Sierra Nevada – Bittersweet Success

I just returned from a quick trip to the Sierra Nevada with two of my closest friends, Guillermo Barron and Ross Maillioux. It’s fair to say that the journey was part climbing trip part road trip, and to an extent, part reflection and healing on the death of our friend Mike Pollard.

While I found myself saddened on a few occasions at the lack of his presence and personality, it also felt very good to be doing a trip he would have loved, and also to be in some of the very same places he and Ross had just been to a year or so ago. (Photos above - Leica M6ttl, 50mm Summicron f2 3rd version, Ilford XP2)

With only ten days total at our disposal, we spent a good chunk of it behind the wheel. Driving down through Nevada en route to Bishop was interesting enough…lotsa nothing, lotsa heat, lotsa broken down towns in the middle of nowhere. Many of the small towns had ‘futuristic’ looking neon signs on them from the early 60s; I guess between the crazy neon signs and the nearby atomic testing, the future was really bright and did in fact require shades…

Clown Motel...desert weirdness....

After "driving all night, hands wet on the wheel”,our first night was spent in the parking lot of a truckers weigh scale station. While I curled in the backseat of the KIA, Guillermo went to sleep on the grass; Ross stuck to the dirt outside the car. I woke up in the morning to find them both next to the car…the auto sprinkler system had apparently come on a few feet from Guillermo’s face during the night.

Eventually…

Bishop! and a desert campsite at the foot of the Sierras. We made a plan to get our permit (fingers crossed…there’s a lottery system and permits are tightly contolled) head to Whitney Portal campsite the next day, pack up, and then head out the following morning. Here Ross is in deep concentration checking the route beta with a Sierra Pale Ale (Photo - Leica M6ttl, Summicron 50mm f2, Ilford XP2)

All worked as planned. After a day spent staring at the walls at the Portal,

hanging out reading (G does battle with The Creationists) (Photo: Leica M6ttl, 35mm Summaron f3.5, Ilford XP2), we got up the next morning and headed into Upper Boy Scout Lake to place our high camp for our planned route, the East Buttress.

Some nice walking to get in there, including the exciting Ebersbacher Ledges. Travel along the ledges was fine on the way up (I screwed up the downclimbing on the way back, but that's a different story). Soon we were at Upper Boy Scout Lake, hanging out and enjoying the incredible scenery. The East Buttress of Whitney was our objective, which you can see taking the line of ledges on the right two thirds of the face. I'll post some more in a while...

(Ross on the Whitney Portal Road; Photo: Leica M6ttl, 50mm Summicron f2, Ilford XP2)

Photo of the East Face of Whitney: Lumix GF1, 20mm f1.7