Tom Grundy's Mount Emerson Trip Page

After too much time spent working on my place I hit a stall and found out nothing was going to happen at least through the next morning so I planned a dawn raid on Mount Emerson. I drove up the night before to see if there were any Perseids visible (just a few). The stars were pretty nice though.

Sagittarius and the milky way

I actually woke up before my alarm and was on the move just before 6 am. It was cold with a chilly breeze and I was wondering if I had brought enough clothes, but once the trail got steeper I warmed up nicely. I was traveling light - in fact everything I was carrying probably weighed less than the camera gear I normally carry and I still had my helmet, extra food, and I didn't wear my raincoat (the pics are with my waterproof point and shoot - not nearly as good image quality or as wide a lens, but it sure is a lot easier to carry). The alpenglow on the cliffs was nice as usual.

nice alpenglow on the hike in

the bottom on Mount Emerson
the climb started up the dark streak near the center of the pic.

Evolv, ToeSox, Ibex, and Prana - a winning combination

I got up to the base of the climb (SE Face I think) just before 7. I stopped to put on my helmet and just started climbing up. Some of the hardest climbing was right near the bottom because it was a drainage so the rock was pretty smooth. Still it wasn't that hard - harder than Laurel Mountain but easier than Cathedral or Northwest Books in Tuolumne- I am guessing 5.4ish although I was wearing my Evolv Cruzer approach shoes - so they were sticky, but didn't edge as well as climbing shoes. After the initial steep drainage there was a long stretch of more of a gully and then finally the summit ridge which was the money section. It felt so nice to be traversing along a knife edge ridge at 13,000 feet for a change. I was a little more out of breath than I should have been and my heart hit the target heart rate for quite a while. I stopped to admire the view and take pics (catch my breath) more often than would be optimal, but the morning was a good reminder of why I got a place in Bishop. Doing it about 10 more times would be good training for the Sierra Challenge that I won't get - I probably won't be able to do all of the Challenge this year either. At least my knee didn't cause any problems although I had to be careful not to push sideways very hard with my foot.

Looking back where I came from - about 1/2 way up

Up on the summit ridge with Piute Pass and Humphreys basin behind

Mount Emerson summit ridge = super fun

Looking east towards Bishop from the summit

It took me just under 3 hours to get to the top. The summit register read like a who's who of the Eastside climbers. I added my name and then started down the chute to the SW. There was some pretty nice solid rock and some rather unpleasant loose scree or even worse fine pebbles over slab. The cruzers were awesome for the trail and the steep scrambling but I would have liked something a bit beefier for the scree. Still, they worked pretty well for that too. I stopped at the bottom to clear out my shoes, and then headed down the trail past all the overloaded hikers. I got back to my truck before noon and probably would have made it back to Bishop by noon if I didn't stop to give some hikers a ride.

See my face?
not well because my new sun hat works

stretching my toes in my ToeSox (you can tell they are mine by the "T")

All in all it was a very worthwhile morning and something I will do again I think. It was good to get back out after being cooped up working on my place too long.

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