Tom Grundy's 2019 Sierra Challenge Day 3 White Bear Peak (8-04-19)

bonus: peak 12,780 and 3 swims

8-04-19 White Bear Peak + one Bonus and 3 swims As usual Pine Creek starts out with a pretty big uphill push to get up past the Brownstone mine. The water was lower than 2017 so we were able to cross the creek without wading. I took some photos and continued on up through Granite Park. I took a quick and cold dip in a creek pool here and managed to lose and find the trail a few times. I was sort of following Bob and some others toward Italy Pass although the use trail was mostly under snow by this point. I caught up to them but then Bob pulled ahead. By the time I got to the pass Bob and some others were already traversing towards to the peak and the speedy folks were coming down from Mt Julius Caesar that they had already climbed.

some of the crew getting ready to start

it seems like there are less mine buildings every year

Pine Creek waterfall

steps on the trail

once past the mining area we entered the wilderness

this year the stepping stones were above water

sierra stream on the way up to Granite Park

my first cold dip of the day in Granite Park

Italy Pass in the distance

catching up to Bob and Iris below Italy Pass

Iris on Italy Pass - White Bear Crag is left of the lake, Mt Julius Caesar on the far right (and Luke sitting)

From Italy Pass I traversed along the loosish talus and then dropped through a snow band to more rocks which I followed around the bowl a bit before traversing up and across more snow towards White Bear Peak. There were a few steep bits but by using sun cups I was able to avoid putting on my crampons. The last time I was up here was late in a dry year with Willow to climb 7 Gables in 2013 and there was almost no snow in this part. From the saddle it was a pretty easy but tiring talus scramble up to the summit. I joined a few already there and relaxed there for a bit as more joined us. I considered swimming in the little pool surrounded by and containing snow, but the entrance/exit didn't look easy. I headed up the ridge towards a bonus peak (peak 12,780). This ended up being slower and more involved than I thought, and I was also moving pretty slowly by now. Still, I avoided a fair bit of not great talus going to the pass.

looking down on Jumble Lake and Lake Italy - Mt Julius Caesar on the middle right

colorful Iris attracts a butterfly

360 degree summit panorama

Luke is so manly

Grant or Clement on the distant Peak 12,780

view down from Peak 12,780 into Granite Park - I swam in the lake on the left
summits on the horizon from the left Mt Julius Caesar, Bear Creek Spire, Mt Tom (in the middle), Mt Humphreys (middle right), Royce and Feather (and maybe Merriam and Bearpaw in there too)

From the bonus peak I worked my way down through the steep snow and rock towards a lake below Italy Pass. I could see Iris and Mason swimming there as I got closer. I picked a slighty different spot with maybe deeper water close to the shore for my quick cold dip. We hiked down through Granite Park doing a bit better job of following the use trail. We opted for another dip in the creek to hopefully avoid the mosquitoes at the lower lakes. This one had a deep pool and a sandbar. I was able to make one big jump from the shore to the soft sandbar and another into deep water - so much easier than a slow hesitant rocky entrance. Getting out onto the heather meadow wasn't much worse and I was able to be mostly dry and dressed without much bug attention. We continued on down and didn't much enjoy the final seemingly endless descent down to the trailhead. Once again it was getting dark but we didn't need headlamps. I headed back to Bishop for a shower, eating, and to reload before heading up to N Lake to sleep.

I descended from the notch left of the peak

more landscape below Granite Park

Iris emerges from the creek depths

Iris crossing a creek

Pine Lake

Total for the day: 2 peaks and 3 swims. Challenge total so far: 8 peaks, 10 swims. This was a long and tiring day with a lot of elevation gain (over 6,000 ft).

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