Charlotte was spicy, but Whitney and Russel's love affair was captivating

Our first 14'ner's: Whiney and Russel..... Match made in heaven

-Markie

We finally made it to Whitney, after two failed attempts. 

But Whitney would not give herself up too easily.... After hours of papers being signed for Joey to sell his house, and forgotten headlamps... we locked our keys in the ambo and our hidden key comparment melted due to heat from our catalytic converter:

After a rough start, we hiked 5 miles with 5.5k elevation gain, it was relentlessly uphill the entire way. 

A'lass a view of Day Needle, Keeler Needle, and Whitney!! Spectacular

We arrived just before dark and were lucky enough to find ourselves alone at Iceberg Lake. 

We decided to end the night with one of our favorite backcountry meals: Pizza Margherita from Packit Gourmet.

The next day we were greeted by epic alpenglow on Day Needle, Keeler Needle, and Mt Whitney. Whitney was waiting to be climbed! We chose to climb the East Buttress route on Whitney and wanted to get off the climb before 2pm to avoid the frigid shade.

The approach entails around an hour of talas hoping, rock scrambling, and scree sliding, but we were greeted by a nice place to flake out the rope and some gorgeous rock.

The first few pitches went by slowly, it seemed as though we had overestimated the difficulty of the route. We did not overestimate the amount of fun we would have though. It was awesome!

I thought this was a cool rock... 

We finished the last roped pitches around noon and were on our way to the summit!

Our first 14'ner!

People kept giving us signs to take photos with!

We spent about an hour on the summit, taking in the view and talking to random strangers. It was quite the place to be.

We decided to stay out at the lake for 5 nights, which meant we would have a looong rest day in between climbing. This place was like nothing I had ever seen before. We were in a cirque surrounded by some of the most stunning peaks and complex mountains. The rock cut into the blue sky, etching out ridge-lines, towers, and peaks. Mt. Russell was a beast, he was complex and deep. Calling out to be climbed... Don't you worry Russ, we will climb you too. 👿Luckily there were a couple parties climbing Whitney to keep us entertained.

The next objective was Mithril Dihedral on Mt. Russell. I was stoked to climb a splitter hand crack in a monster dihedral and to top out another 14'er.

After a day of rest we got up late and headed to Russell. We watched the dihedral from Whitney and noted that it was in the shade until noon, so we were aiming to be at the first dihedral belay by noon.

You can see the dihedral and Fishhook Arete in this photo. Striking lines!

Mithril Dihedral is the big shady portion that I am gazing up at.

Here it is, with full sun.

 Here is Joey coming up the money pitch. 

Right before we took off our ropes and I found another splitter hand crack. Joey thought it was harder than the 10a pitch in the dihedral.

We finally unroped and then immediately put them back on. Scrambling on the ridge was harder than expected and we ran into another 5.7/5.8 mini-pitch with death exposure. Spicy!

The stoke was mega high

We had about another 500ft of soloing before the actual summit

Summit photo!

Summit snack!

Such a classic route! Wish it was longer.  

We did it!
You can see Russell shining in the background, with the last light of the day hitting it.

Here he is in all his beauty!

We made it home for sunset!

 Nitty Gritty climbing deets:

Day 1: We originally left the ambulance at 12:13pm, after a long morning of house chores. After forgetting multiple things and locking the keys in the ambo, then breaking into the ambo, we restarted at 12:55pm. Our packs weighed 45 pounds and 49 pounds (Joey's). We hit Iceberg Lake at 12,600ft at 5:45pm and took a 1 hour break to filter water right before Upper Boyscout Lake.

Day 2: Woke up nice and early for what we expected would be a difficult and long climb. We left camp at 7:38am, hit the base of the route at 8:13am. Joey was really feeling the altitude. His notes read "Altitude is a killer - very warm as well. Sun is intense." Started the route at 8:35am and we summitted at 1:40pm, after slowing down considerably after the midpoint of the climb, when we realized we were going faster than expected. It was nice to climb casually and enjoy the environment. Such a unique place to be! After an hour at the summit, we departed at 2:47pm and were back to camp by 4pm. Long, loose gully descent. Yuck.

Day 3: Rest day! We stretched a lot, watched other teams climb the East Face and East Buttress routes. At the end of the day we were fortunate enough to have the chance to watch a team climbing the final ridge of Mithril Dihedral on Russell. We watched them descend and hike all the way back to camp. We ended up summitting at the same time as them the next day, as they did Fishhook Arete and we climbed Mithril.

Day 4: The big day! We left camp for Mithril at 835am. 2 parties were ahead of us, but both were going for Fishhook Arete. Started the route at 10am and finished to the notch on the ridge at 2:20pm. We were back to camp by 5:45pm after an hour of searching for lost gear (Joey dropped a set of thin nuts!!!). After that, we decided to head down for the Ambulance. We left at 7:14pm and arrived back sometime around 11pm. Joey's knees slowed us down and our unfamiliarity with the hiking route... Lots of missed turns haha!

To the Tuolumne meadows we go!

To the Tuolumne Meadows we go!

- Markie

After being completely blown away by Charlotte Dome (and crushed by the long approach) we headed to Tuolumne Meadows for Joey's birthday week. We had a campsite booked and we were stoked to start climbing a couple stellar domes scattered throughout the meadow and sub-alpine areas  

The first dome we decided to climb was a new obscure route called Grand Central on North Buttress of Cathedral, another 1,000 foot route. 

This was the start of pitch one, nice and chilly and in the shade. My favorite! (not.)
The first pitch was very low angle and easy. A nice warm up pitch with great rock quality, fun crack moves, and a final fiction climbing move that gave the pitch it's grade. It was a wake up call to Joey. 'We are climbing Tuolumne slab now!'.

One of the exciting things about Tuolumne, and this route, was it had many friction slab pitches on it; something I was not all too familiar with. It also was hand drilled (like all Tuolumne routes?), which meant that the bolting was more exciting and more memorable than the normal slab sport climb.

But I quickly learned to trust my feet and continued to repeat a Cochise Stronghold saying that Joey taught me - 'heels down, butt out, that's the way we slab it out!' I think that Drew Munson taught him that one a few year ago and it really helps!

Don't worry, we got some crack climbing in too. 

 

Joey got the dicey run out slab pitch, classic to Tuolumne, and he crushed it!

He is placing a nest of micro cams/nuts in this photo and seemed stoked that they might catch him.

Next was the 10b crux! Scary, right? Naw, just a short steep hand crack! My specialty. 

Shortly after, we topped out to an amazing view. It was absolutely spectacular; a sea of pines and granite for as far as the eyes could see!

It was another successful climbing day.

More nitty gritty on our climb:
We started the hike at 10:19am, at the base by 11:01am, and then topped out at 4:10pm.
Much more casual than Charlotte Dome and the walk off was way easier too.

The next day consisted of slacking around and watching fly fishermen.

After taking a rest day, our next objective was Regular Route on Fairview Dome. I was stoked to see the view at the top as I had heard it is spectacular. 

The first pitch was a super slick crack that lead to a nice belay. I was a little hesitant to take the lead, but knew I would be able to do it! 

You can see the first pitch in the sun down below.

Joey leading up the sick little dihedral midway up the wall.

Nothing beats being hundreds of feet above the ground on amazing granite with half the wall above you. I would look up with excitement, eager to see what the rock had in store for us ahead.

SUMMIT SELFIE!

We kicked that routes ass and were ready to head back down for ice cream and a hot shower.

As mentioned, the view from the top was insane. Time to hike down some slab though...

I am pointing at the crux hand crack of the route we had done prior, Grand Central on the North Buttress of Cathedral.

Just a few hundred feet of knee jolting slab descent to go...

Nitty gritty of the climb:
We started the climb late, because we wanted to get some sunlight and witness golden hour from the top. We started at 11:35am, hit Crescent Ledge by 2:55pm (the end of the harder climbing), and topped out by 5:40pm.

Time to head back to Lone Pine to get those permits for Whitney!!