Mount Brewer (4136m)

My last wilderness trip this summer was to the top of Mount Brewer together with Christian. We took off from the bay area at about 5 pm and arrived at the campground at 10 pm in the night. We were pretty lucky to get campsite #1 - but the campgrounds around Cedar Grove were pretty deserted.



The next day we got our permits at the Road's End Ranger Station. On our way there, we saw a bear family cross the street and could make some photos from our car.


We started off with the backpacks at about 8 am from Road's End (1.500 m) towards Junction Meadow.

We reached East Lake (about 14 miles from Road's End, 2850m) at about 3:30 pm. This is where the official trail ended and we had to go cross country.

Our goal was to get as close to the peak as possible on the first day. So we fought our way up.


Climbing up the rocks and trying to find our ways through the bushes was however pretty exhausting. The backpacks seemed heavier than ever. While Christian still seemed to be in a reasonable condition, I was very much at the end of my strength and so we had to give up at about 5:30 pm...


We were lucky to find a nice place to camp at about 3.250 m. After pinching the tent, I fall asleep immediately ;-)


The next day we got up at 5:30 am, put down the tent and started off towards the peak at 6:30 am.

I felt a lot better and especially without the heavy backpack things seemed so much easier! After some time we were in front of the rock faces of Mount Brewer.


There we had a choice to go either up a slope on the left side or try the east grade on the right side (that you can see below).


As going up the slope looked pretty insane to us, we decided to try our luck on the east grade. The first parts seemed very reasonable to us, but we did not know about the upper parts.


Above you can see Christian climbing through a hole in the rocks. All in all, we reached the top of the grade with only minor climbing difficulties. From there we had a better look at the slope on the other side and decided that we would definitely never go up there ;-)


Still ahead of us was the passage from the east grade to the backside of the mountain.

But we turned out to be pretty lucky. What looks rather challenging above was not so bad at all. And so after climbing another 200 m over huge rocks, we reached the top at 10 am. In the peak book, we saw that we were the only ones at the peak since 5 days.


And this was the first entry:


With more than 2.600 m elevation gain from Road's End this is the highest relative peak for me ;-)



We enjoyed some time the incredible views from the top. Towards the east...


Towards the north west (on the top right you can see University Peak and a bit more on the left Mount Gold)...


And towards the south...


We wanted to reach the car on the same day, so we had to hurry a bit on our way down. Below you can see Christian and in the back East Lake.


We could watch some wildlife on our way down:


And finally reached the car exactly before it got dark at 15 minutes past 7 pm.


This is the visualization of the GPS data of the trip:


And the elevation profile:

We decided to push through to Irvine on the same night. But for sure we had to stop for some fast food - we didn't have a gas cooker with us, and all the time I dreamed of a Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger Combo Large...

University Peak (4155 m) and Mount Gold (3950 m)

Last weekend I was camping with Christian and Karthik in the Onion Valley. It was a very long (9 hours with breaks) drive from the bay area. So I made a small stop at the Mono Lake, next time I come here I'll probably go hiking...


In the evening I arrived at the campground, on the next day we set off for our primary goal - University Peak. There was a pretty nice lake on our way...


At about 3600 metres we were at the bottom of a steep slope. You can see it in the picture below. Actually it looks tremendously more scary if you stand in the middle of it trying not to fall down ;-)


Next picture you can see Christian climbing the slope...


We were all pretty glad when we sanely reached the top of the slope and sweared not to go down this way. Unfortunately the top of the slope was not the top of the peak. There were still more than 250 painful meters to make. They were painful for two reasons: First, my standard altitude head ache knocked within my head and second, at a height above 3.800 you always feel like in need of a second lung. It's very funny that all the hikers that could do quite well until now, suddenly begin to pause every 20 meters. It was harder than on Split Mountain, because to get to the top we had to do some additional climbing. But the whole time we had incredible views...


On the picture below you see Karthik on his last meters, while Christian is already standing on the top.


And finally I made it to the top too - this is an Austrian and an Indian on one of the highest peaks of California ;-)


From the top we realized that there was no reasonable way to go done but again over the slope. The only easier route would have involved about 10 miles of additional cross country hiking, and we did not have time for that. So after some discussions, we decided to go down the slope. From climbing up, we had a lot of respect for it, but it turned out to be not so bad when going down. We took a better route (in contrast to climbing up now avoiding the big rocks and seeking for the small ones), and if you become used to it, it was a pretty similar experience to skiing ;-)


You just had to watch out that you didn't get into the steeper parts... After that we were trying to speed hike back to the camp as it was already getting a bit dark. We didn't fully make it, but we had head lamps, so after 12 hours of hiking without major breaks, we finally arrived totally worn out at the campsite:


So we all agreed very quickly to use the next day for RESTING. So we only did a 5 hour hike to a lake and through many meadows.


On the third day we were fit again and decided to go for the Kersarge Pass (3.584 m). We apreciated the nice prepared trail ;-) This is me at the highest point of the pass.

Most Americans just go over the pass, because they have no addiction to peaks. But Austrians are different as Karthik had to learn the hard way this weekend ;-) So from the pass we went for Mount Gold (3950 m). There is no official trail, but it was actually easier than expected to follow the footsteps of previous hikers. Well, it was quite easy until the very last meters...

This is what you would call a peak! So after doing some more free solo climbing, we were glad that there was enough space for the three of us...


Actually there were two other persons climbing to the top on this day. And just before you ask yourself why they would be as crazy as us - they were not American, they were German ;-) The view at the top and also when going down was incredible, probably one of the best views I've ever had. Unfortunately you can always only fit small fractions of the actual view onto an image...


Fortunately we could get some refreshment in a lake on our way down, as it was pretty hot...


Before leaving the camp ground, we could still get a glimpse of the home of the campground manager. That's what you would call a complete living!


At about 3:30 pm, we finally left Onion Valley - Karthik and Christian went back to Irvine, and I drove back to the Bay Area. At first I thought of stopping at a motel, but then I just tried to drive through. It took me about 7 hours of driving before I reached the appartment...


So there is now less than 14 days left and I'm really looking forward to fly home again! On the next weekend we are planning for another hiking trip to the top of Mount Brewer (4.114 m)!

Half Dome by Night

I'm just back from a night ascent on Half Dome together with Harald. Californian weather can really suck. While the sun was shining as always in the Bay Area, the Yosemite National Park was haunted by rain on the exact night we wanted to do our hike. So we started off the Bay Area at 8:30 pm and arrived at the trail head at 0:30 am. We started off with our head lights, you can see Harald on the picture below...

It was a pretty cool experience hiking all alone in the dark compared to the masses of tourists that are there during daylight. At first, there was not much rain and it was actually pretty warm. As we came nearer to the top, the rain intensified. At 4:30 am we were at the bottom of the cables... Btw, I'm wearing my new favorite South Park fan T-shirt - Craig rocks ;-)



Going up the cables turned out to be a lot more difficult than last time as water was running down the stones and made them slippery. So it was more or less all on your hands to pull you up, which was quite exhausting. On the top it was 5:00 am, and we still had the hope that after sunrise, the rain might end. And we were pretty tired too, so we decided to stay a while. The rain had intensified, so we had to look for the best shelters we could get up there, which were holes in rocks. Although it didn't hold off all of the rain, at least it was better than just sitting on the plain surface. We could actually sleep for a bit more than an hour. After that we felt very cold and totally wet and realized that the rain wasn't going to stop any time soon. Below you can see the peak photo made short after I woke up ;-)

Now it was getting light pretty quickly, but the sun would not show up. Below you can see Harald after going down the cables. Going down was a bit easier as you "just" had to slide down. Beside him you can see masses of hand gloves ready for tourists to use for going up the slopes. I decided to use just my plain hands as this seemed to give a better grip.


Now the landscape was a totally Austrian experience. Water just everywhere. It was totally different from the last times I visited the place. With all the wet clothes it was also pretty cold.


After hiking down to the Nevada Falls, things were getting a bit better as the rain was not so strong any more and the temperature was higher. We could take some nice pictures of the falls.


The following picture shows the lower part of the Vernon Falls.


After three hours from the top (the wet clothes really made us quick ;-)) we were back at the car and happy to enter a dry environment. Notice again the "real" car on the left... At about 2 pm, we finally made it back to the apartment.