Quick Stats: 9.5 Miles & 4,249′ gain via South Ridge from the Kearsarge Pass Trail.
After my scrubbed trip to Cirque Peak I was looking forward to a better trip to the High Sierra, and was grateful that there had been a lot more snowfall in the last two weeks to make it a proper winter ascent. “Winter is here in the Sierra;” however it is technically still fall so it’s also a relatively risky time of year to be in the mountains. I was already going to be in Bishop for a day of climbing with my guiding mentor, which gave me a day and a half to find something to do.
I went out with a plan and two contingencies depending on conditions: I would camp at either Flower Lake or Matlock Lake (depending on timing), and then either climb: University Peak via the North Face; Snow Crown via the East Face; or Mount Gould via the South Ridge.
I left as early as possible and got to the top of Onion Valley Road with no problem; Alyx was the only car there. Plenty of rockfall on the road, but there’s a soft closure pretty far down and no hard closure (at the moment).
I decided that my plan was to camp around Matlock Lake since that would be a pretty central spot regardless of what mountain I chose to climb. Setting out from the trailhead at Onion Valley around 2:45 PM gave me about 2 hours of daylight to get to where I wanted to rest for the night.
From the start I had my snowshoes on which made the unconsolidated snow easier to deal with. Somebody had been out not long before me, but their boot tracks told a story that wasn’t very fun: They were post-holing with nearly every step, which made my trek over their prints less stable as my snowshoes flattened out the snow and filled in their prints.
It was an easy trek to Gilbert Lake in the powdery snow since I had someone else’s prints to follow, but this is where their journey apparently ended. From there I broke trail toward Flower Lake in some pretty deep powder. When I had just crossed the creek toward Matlock / Flower Lake I came upon a nice sheltered spot beside a rock, and I decided this would be a better spot for camp since the sun was setting; and because I had access to flowing water at the creek. Every time I deal with something unforeseen (or something less than stellar) on an adventure I use it as a learning experience. When I went out to attempt Mount Whitney in galeforce winds in January with a 3+ season tent, I learned the value of a 4 season tent and bought my MSR Remote 2. When I had to turn back from Cirque Peak recently I learned the value in devoting a little more time to anchoring the tent down. With a solid snowpack to work with, I decided that I would not only work hard to anchor my tent down– I would also fortify and insulate my tent. After I buried all of the anchors of my tent (anchors = dead sticks from trees), I then dug out my porch, buried the edges of my tent / fly, and then built a small wind wall for my porch.
I love the ability to sort of craft your own little home in the winter.
As I did my nighttime camp chores I thought about my options for the next day: From what I could see of the North Face of University Peak the route seemed pretty clear; however I couldn’t see what the rest of the approach was like. The East facing slope to get toward the plateau were Snow Crown rests didn’t look too intense, but so far on this trip the Eastern aspects have had crappy snow quality. The southern aspects of the mountains were pretty wind scoured, so Mount Gould as a contingency plan seemed like a safe bet, but I’ve already done that and I would love to climb something new. I was planning on University Peak as I settled in and did my usual Sudoku before bed.
That sleep was interrupted when I realized I had insulated my tent too well: I was now too warm. I normally sleep in my fleece jacket in the winter, but now I shed that layer, along with my wool liner gloves. Still too warm I unzipped my base layer and also my sleeping bag a bit. Now I was more comfortable and could finally sleep. Kudos to me for a bomber camp though.
The next morning I was pumped for the day! I had my typical oatmeal breakfast, readied my pack, and set out from camp in the dark. . .
However it wasn’t far up the slope toward Matlock Lake that I felt a little spooked. The snow was loose, and there was flagging on all of the trees I was walking past. Even though I wouldn’t be on this slope that long and I didn’t think an avalanche could even occur with the snow quality as it was, I didn’t feel good about being there alone. I quickly shifted gears and went back toward the Kearsarge Pass Trail to climb Mount Gould for a second time.
The weather began to turn and the snow quality didn’t improve, so it was slow going as I made my way toward Kearsarge Pass. The runout here is pretty decent as it climbs over Big Pothole Lake (where I camped for my Mount Rixford adventure), but my snowshoes were biting enough that I didn’t have to worry about anything as I made my way closer to the South Ridge of Mount Gould. It was around here that the weather began to really kick up. Even though the forecast was originally pretty nice, it was now snowing and blustery with crowded cloudy skies as I strapped my snowshoes to my pack. The last time I climbed Mount Gould I had no winter experience and was racing the first snowstorm of the year to the summit; I ended up narrowly losing as snow started falling near the summit, but I was prepared for snow and had the time of my life. This time I was getting dusted for the entire route, experienced, prepared, and was again having the time of my life. Mount Gould is now a favorite of mine.
For the first section of the ridge I switched into my ice axe and crampons as the snow looked more manageable and there were dry sections between sections of scrambling. Mixed in where some fun things I haven’t seen in almost a year, like a decent cornice and evidence of wind loading on the Eastern side of the ridge (where I was). Still not concerned about an avalanche, even with the cornice. It was a mix of snow climbing, post-holing, and scrambling up the South Ridge until I got toward the top.
The further up I went the more it dried out until it was time to stow the ice axe and crampons. I scrambled the rest of the way toward the summit with the snow continuing to fall, and then I got to a familiar point: The false summit along the ridge. Up and over falling the “fun line,” I then made my way to the summit block of Mount Gould. I tried climbing it from the Eastern side, which I didn’t even attempt last time, but there was one move I didn’t feel great about in gloves and full shank boots. I decided to go around to the western side of the summit block as I had before, but this time was a little different: When I summited a year ago I got to the summit but didn’t sign the register because I didn’t make it to the very top of the summit block– I was too nervous about the snowfall and exposed final move to get there. I counted it as a summit since I got to the register, but I didn’t sign it because it still didn’t feel right in my mind.
This time I made it all the way to the top of the summit block where I got to relax for a while before signing the register.
I then made my way down from the summit and mostly retraced my steps along the ridge until the snow that was covering the South facing slope to skier’s left of the Ridge I had just climbed. Even though the snow was pretty rotten, I still managed a few sections of glissading interspersed with sections of deep plunge stepping and got down the slope in no time. At what could have been the Kearsarge Pass Trail near Heart Lake it was back to the snowshoes to get back to camp; all the while the weather was clearing up to make way for a beautiful day.
It didn’t take long to break camp (I thought the buried edges would mean more time to dig out), and it was long thereafter that I was back to Alyx at the trailhead.
She was still alone, and I felt amazing.