Mt.Thompson is Mt Gilbert's neighbor not to far from South Lake in Bishop Creek. Although pretty close (by Sierra standards) to the road this fine climbs sees very little traffic and offers several short fun gully climbs that end some distance from the summit. We sometimes pair one of these gully climbs with an ascent of Gilbert and this program is our scheduled Fall Ice Seminar . As well any the ascent also makes for an ideal two-day ascent to a good central Sierra viewpoint in a pristine alpine valley

Itinerary
Day One: The South Lake Trailhead west of Bishop in the South Fork of Bishop Creek is our starting point. We start on the Bishop Pass trail and then after 30 minutes take the Treasure Lakes trail for an hour or so. We then climb up slabs and circle around into the cirque below Thompson and Gilbert The approach to camp is about 3-4 hours and we will have time to set up camp and review skills.

Day Two: We will get off to an early start and ascend one of the gullies. There are three obvious couloirs on the north face. Recently modern climbers seem to have wanted their piece of the action and the couloirs have been called (named from the east) the Knudtson, Smrz and Harrington Couloirs. However Norman Clyde is said to have climbed Thompson over twenty times and it seems unlikely that this prolific first ascensionist and climber of most of the Palisade couloirs would have missed out on these, especially since they would not have tested his skills excessively.

All are about the same level of steepness with the presence or absence of water ice determining the difficulty. So we will take our pick.

Once at the top we leave the snow and ice gear at the top and hike for about 30 minutes up the easy slopes to the summit and a great view of the Goddard and Paiute areas.

Descent is pretty easy and we have recently made it easier by upgrading the rappel anchors down the couloir. Before long we are back in camp and packing up to head out.

Notes
Guidebooks include Secor's “The High Sierra; Peaks, Passes and Trails”, and “Sierra Classics” by Moynier and Fiddler The best of course is “Eastern Sierra Ice” by SP Parker.
Get it from Maximus Press.

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