near ~10,200. Instead of subjecting myself to a horrible talus climb to gain âVagabond'sâ north slopes, I stayed on the Green Lake trail as it climbs well above the lake northeast of âVagabond.â
The water pipe trail shortcut. Highly recommended.
Green Lake
At the last minute, I decided to climb Coyote Ridge as the summit of this ranked 12er was tauntingly close. The west and south slopes of Coyote Ridge provided enjoyable class 2 alpine hiking where I arrived on the summit at 10:00 AM. For another warm-up, I headed down Coyote Ridge's southeast slopes and up Point 12,362's talus west slopes (all easy class 2) where I arrived on the summit at 10:35 AM. The views of Cloudripper and âVagabondâ were quite good. A true, well disciplined peak bagger would have also added the ranked 12er, Sky Haven, but I needed to save energy for the rest of the week.
âVagabondâ from the upper portion of the Green Lake trail.
Point 12,362 from Coyote Ridge.
Easy travel was welcomed to 12,362-Vagabond saddle. From the saddle, a stable talus grind ensued to âVagabond.â Near the summit, large blocks had to be negotiated to find the highest point. Easy talus guided me to the Vagabond-Cloudripper saddle. Once I ascended the north slopes of Cloudripper (class 2 talus), I was confronted with a short section of easy class 3 scrambling on the left (east) side of the ridge where I arrived on the summit at 12:40 PM where the views of the Palisades were excellent.
âVagabondâ and Cloudripper from 12,362
Approaching âVagabondâ
Cloudripper from âVagabondâ
Final class 3 section on Cloudripper.
Palisades from Cloudripper
I returned to the Vagabond-Cloudripper saddle and back up and over Vagabond. Again, I wanted to avoid the talus and ended up hiking back to the trail. To my surprise, I encountered 4 other people climbing Vagabond. I could feel my legs were starting to get a bit fatigued but made decent time back down the trail where I arrived back at the car at 3:00 PM. I couldn't wait to return to the Palisades which was on tap for the next 3 days.
Second part of the week.....
Moriah topo.
Emerson, âCheckered Demonâ topo.
Cloudripper group topo.
My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):
All routes on Emerson and Checkered Demon updated in Beta Book.
https://goo.gl/66fXFu
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