Day One: We will meet at the Glacier Lodge trailhead, pack, do an equipment check and head on up the trail to the Palisade Glacier. Our packs are gong to be trimmed to the bare minimum and we should be able to head up the trail fairly easily. Our goal will be to camp at the moraine camp on the edge of the Palisade Glacier. This is a climb from about 7800 at Glacier Lodge to 12,400 so you had better arrive to the program well acclimatized.
Day Two: we start climbing from the north end of the traverse, ascending Thunderbolt first. Our route here is via the North Couloir where the crux may be getting over the bergschrund. Moderate snow leads to the ‘Lightning Rod' sub summit of Thunderbolt. The summit block on T'bolt (14,003') is the hardest rock climbing on the whole traverse but we do not need to carry packs up and over this so it will not be too bad.
Then it is down the ridge to the top of the Underhill Couloirs. There is room here to spend the night and if the weather turns this also gives us a good point to get off the ridge. (No, we do not want to be here if there is any chance of an electrical storm)
Day Three: The ridge heads on up to Starlight Peak with a few sections of 5th class climbing, but primarily 4th class. The ‘Milkbottle' summit of Starlight (14,200') is also a little tricky to gain, but we have done it enough to know the tricks here. The summit of North Palisade looks not far off and it is not. But unfortunately we have to drop several hundred feet over technical terrain and then reascend to get there So what on flat ground would be a one minute stroll will take us a couple of hours. North Palisade's summit (14,242') is no problem at all and then we traverse, downclimb and rappel into the head of U-Notch. The wind always seems to whistle though this notch making it a less than pleasant place to spend the night so we head on up Polemonium. Out of the notch gives us some 5.6 climbing and then we can drop packs and scramble to the exposed summit. (14,100')
Once again easy ground is ‘just over there” but we have to put in a lot of work to get there by retracing our steps and then rappel into a gully and re-ascend to the crest. Now we can relax and look for a spot for the night.
Day Four: This day is easy. We traverse above the top of V-notch and over to the top of Mt. Sill's North Couloir. We can drop packs here and head up to the top of Mt Sill (14,153') This peak has perhaps the best view of anywhere in the Sierra and we can see from the Mammoth area to south of Whitney. But too soon it is time to go down so we pick up packs and head to the glacier below.
Day Five: Head out, arriving at the trailhead by early afternoon.
Notes
The best guidebook is Peter Croft's “The Good, The Great, and the Awesome”. Get it from Maximus Press. (GGA photo and link to http://www.maximuspress.com ) We highly recommend that you spend at least one night at moderate altitude (higher than 8,000') just prior to the trip. Spending a night in Mammoth would do the trick or better yet, camped at an even higher trailhead, such as one of the campgrounds in Big Pine Creek for a night just before the trip. Glacier Lodge is also a good lodging option. Please refer to our Planning for Success info sheet for more info.
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