dom15931
New member
Gaylor Lakes, Scramble of an Unnamed 11091' Sub Peak of the White Mountain group, and Gaylor Peak.
A quick rundown: I spent last week on vacation with my girlfriend Meghan. We went from San Francisco, to Yosemite, up to Lake Tahoe, back though Yosemite, a night in Fresno, to Kings Canyon and Giant Sequoia and then to Monterey Bay and up the coast back to Frisco. The weather was absolutely excellent. Not a drop of rain other than a tad of mist/snow high in the mountains around Lake Tahoe, NV last Tuesday. All of these places were amazing and surpassed my expectations. The Northern Cascades are still the most beautiful mountains I have laid my eyes on but the Sierras did not disappoint. The beauty of the Giant Sequoias and Yosemite is incredible.
Our original plan to climb Lassen Volcano (southern most Cascade) was derailed by both weather and my learning from the NPS prior to leaving Lake Tahoe that the trail was closed and had been for a while.
The worsening weather to the north near Crater Lake, OR (and smoke from fires) and a planned attack possibly on Mt. Theilsen nearby was no longer feasible, especially given that this was a mixed vacation and not just a peak bagging trip and the excessive driving with a lot of uncertainty. Midway though the trip having already been to Yosemite I realized that it was Plan B time as we had been spoiled with great weather and we wanted it to continue that way. Pictures are here, report follows:
Yosemite including the hike described later in this report:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/574953932BlYEVK
Lake Tahoe:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/574960033GKBSgD
Kings Canyon and Giant Sequoia National Park
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/574965181ZAztLG
Due to the nicer weather in southern Cali the plan changed to go to Kings Canyon and Giant Sequoia National Park and the coast south of San Francisco a high elevation hike in Yosemite just made sense. We packed our bags and headed back to Yosemite round II.
10000 feet. The number both exited me and made me afraid of the altitude and the shortness of breath and sickness that can follow. At this point we had spent a good bit of time sleeping at 4000-6500' feet and did some quick day hikes several miles in length each to the easier granite domes in Yosemite as high as Lembert, which is about 9450' and is a fantastic short 4 mile hike that is well worth the minimal effort. A must do.
I figured that we would hike "something above 10000" near Tioga Pass since the elevation there is only about 50' shy of 10k to start or something near Lembert Dome and the meadows. The thought of accomplishing the goal about 50 steps from the car and then going higher at will and comfort level took precedence and we decided to hike into the Gaylor Lakes Basin, about a mile in, and go from there.
The parking lot wasn't super full. It was about 11am and the air was a comfortable 37 degrees with deep blue skies. Another couple visiting the region from Alberta was planning to climb 13k Mt. Dana the next day and we struck up conversation. They said they had never been nearly as high as 13k before but were doing it anyway the next day and talked about the possibility "scree skiing"
down the one slope. I guess I am not as headstrong as I thought. Despite that Dana is a strenuous hike it is easy from a technical aspect from what I had seen that day and read, but 3000' of gain in 2.5 or so miles at that high would probably have been asking for the pukes. Baby steps I thought. Don't overdue it. Raise the bar slowly. You get the drift!The trail to Gaylor Lake leaves the parking lot and quickly begins to switchback. You quickly climb a ridgeline that is part of Gaylor peak to about 10,500'. The views of Mt Dana and the high Sierra's around it keep getting better and more impressive with each vista. The trail descends onto the shore of Gaylor lake. This is an incredible area of high alpine lakes at over 10000' feet. The water is beautiful and to our surprise there were fish swimming in Gaylor lake. The vast openness of the alpine basin against the backdrop the Sierra Nevada is just incredible. You can seen many peaks from here and the park road is conveniently out of sight and out of mind behind and below the ridge line of Gaylor Peak. We spent a good bit of time just enjoying the scenery in this area.
I didn't notice much shortness of breath at this point. Meghan said she noticed some. We both had that minor cold that it seems the entire country has right now so that definitely was not helping her.
Behind Gaylor Lake and towards the hidden summit of White Mountain and it's lessor peaks there is a prominent sub peak that just juts up out of the ground like a pyramid ruin. It is at the end of a cirque headwall and connected to the White Mountain group of summits via a small arete. I would later look at a better topo than my map and realize I was correct at accessing it's elevation as slightly higher than that of Gaylor Peak at 11091 on a USGS map'.
It looked like a quick class II scramble up a 700' rock pile. There is no obvious trail or route here. Cool I thought. The assessment was good. We started up. There first halfway up is quick boulder hoping and switch backing before it gets fairly steep, but not exposed. Route finding is the main focus just for the path of least resistance and risk of injury; the highpoint is obvious.
Meghan here complained of a mild headache. She wanted to sit down and just enjoy the view of the lakes. I insisted as well as I didn't want her to get sick from the altitude by pushing it. We were about two miles in at this point. Feeling well and within a steep several hundred yard scramble of the summit I decided to quickly bag it and return. I quickly climbed up the much steeper second half of the peak. Here I could notice the difference in the air moving quickly over steep terrain. It was most noticeable just by stopping. It took my lungs longer to return to a normal resting rate. Upon reacing the summit I relaxed for a bit.
The views were incredible! Lembert Dome looked so small several miles in the distance and there was a panorama of alpine peaks. The low humidity in the western us sure makes the views great. Even the pictures look so much better without all the haze and humidity we have. I enjoyed the summit and recovered my strength for about 10 minutes and then met up with Meghan quickly. I too now had a light headache, but it wasn't scary and I was not nauseated or anything. She too just had a headache and felt a bit tired. We walked back accross the basin towards the ridgeline and the lake and saw two other hikers coming from the area of the "Great Sierra Mine". These would be the only people we had seen to this point.
Upon reaching the ridge crest I decided that I felt well enough to bag the the named Gaylor Peak as it was only .6 miles or so each way and 500' +/- of change each way. Meghan headed back to the car. She was bummed we did not climb Gaylor first as she wanted to. I felt kinda bad because she would have bagged it easily without the altitude factor. It's nice though that she was fine with letting me climb it and not annoyed. She knew it would make my day and this was pretty much our only day off the usual tourist trails.
Gaylor is basically a class one walk with a little exposure right at the summit as the ridge line narrows and steepens quickly near it, but also flattens out. I took several pictures here. The aspect on where I had been from here was interesting. A whole different angle of views. 11004'. Two summits above 11000'. I felt quite happy.
Heading down my head was hurting a bit, probably similar to what Meghan had been feeling. It felt like a sinus headache, but was probably the altitude at this point. I took it easy back to the car and I found Meghan in good spirits upon my return. All in all I had spent about 4 hours and 5-6 miles above 10000'. It felt good. We were off to spend the night in Fresno and then off to see Kings Canyon and Giant Sequoia tomorrow.
This was my first trip to the Sierra Nevada and certainly not the last.
Here is a approximate map of the hike.
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