So the plan for this hike was to start at the Shepherd Pass trailhead down west of the small town of Independence, make my way up and over Shepherd Pass, and then climb Mt Tyndall and Mt Williamson. After that, I could go overland across the ridge line to Mt Russell and climb that mountain. As a bonus, I could then go up the Mountaineers Route to the top of Mt Whitney. If the overland route to Mt Russell didn’t turn out to be doable (either due to conditions or me not being able to accomplish it), I could swing all the way out to the John Muir Trial and climb Mt Whitney from the west again.

One of the features of Mt Williamson is a large canyon that separates it from he mountains to the north. It’s one of the few spots on the nearly unbroken eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains that looks like an easy way through. But looks can be deceiving, so the trailhead for Shepherd Pass actually started in a different canyon just to the north.

I had the pleasure of seeing the sunrise cast a beautiful red glow across the entire mountain range as I drove to the trailhead. It was a nice start to the day.

After reaching the trailhead, I stashed my cooler and spare food in the bear boxes. Unfortunately, some people seem to think the bear boxes were trashcans. One of them was full of trash that obviously had been there for weeks, if not months.

The first mile or so was an easy hike along a stream, but with 4 crossings along the way. Did get a little damp boot on one of the crossings, but otherwise it was unremarkable.

Then the switchbacks began. Halfway up these switchbacks, I remembered why I had decided not to go up this trail two years ago when I ended up going up Onion Valley instead: This trail was described as particularly hard and brutal. The switchbacks were only the start of that.

The switchbacks actually wound up the cliffs separating the canyon you started in and put you into the canyon closer to Mt Williamson. After reaching the top of the switchbacks it wasn’t time to celebrate, because you then had a long trail ahead of you along the ridge that actually drops down about 600 feet as it goes.

I had to avoid the impulse to stop at the top of the switchbacks and camp there (there were several nice spots to camp there). While it would be nice to finish the day with the view from there, it could give me an excuse the next day to abort the hike and return to the trailhead.

So with a good amount of the day still ahead of me, I started down the trail towards Mahogany Flats and Anvil Camp. As the day wore on, I almost stopped at a camping spot that was basically a little nook in the cliff side. But with just barely enough water for dinner and breakfast, I decided to push ahead towards Mahogany Flats where there should be water available from Shepherd Creek.

While I had been thinking Anvil Camp and Mahogany Flats were essentially the same location, after reaching the bottom edge of Mahogany Flats it was apparent that they weren’t really the same destination. This was fortunate. Anvil Camp was still quite a long hike up some switchbacks that I did not think I could do that afternoon.

Fortunately, there was a creek flowing across the trail, so I could fill up on water before I found a camping spot along the trail. it was very little and it was right along the trail, but at that point it was heaven. Had a nice little view as well.

The next morning, disaster struck.

A dislocated finger on my right hand.

I could say it was a heroic saving of a fellow hiker who slipped.
I could say it was me deflecting a rock falling from above.
I could say it was a lot of exciting or heroic things…

But it was me slipping on a rock when packing up my tent and gear.

🙁

Fortunately, it wasn’t a bad dislocation (“only” 45 degrees from the normal position 🙁 ). I was able to snap it back into the correct position (only thought to take a picture of it after I snapped it back in position, so don’t ask for a picture of the horribly disfigured finger). Definitely some swelling, pain, and slight discoloration of the knuckle. It was fully functional (abet with some discomfort when I flexed it), so I decided to continue up the trail towards the top of Shepherd Pass.

After ‘enjoying’ the switchbacks, I reached Anvil Camp. It was a pleasant area and allowed me to fill up with water before the final assault on the top of the pass.

The trees soon started to thin out and then ended as two or three massive rock falls blocked the way. The trail had to wind its way around the rock falls, which fortunately hid the actual top of Shepherd Pass from view.

I say fortunately, since when I finally got a good look a the top of the pass I had to question my sanity of trying to climb this pass. The actual trail up the pass wasn’t visible at first, which is always so much fun. 🙂 The most obvious way up was along the left side where a rough line of loose rocks and scree wound it way up to a small break in the ridge line.

I’ve learned that in the mountains the more obvious way up something isn’t always the right way.

Instead of the left side, the trail wound up towards the right side of the pass. It was only because I saw someone coming down from the top of the pass that I finally confirmed what the map showed: There were some very rough switchbacks up to the right of a snowfield. It actually looked like they might have been built well, but some people cutting the trail had reduced it to tatters making this a harder climb than it should have been.

Remarkably, the trail didn’t look that daunting up close. Sometimes not seeing the trail is scarier than seeing where you’re going. While not easy, the switchbacks were short enough that they never got monotonous like many switchbacks can become (see above for the description of the first switchbacks for an example of long and monotonous switchbacks that drain your soul).

There was a short snowfield to cross, but late in the afternoon it was soft and easy to cross without any problems.

Success!

I reached the top of Shepherd Pass at last and got my first closeup view of Mt Tyndall and the very tip of Mt Williamson (most of it was hidden by the rim of the Williamson Bowl).

Since Mt Tyndall and Mt Williamson were my primary goals for this trek, I decided to forgo the large lake near the top of the pass were several people were already camping and made my way up towards the ridge of the Williamson Bowl. The map showed a small lake up there and it finally did come into view. Looking around, I found a large boulder to provide some protection from winds and the sun. The whole area was treeless and very exposed, so there weren’t a lot of choices. This particular spot had obviously been used by many people in the past, since there were also stone walls built up to provide more protection.

And it had 360 degree views of the area for sunset and sunrise. Can’t beat that.

The next morning I had to evaluate the state of my finger and decided that Mt Tyndall was still possible. It doesn’t have a walk up trail (or ANY trail for that matter), but is mostly a class 3 scramble up a manageable slope on the north east side of the mountain. In this case, ‘manageable’ means it’s not vertical.

It just felt like it was completely vertical as you carefully made your way up the route that consisted of loose patches of dirt and scree with the occasional boulders and rocks that allowed you to make some progress towards a target prominence in the ridge line. Not ideal with a sore finger, but nothing my other 9 fingers couldn’t handle.

The route descriptions say to stay to the right of a particular ridge running up the side of the mountain, but I ended up going a little too far to the right and probably took longer than I should have. But I did reach the target after traversing back to it once I got near the top.

Once at the ridge line, I had to make my way across it and then dip to the side a bit to reach the summit of Mt Tyndall. This part actually had a trail (of sorts), so making my way there was easy.

Victory! Mt Tyndall 14,026 feet above sea level!

What a view. I could see all the 14ers in the area and all the other peaks. Unlike the relatively flat top of Mt Whitney, Mt Tyndall had a very narrow and pointed summit, so you really got the impression you were on top of the world.


And that you could fall to your death with one wrong step.

That’s all part of the fun. 🙂

I did spend some time looking at Mt Williamson and trying to find the route up to it’s summit, but like Shepherd Pass the route up wasn’t visible to the naked eye. Referring to the route descriptions, I traced the route up with my finger and knew it would be a big challenge.

Even more so with only 9 fingers.

As the next morning arrived, I had to make the final call: Climb up Mt Williamson or break camp and head to Russell, Whitney, or abort back to the original trailhead.

After re-testing the strength of my grip on some nearly rocks, I decided it wasn’t safe for me to attempt Mt Williamson. Unlike the sloped sides of Tyndall, Mt Williamson required climbing a tall ‘chimney’ that was very much a vertical class 3 climb. A challenge under normal circumstances, but I just couldn’t trust my grip when one of my fingers ached every time I flexed it and may cause me to slip from an already precarious hand hold.

So I reluctantly decided to abandon my Mt Williamson attempt.

So where to go from there?

The Mt Russell overland route would be a great challenge, but after scoping out the path from the top of Mt Tyndall and seeing some of the terrain up close, I decided it wasn’t something I wanted to attempt after all. 🙁

So I headed west towards the John Muir Trail (JMT) to take the long route to the west side of Mt Whitney.

But then I lost the desire and motivation to take that 2-3 day route to get to Whitney.

Having climbed Whitney twice before, once from the west along the same stretch of the JMT, it just wasn’t a big deal for me at that point. It was always a little ‘bonus’ that I could go up Whitney again during this trek and was never a particular goal for this summer. The injured finger wouldn’t prevent me from taking that route, but with my plan to possibly do the entire JMT next year (which would end along the same stretch of the JMT) and my worry about a more serious injury that would cause me to not be able to do my big trek in early October led me to decide to abort back down Shepherd Pass.

This ‘little’ trek was supposed to be a warm up for that big trek in October, after all.

Reluctantly, I made my way back down Shepherd Pass. The snow field was still a bit icy in the morning and several hikers ‘allowed’ me to be the first to cross. Following old footprints I was able to cross easily, only having to kick out a few of them to put my feet in better positions. After I made it across safely, 5-6 people followed me in short order. I’m sure they weren’t waiting to see if I died or not. 🙂

It wasn’t as bad going down, but still took me most of the day and left me swearing at those lower switchbacks all over again. To add insult to injury, I managed to cross the streams without problems until the last one, where I slipped a bit and scraped my arm and leg. Didn’t get wet and the scrapes were trivial, but it did make me chuckle that the very last stream crossing would literally trip me up.

At least I can add two 14ers to my list (White Mountain Peak and Mt Tyndall).

And now I have a month to prepare for my ultimate goal for this year:

Climbing Mt Meru and Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

As I said, White Mountain Peak and Shepherd Pass were just a warmup.