Mt Tyndall (14,015 ft) by Brian Schultz Thursday June 29, 2006
We had grand plans of climbing both Mt Williamson and Mt Tyndall on this backpack. Original plans were to start the backpack early Wednesday morning and if the weather was good, set up camp and climb Tyndall the same day, then climb Williamson on Thursday. Or, climb Williamson on Thursday and Tyndall on Friday but timing could be a problem with that option because we'd have to drive back to Las Vegas in time to catch our flights and everything would have to line up perfectly for that to happen. The weather forecast wasn't favorable and we knew snow conditions would also likely slow us down after our experience on Langely yesterday, so after acknowledging the dilemma over dinner, we decided to start the backpack a little later on Wednesday, effectively ruling out a same day climb of Tyndall and worse, leaving only enough time to climb one peak. We really wanted Mt Williamson, which we considered the prize of the two, but if we picked Williamson and got weathered off, we'd come out with neither. We would hold off choosing until reaching Shepherd Pass. If only we allowed for an extra day....
Wednesday:
When we arose in the morning, it was raining so we stayed in our room even longer. When the rain finally let up we left Lone Pine and drove to Independence. Our two wheel drive rental car couldn't quite make it to the Shepherd Pass trailhead because of a deep angled rut in the road but we were close enough and began our backpack at 8:50 AM. The weather cleared up for the time being and it was hot. The excellent trail crosses Symmes Creek four times and I managed to rock-hop across all of them but Tim took off his boots for all. I don't think he wanted a repeat of our Jagged Mountain climb in Colorado last year in which his boots were waterlogged for three entire days. Nonetheless, the backpack was grueling as we headed up long switchbacks to the top of a ridge.
On the way we stopped to talk to a descending backpacker and inquired about Mt Williamson, which he'd attempted but turned around on because of ice conditions in the gully on the face. We reached the top of the ridge at 12:20 and took an extended break to fuel up and enjoy a terrific view of Williamson in front of us. As we continued along, losing 535 feet on the descent to the stream crossing below, a cloud cover spelled relief from the heat but incoming thunderstorms had us ducking out a couple times until they passed over. Three other backpackers on their way out informed us that they also turned back on Williamson. Not a good omen.
We reached Anvil camp at 4:15 and I began looking at the campsites. I was spent. Tim preferred to continue on to Shepherd Pass but agreed to set up camp. He found a nice spot on the other side of the stream and camp was made. After eating, we tied our food up in a tree away from camp because bears are a danger in this area.
Thursday:
Early morning skies were wonderfully clear when we began at 4:10 AM in the dark but even with headlamps we quickly lost the route on the snow covered trail. We found it later but not before I slipped on a large icy snow patch and slid about twenty feet into some rocks. The gully to Shepherd Pass was full of snow, just as we expected, and as we approached we noticed we were following large fresh animal tracks. Tim thought they were from a mountain lion, I thought a bear. We never saw the animal but if it was a bear why it was going up Shepherd Pass? Others we talked on our descent said they saw bear scat in the very same area.
We reached the bottom of the gully at 5:30, took a 20 minute break, started up some snow-free rocks, and stopped again to put on crampons. The hard crusted snow was steep to the pass but easy with crampons. We made the top of the pass at 6:30, crossed a creek to the flat area between Tyndall and Williamson, and made the decision to climb Tyndall simply because we liked our chances of summiting it.
The day was sizing up to be a beauty with sunny clear skies as we headed over to Tyndall's northwest ridge. We stopped below the ridge to apply sunscreen before tackling the class 2 rated route (class 3 by Colorado ratings). At 7:45 we began scrambling rough talus on the backside until a large snowfield required crampon use again. It was steep but manageable and after removing the crampons we continued below the ridge crest. Tim headed to the crest to get a view while I traversed thirty feet below. I had a terrible scare moments later when a large, heavy pancake shaped rock shifted when I stepped on it, and as my foot slipped below it, the big flat rock slid and pinned my leg to another big rock. I quickly grabbed a smaller rock to wedge in between the two so my leg wouldn't get crushed but I couldn't lift the heavy rock off. I screamed to Tim for help. In my panic, I thought about Aron Ralston and his pinned arm, and pictured myself in a similar situation but fortunately Tim was able to lift up the rock just enough for me to escape. Miraculously, no damage was done, not even a bruise.
We continued up the ridge and crossed over to the front side when the ridge became too nasty. The front side wasn't much better as I descended on smooth slabby rock, and by the time I climbed down a ways, Tim said he wanted to go back to the other side. I made some difficult moves to get to where I was below him and didn't think I could get back up very easily. I also knew this was the north rib of Tyndall and that there was a route up it. A trip report said this route was easier than the backside so I elected to stay my course while Tim headed back. But rather than climb the slabs I decided to put on my crampons again and traverse another wide steep snowfield. I carefully made my way across and turned up a snowfilled gully which led to the ridge. At the top, I took off the crampons and headed toward the summit thinking Tim was already up there or close to it. Regardless, I liked my route very much and thought that we could descend the snow of the north face all the way to the bottom on our descent and avoid the rough talus and all the difficulties of the ridge. A few minutes from the summit I turned around and saw Tim some distance behind me. I continued on and made the summit at 10:47.
I made a 4th class friction move on the summit block and sat there until Tim arrived at 10:51. He said the ridge was horribly exposed after we split up and agreed that descending the snow would probably be better. We enjoyed Tyndall's summit for over an hour, marveling at Williamson's intimidating face and locating other fourteeners in the area, notably Mt Whitney which we climbed in 2003.
We departed at 10:55 and at the gully descended 1000 feet on snow next to the north rib. Even with crampons it still took an hour to get down. After another break to filter water, we descended to Shepherd Pass and used crampons for the fifth time (fourth for Tim) that day. The route back to camp was much easier to find through the snow and our arrival there at exactly 4:10 PM wrapped up a twelve hour day. And to think we entertained the idea of setting up camp yesterday and then climbing Tyndall! Tim was hoping to backpack out today but we decided to just enjoy the great campsite and not worry about hiking out in the dark.
Friday:
We left camp at 5:45 AM and reached the lower stream crossing at 7:30, and the top of the ridge at 8:25. It felt good to be on the downhill and at Symmes Creek I rock-hopped the first crossing but put on sandals for the other three. We returned to the car at 10:55 and drove to Las Vegas after a shower and meal in Lone Pine.
We underestimated the time needed for climbing Tyndall and wondered how long our day would've been on Williamson had we chosen it instead. Tyndall was a lot harder than we expected, much harder than most of the Colorado fourteeners. Thankfully, we had great weather.
Trailhead to Anvil Camp- 7 hours 25 minutes (lots of breaks)
Anvil Camp to Tyndall summit- 6 hours 37 minutes
Tyndall summit to Anvil Camp- 4 hours 15 minutes
Roundtrip Anvil Camp to summit and back to camp- 12 hours (including many breaks and an hour on the summit)
Anvil Camp to trailhead- 5 hours 10 minutes