How To Fall Off A Mountain

Rich Benbrook

Using the Maps

Mount Whitney

Monarch Lake

Vidette Meadow

Cottonwood Lakes

Onion Valley to
Whitney Portal

Symmes Creek to
Mineral King

Mount Tyndall

Whitney Group

Mount Shasta

Mount Williamson

Palisades

Middle Palisade
Revisited

Thunder Mountain

Middle Palisade
Try Again

Middle Palisade
Take Three

Mount Sill

Thunderbolt Peak
Climbing Up

Thunderbolt Peak
Climbing Down

Thunderbolt Peak
Rescue

Aerial Photos

National Park Service Search and Rescue

Links

Middle Palisade - Take Three

maps:

The following summer, we once again returned to Middle Palisade. We were going to attempt the same route up the south fork of Big Pine creek that had defeated us the previous year. This time, we were earlier in the season, so we expected the bergschrund to be smaller and less of an obstacle. Just in case, however, we brought our ice axes and crampons.

We camped a little higher this time, to shorten the summit day by an hour or so. We arrived at the glacier early, and had no difficulty climbing with the proper gear. The snow was soft enough that it would have been entirely possible to climb it in regular shoes. But we had carried all that fancy gear this far, and were determined to use it. The bergschrund was practically nonexistent, and presented no challenge.

The climb up the final thousand feet was beautiful. We climbed a near vertical chute that was consistently at a perfect level of difficulty for us; hard enough to be a little challenging, not so difficult as to cause us to fear for our safety.

With much fanfare and celebration, we reached the summit of Middle Palisade (14,040; 13 of 15) in July 2002. After eight years, the curse of this summit had been broken. The weather was great, so we lingered there for quite a while and savored our victorious climb.