[TR] Eastern Sierra of California - Matterhorn Peak, North Arete winter attempt 2/15/2010

[yeoman]

Trip: Eastern Sierra of California - Matterhorn Peak, North Arete winter attempt

 

Date: 2/15/2010

 

Trip Report:

First winter in CA after several in Alaska has meant no ice and nothing even alpine like. Until now!

Tyler, a strong ice and rock climber had the idea to try Matterhorn Peak as a winter ascent.

The approach involves about 5 miles to the base and 5200' of elevation gain.

 

Objective is the pointy peak left of center.

 

SuperTopo calls this a massive approach. I'm glad to have broken myself in with this as my first Sierra approach. With big ass packs and breakable crust to deal with on the way out too.

 

Getting a bit closer, we camped on the bench in the lower left of the photo, still ~2000' below the start of the route. So yeah, it is a burly approach

 

Tyler forgot his spoon, or better yet, that's part of his light is right alpinist doctrine and can be seen here eating cheese and jerky spiked taters with the handle of his toothbrush.

 

Got a reasonably early start the next morning. Unfortunately not early enough to catch those rays. We climbed in the shade all day.

 

This would be the one and only pic I would take while on route as this was the easiest the climbing would get. Tyler leading out at the start with crampons and ice tools.

We determined in the end we were off the North Arete route but ended up climbing two long, beautiful pitches. Tyler summed it up best when he said he didn't care if we were off route, the two pitches we did were fantastic, offering delicate footwork, hooking, wild stemming and in general, lots of fun. I agreed. Two raps later, the slog out commenced.

 

And a slog it was. We came in on skis and they performed very well. However, myself nor Tyler was prepared to deal with the incredible amount of breakable crust that lie before us. Heavy packs + mountaineering boots on light skis are not a good combo when faced with LOTS of breakable crust and bullet proof styrofoam. After flailing for a bit on our skis, we decided to strap them onto the pack and start hoofing it back towards camp. 2000' of mostly not so bad postholing, we were back at camp. Broke camp as the sun was dimming and began the trek back to the car, still on foot.

 

It's funny, I now have a completely different appreciation for snowshoers. I usually despise the damn' things for what they do to a good skin track. But in this instance, the stupid things were a lifesaver. This area attracts them by the Suburban load and below camp there was a marvelous snowshoe track that had re-frozen in the twilight and gave us a very good walking surface. Without it, the slog would have most likely crossed the line into epic territory. With it, we enjoyed a beautiful starlit walk out Horse Creek.

 

 

 

If we didn't need to be back in the east bay that night we probably could have finished. But getting onto the actual route was going to require another bold lead on Tyler's part. The route.

 

Am now very much looking forward to High Sierra rock season. This is some good shit

 

 

 

 

Approach Notes:

Skis, lungs

[LostCamKenny]

 

Am now very much looking forward to High Sierra rock season.

 

this looks like it would be a cool summer rock route.. good on ya gettin in to a camp with all that stuff

[BirdDog]

Nice! That one's on my list for this summer. How long did the approach take?

[yeoman]

Nice! That one's on my list for this summer. How long did the approach take?

 

Take into account that we had big packs (probably ~45 lb). I think we spent about 4 hours getting to camp which was at about 9800'. I would recommend taking the time to do this one overnight though as the area is stunning and well worth bringing some extra weight for for an overnight trip. Plus you would benefit from getting an early start the next morning and get the sunlight on the upper pitches which disappears in the afternoon.

 

Edited February 16, 2010 by yeoman

[BirdDog]

Thanks for the beta, and yes I was planning on an overnight. Looks like a very cool area.

[Rad]

Nice. I love the Cascades, but I miss the Sierras.