For years I've driven up the Owens Valley and looked up at 14,375' Mt
Williamson, and wondered about climbing it - the 2nd highest peak in the Sierras. After Inyo NF changed the rules this year to permit climbers access to the area in late summer, we discussed it and got a permit for Labor Day Weekend this year.
It's a far tougher climb than Mt Whitney, owing to:
1. Mt Whitney has a maintained trail constructed to its summit, while Williamson has a CL2-3 route;
2. Mt Whitney's trailhead is at elev 8000', while access to Mt Williamson is by the Shepherd Pass trailhead at 6300'; and so
3. Williamson's distance, terrain, and elevation gain are all much more demanding.
Our permit was for 5 days. While some experienced climbers can cover the 29 miles / 8000' of gain in a single day, we're not them. So this trip's schedule was two days each way, with a long summit day in the middle. Our foursome camped at 12000', as close as practical to the mountain, and we STILL spent 13 hrs to summit and return to camp.
Photo above shows the Williamson bowl and the mountain's spectacularly irregular and intimidating west face. Photos below: opposing Mt Tyndall, with its much more organized geometry (and ominous Batman shadow), the view down the west side chute; and Mark, Nina, Michelle and me on the summit.
You can view the video
here.
This weekend was accompanying Mike The Desert Rat to our stomping grounds in the south Sierras in the shadow of Lamont Peak. Today Mike was touring a small archaeology group to our previous finds. The archaeologists pointed out to us many things we'd previously missed, such as bedrock mortars, grinding slicks, and more paintings (like the one pictured above, which was under an overhang). Amongst all the lithic scatter, I even picked up an artifact that turned out to be a broken obsidian spear point. One archaeologist explained how we could know that and why. I don't collect artifacts, I consider it unsavory, so after photographing this point it was left where I found it.
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