Tom Grundy's 2018 Sierra Challenge Day 1 Suicide Ridge Page

8-03-2018 I shoveled some food into my mouth and drove to the Twin Lakes trailhead with Kim. Sadly the clear skies of the night before had given way to a bit of smoky haze - but nowhere near the smoke level near Mammoth on the drive up. We parked and I finished assembling my pack, drinking coffee, eating some more, and saying hello to everyone. Soon Bob issued his usual "5 minutes" and I scrambled to find whatever I couldn't and get ready. Then we somewhat quietly walked through the sleeping campground and up the trail a little to the sign. There we took the start photo and headed on up the trail. I stopped to get a few sunrise photos but mostly kept up with the group until Zach and Kim took off running. This resulted in the field spreading out quite a bit. I looked longingly at the Hulk as we hiked by - and then things started to get more uphill.

Upper Twin Lake before sunrise

participants start to gather

morning light on Mt Walt (I think)

We were still mostly fresh and made pretty decent time heading up and up past some inviting lakes we planned to jump in on the descent and on up to Rock Lake Pass. There we left the trail and headed towards a low spot in the ridge. I ended up a bit higher than some others and along with Mason cut over a bit earlier and then headed across a pleasant valley towards the north side of Suicide Ridge where we headed up talus to the ridge. Sadly it wasn't a casual stroll from there to the summit but it wasn't too bad and soon we joined a bunch of people up there. The smoke was definitely thicker to the south and in the valleys and it seemed to be heading our way.

smoke wafting over the ridge above Barney Lake

Crown Lake and the Juggernaut - it looks quite impressive from this side

Michael and Iris enter Yosemite at Rock Island Lake Pass

flowers in the valley west of Suicide Ridge

Mason on the last bit to the summit of Suicide Ridge - you can see others already there

I stayed up on top long enough for the second wave of people and then we all sort of headed towards Slide Mtn to get in a bonus peak. This involved more descending than I really wanted, but wasn't too bad. The summit wasn't where it was marked on the map, but we headed across a small valley to the true summit which I vaguely remembered from a few years ago. By now the visibility was a little lower and I could smell smoke. From the summit we saw some footprints heading towards the Juggernaut which was a lower sub peak that probably didn't qualify as a bonus peak. Bob was a little coy when asked about it though, and when we saw his fresh new register on the summit we wondered if maybe it did qualify after all. From there we descended back to the south a bit and down some loose scree, snow, and zig-zagged through some cliff bands. At the bottom of that our little group re-assembled for some easier descending back to the trail.

panorama from the summit of Suicide Ridge - you can see some smoke creeping in, north is on the right

summit cookie on Suicide Ridge

Michael and Iris pose on the summit

second round of near summit pics on Suicide Ridge

another summit cookie - on the Juggernaut

We cruised down the trail to the first swimming lake (Crown Lake). It had a nice jumping off rock but was a little brisk for my taste - actually pretty much all alpine lakes are a little brisk for my taste - or way too cold. A few minutes later I was feeling refreshed. We got dressed and headed on down the trail to pick up a "twofer" where the trail went in between the two Robinson Lakes. Sadly we did them in the wrong order as the second lake was a little mucky near the shore. oops. Then it was on down the trail trying to keep up with Michael who just cruises along and Iris and Mason who were also trying to keep up. At Barney lake I peeled off and went for my final swim with Chris. This would have counted for the aqua jersey had the Juggernaut counted as a bonus peak, but despite much discussion this was not to be.

Chris diving in Crown Lake - Iris and Tom on shore

view of The Hulk

From there it was just a bunch of fast walking down the seemingly much longer trail back to the trailhead and the end of day 1. I stopped off at the Mobil where a bunch of people were eating and was convinced to park my car at a lower trailhead and make a one-way hike instead of an out and back hike. It was dark and I was pretty tired by the time I was heading up the dirt road to where we were going to park. The road seemed a lot longer than I thought it would be but it was mostly good quality and eventually I got to where people were parked. I leveled up my truck and then spent some time moving or not moving my truck so others could park, but eventually I got to sleep.

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