Mount Lyell/Mount Maclure
9/17/16
After taking on Mount Clark as a dayhike the weekend before, I was itching to get out and attempt another very long day. I was trouble finding a partner for the weekend, since Kao was feeling lazy and Leo was going climbing. One of Leo’s main climbing partners, Marco, was supposed to join him out at the Needles for the weekend, but injured his finger climbing the previous weekend. I jokingly said to Leo that he could tell Marco that he was welcome to join me on a peakbagging weekend, not expecting this climber to want to partake. To my surprise, Marco was totally game and texted me within minutes. Lyell and Maclure had been two peaks I had been interested in doing this summer, but figured it wasn’t going to happen. I had hoped to do them as an overnight earlier in the summer, but now that I felt strong enough to do more than 20 mi in a single day, I thought, “Okay, why not suggest these two?” Bob’s trip report shows that getting to the top of the second summit is only 13 mi from the trailhead, so I figured it shouldn’t be more than 26 mi round trip. You’d think I would have learned by now though (after doing 18 mi on Virginia Peak, when I thought it would be 12), that the mileage report on Bob’s trip reports can be quite off. But, still, I figured it couldn’t be more than 26 mi, 27 tops, so how bad could it be after doing 24 mi?
I messaged Marco and told him I had my eyes on Lyell and Maclure, expecting him to think I was crazy. I linked him to a Bob Burd trip report, and he said he was game. I have to wonder if he really knew what he was saying when he agreed to join me. No matter — no matter, he said he was in, and we made a plan to drive to Manteca during lunch on Friday and then work remotely for the afternoon from there.
We left Manteca at 6pm, and were able to make it to Saddlebag Lake Road on the other side of Tioga Pass around 9:30pm. This working remotely outside of SF thing is pretty awesome — I don’t think I’ve ever made it over Tioga Pass so early in the day. We set the alarm for 4am and did our best to sleep. It was very cold during the night — it’s starting to change seasons, and neither of us slept very well. As we did the drive to the trailhead, I asked Marco if he was still game, even after sleeping poorly, and he said absolutely. Okay — I gave him one last out, and he didn’t take it. It was happening.
I had done my best to research what the conditions were on the Lyell Glacier, and it was hard to tell if we should actually bring any snow gear. I was almost certain we wouldn’t need any gear, but it would also be terrible to hike in so many miles and have to turn around. So, we opted to bring one pair of crampons to split, as well as two ice axes. We were on the trail by 4:40am, starting the very long approach.
Heading up Lyell Canyon, after the sun had risen. (Photo by Marco).
The first eight to nine miles are essentially flat, heading down Lyell Canyon. We kept a good pace of 3.5 mi per hour, making fairly good time. As we headed down the trail and the sun finally came up, we saw many backpackers slowly stirring in their campsites, just beginning their days. When we finally reached the uphill, Marco took off ahead of me pretty quickly. When he saw how much faster than me he was, he offered to take some of my stuff. I gave him the first aid kit and my sandwich, which did actually make my pack feel lighter. Little did Marco know that this would come back to haunt him later.
Marco on the hike in.
We continued on up, passing the footbridge and the tarn higher up. I remembered camping there two years ago when I was on the JMT, and I thought that never in a million years would I climb Lyell and Maclure. The peaks finally came into view, and I pointed them out to Marco. Despite having sent Marco the trip report early in the week, and talking about our plans for the peak all day the day before, Marco still seemed to be having trouble even remembering the names of the peaks. Again, I wondered if he really knew what the day had in store for him.
After passing the tarn, we went up a bit higher and kept an eye out for where we were supposed to leave the trail. We found the correct spot (the last time the JMT crosses a stream), and left the trail at around 8:40am — four hours after we left the trailhead. I had shown Marco one of my trip reports the day before while we were working remotely, and he loved the idea. He decided to take it a step further even, and take down notes during the day. This idea evolved, and he started periodically taking videos throughout the day to give updates on our progress.
Right after we left the trail, we stopped to fill water (Marco had brought his gravity filter). As we were filtering, we saw a part of three headed up the slabs in front of us. We wondered if they too were dayhiking Lyell and Maclure, and were curious to see if we’d catch up to them. After filling water and putting on sunscreen, we finally started the cross country. This section of it is not very bad — we headed up solid slabs for about a mile and a half, gaining about 1300 ft. As we were headed up, we lost sight of the party ahead of us, only to realize during a break that they were now significantly behind us. They seemed to be taking quite a long break, so I thought the odds that they were day hiking the peaks were now pretty low.
View of the slabs with Lyell somewhat visible in the back, from where we filled water after leaving the trail.
As we got to the top of the slabs, the Lyell Glacier came into view. I had seen photos of it from many years prior, and it definitely doesn’t look as impressive or daunting as it had in the past. In fact, it looked quite easy to skirt it. Damn. Yet another trip in which we had carried gear that we didn’t actually need. After the slabs, we headed into a talus bowl that led up to the peaks, and the saddle between Lyell and Maclure. We stopped for an early lunch and talked strategy. Marco suggested that we drop one of the packs and consolidate to one, taking turns carrying it. While Marco is definitely more fit than me, he had never been to this high altitude, and wasn’t used to how much it was affecting him. On the only other trip we’d done together (Half Dome), Marco basically ran up the whole thing while I huffed and puffed my way to the top. The tables had definitely turned, and I was the one up ahead this time, which I was very surprised to see. Still, Marco was keeping a solid pace though, and I didn’t foresee any problems in us bagging at least one of the summits.
We decided to go for Lyell first. Instead of heading straight for the saddle between the two peaks, this meant I angled more towards Lyell to save a bit of mileage. I skirted the west side of the glacier, staying on fairly solid talus. As we neared the ridge, we found that the glacier actually extended far across, and we would still need to cross it. However, the snow was soft and sun cupped, so I walked right across, ending up right at the ridge.
Marco catching his breath on a boulder on the snowfield.
Once at the ridge, I got a good look at the class three and four we’d need to climb to make it up. It looked fairly vertical, but very do-able, and I was excited to take it on. I’d be nervous doing this kind of thing alone, or without someone who is a confident climber, in case I need someone to help me spot footholds as I down-climb. As one of Leo’s main climbing partners, I knew Marco was more than capable of this. He was definitely feeling more and more out of breath from the altitude, so we took a short break to center ourselves before we started up the scrambling.
View of Lyell’s ridge.
Marco headed up the scrambling section, Maclure in the background.
The scrambling was quite fun, and the ridge has some steep drop-offs in parts, that made it all the more exciting. I was bummed once the scrambling was over — I could have done more of it — and we found ourselves on talus for the last couple hundred feet to the summit. I was able to use my classic hiking jokes on Marco, who, having never hiked with me before, first fell for them, and then laughed once I explained they were jokes. The first joke I make on nearly every peak attempt is “I think we should turn around” when we are just below the summit. The second is, “Oh, I forgot X at the summit”, once we’ve already come down. Both jokes landed perfectly.
Summit views to the north.
We took about 20 mins at the summit to hang out and point out various landmarks. Marco took a short video to document our progress (and as we watched it later, we laughed as he still didn’t remember the name of Lyell in the video, despite the fact that he was sitting on the summit block). We both signed the register (one of the fancy Sierra Club registers that is screwed into the rock), and then headed back down.
Summit views to the south.
I wasn’t sure if Marco was going to be up for doing Maclure, since the altitude was making him feel weak. But Marco, not even being a peakbagger, was more than determined for us to get both. Every time I suggested that we at least consider not doing Maclure, he was quick to say no way. So, we headed down the talus, and then down climbed back to the saddle. When we reached the saddle, we met one solo climber headed up the snow. He had been hoping to bag Lyell, but felt like it was getting late in the day and he should turn around. After chatting with him, we met two other hikers. They had been in the group that we had spotted earlier in the day — apparently one of them had been feeling the altitude too much and decided to stay behind. They had been packing from Ansel Adams Wilderness to Tuolumne, and took a detour to check out the Lyell Glacier. They had no intention of climbing Lyell or Maclure.
Marco and me at the Lyell/Maclure saddle.
We chatted with them for a while, took some photos for them and vice versa, and then they headed out. Marco and I snacked in preparation for heading up Maclure. Marco got started first, hoping to get a head start since he was a bit slower. I joined soon after, and together we headed up the talus towards Maclure. Towards the top, there was a bit of fun scrambling, then a nice ridge walk until the true summit. There was one false summit, which was Marco’s first experience with one, and he had the requisite disappointment. Thankfully, the true summit was maybe only 40 feet past, so he got off pretty easy. We made it to the summit around 1:45pm, and celebrated our victory! My 40th SPS, and Marco’s 4th! Looks like he might be becoming a peakbagger after all.
Marco facing Lyell from the summit of Maclure.
We took another 15 mins at the summit, signing the register and taking in the views. Yosemite Valley hadn’t been visible from Lyell, but we got a great view of it and Half Dome from Maclure. We were more than 15 mi into the day, and it was clear that the 26 mi I had originally thought it would be was not correct. It looked like it was going to end up being 30.
Half Dome making an appearance in the view from Maclure. (Photo by Marco).
We started back down the talus towards the Lyell Glacier. It was very easy to entirely avoid the snow this time, but Marco took the opportunity to try his first glissade. He got in a 15 foot run — maybe we’ll also turn him into a mountaineer! It took us about an hour to make it back to the second pack. We took a 10 mins break here, re-applying sunscreen and snacking before starting the very long hike back. Thankfully, after reclaiming the pack, we only had another few minutes of talus, and then we started down the endless slabs. It was easy to make quick progress down the slabs, and we even caught up to the group of three.
From the summit of Maclure, we had noticed a lot of smoke to the east. It looked like a fire was just starting. As we were coming down the slabs, we noticed the cloud of smoke had gotten much larger. Later that night, we’d learn that this was a huge fire that had just started called the Owens River Fire. I had never seen such a view of a fire before, and it was pretty ominous.
Heading down the slabs, with the smoke from the Owens River Fire peaking over the ridge. (Photo by Marco).
We didn’t stop much, anxious to make it back to the trail. We made it back to the trail at around 4:30pm, and were happy to have an easy walk back the rest of the way. The downside? That easy walk was more than 11 mi. We still hadn’t even done 2/3 of our miles for the day. We filtered water once more and soaked our feet in the stream for a few minutes, and then started the endless hike back. We saw tons of backpackers coming in, and wondered if they were at all curious what we were doing so far in the backcountry with such small packs. No one ever asked — they were probably only concerned with the heavy weight they were carrying themselves.
The miles seemed to go on forever and never end. It was even hard to make conversation because we were so tired. We only found a few things to entertain us, such as a 10 mins section where I sang a number of School House Rock songs after Marco had remarked that trail junctions reminded him of “Conjunction Junction”. Aside from that, it was a pretty miserable hike back. While we had naively thought at one point that we could maybe make it back in the light, we used headlamps for a good hour before making it back to the car. We got back in 16 hours to the dot. Marco took one last video log as we sat in the car, thrilled to not be hiking any more.
We drove down to Mammoth to find somewhere open to eat, and thankfully made it to Roberto’s 20 mins before they closed. We ate and then headed into the forest by Mammoth to sleep for the night. It was thankfully much warmer than the night before, and we both felt totally rested the next morning.
After an intense Saturday, we took our time to enjoy an easy day, getting breakfast in Mammoth and heading to the hot springs before driving back to San Francisco. I could really get used to this one, very hard day, one very relaxing day in the mountains.