If you can spare a few bucks for those affected by the Pack Fire, a little bit goes a long way ❤️

Mokelumne Peak

Mount Kaweah Day 3: Exit

Mount Kaweah Day 2: Mount Kaweah

Mount Kaweah Day 1: Approach

Notes:
- I was quite pleased with this outing, 3 SPS peaks in a day, car-to-car, and one of them rated class 4 (more on that later) which is the hardest rated climb I've done.
- I was wearing new shoes today, La Sportiva Akyras, which I had trouble tying just right. First they were too tight and squeezed my forefoot, then I had them a little loose and my heel was popping up. I ended up getting a blister on one of my heels for the first time in many years. Nothing a little athletic tape can't fix though. The shoes performed well otherwise.
- Trailhead parking lot was quite full, mostly with backpackers it appeared, but there were a few dayhikers heading out.
- I headed up the trail and took the junction towards the Golden Trout Lakes. This trail is in much worse shape than the Kearsarge Pass Trail and I got lost almost immediately in a talus field, climbing more or less directly up where the trail crossed the boulders.
- But I found an old mine at the base of the cliffs here, which was neat. Probably quartzite, I think that's the most valuable rock found in this area.
- After relocating the trail I followed it somewhat successfully to the meadow below Lilley Pass.
- Then, I crossed some large boulders and climbed the "disagreeable" sand and talus towards the rock rib that Matthew Holliman describes on SummitPost. It was tough and slow.
- Once on the rock rib there was better footing and I was atop Lilley Pass and traversing easy boulders to the summit of Kearsarge Peak before long.
- Kearsarge Peak had a nice enough view, Mount Brewer and the Guards were visible through a gap in the crest, as was Black Mountain to the north.
- Register showed maybe 20 ascents a year, popular with the skiers. "MtnMike76" (the most recent entry) left many business cards in the register advertising a YouTube video of him climbing this peak. Not sure I want to watch someone else's first-person video of a sand chute climb, but maybe others will.
- Back down Lilley Pass and up to Lake 11,480+. I pulled a weather forecast here as there were some clouds I couldn't see too well, but it said it would be fine. I had some lunch here for a few minutes.
- Then I headed up for Dragon Pass which was a straightforward boulder scramble until the chockstone described by Secor, which is at the very top of this chute at the cliffs at the top.
- The move over the chockstone was indeed awkward. I had to smear my feet up on the left side of it and mantle on top. Otherwise it was fine.
- From Dragon Pass I climbed up and crossed the many ribs as described until I reached what I thought was the summit block, looking out the whole time for the "crack without handholds" which I had seen any pictures of. I climbed up onto what I thought was the summit easily before noticing another, slightly higher spire to the north. There are four or so tall spires in this area and it's hard to tell from below which is the highest. It's the northeasternmost one that's just north of a saddle covered in black sand. There were no cairns to mark the way that I could find.
- Continuing on the theme of getting lost, I then dropped much too far down and around to the other side of the summit spire before realizing my mistake and crossing back south higher on class 3 rock and climbing up to a little alcove before the crack. The northernmost spire was shedding some rock, which I thought was another person at first, but it was just natural rockfall.
- Dragon Peak is somewhat known for its difficult summit block. Ten feet or so below the summit is a sloping slab with a deep horizontal crack cutting across it. In Secor, this is described as a class 3 "crack without handholds." However, two developments have occurred since the most recent edition of Secor. First, handholds have been found. They are bad handholds by the standards of class 3, some crimps and a couple of juggy sidepulls, but they'll work in a pinch. Second, the summit block has been upgraded by the Sierra Club in their new scrambler ratings to S-4.0.
- I actually didn't find it too difficult. Quite balancey, yes, but not physical tough at all. I was very careful not to climb up anything I couldn't reverse, not wanting to get stuck or worse. The crack was 10 moves or so, all of them rests. It just required jamming your foot in as far as it would go, about 6-8 inches, and side-stepping all the way across. There were a couple of spots where it choked out and you had to step a little bit wider, but again nothing too hard or scary.  It helped that the feature wasn't super exposed. A fall here would definitely hurt (probably a lot), but it's not a certain death fall like on Mount Cotter or Mount Russell. Obviously that doesn't mean you should push it any harder, but it makes the mental aspect a bit easier.
- Secor mentions that it wouldn't be much help to use a rope here because there's nowhere to place protection, which seemed a good assessment to me. You could lead it with a rope and set up a toprope on the summit and rappel off if you really wanted, but someone would have to solo it.
- After crossing the crack it was two or three class 2 moves onto the big round summit where I sat and enjoyed the nice view for a while.
- It was slightly more difficult to reverse the crack, as it did slope down slightly, but again not terrible.
- I easily scrambled back down to Dragon Pass before beginning the traverse to Mount Gould. There is a gendarme immediately south of Dragon Pass which is bypassed with easy class 3 on the west before gaining a talus ramp towards Peak 12,800'+ (right next to the "22" on the 2017 USFS quads).
- From here the traverse is quite easy, I dropped a little bit and traversed some sandy slopes on the east side before gaining the broad saddle just north of Mount Gould.
- Atop Peak 12,880'+ there is a large radio repeater to relay radio signals to and from the Rae Lakes backcountry ranger. I also found a bunch of garbage under a rock, some old oxygen tanks and Coleman propane stove canisters.
- There was also a forest of Sky Pilot on this plateau.
- The summit rocks of Mount Gould were also tricky. I was able to climb most of the way to the summit from the north before moving to the east for the final rock, which I kind of beached-whaled up on top, not staying for long as the register and more secure footing were down below. I downclimbed the east face which was actually a bit overhanging for about 10 feet with massive jugs.
- Mount Gould had a nice view as well, especially of University Peak and Forester Pass to the south.
- I didn't stay too long before heading down the loose chutes towards Kearsarge Pass.
- From there it was an easy enough walk back to the car. I passed a few parties, the first people I saw all day, out on the trail. I also stopped to look at some really big Foxtail Pines in this area, not having noticed them before.

Top Sports

Iain Macdonald

Kearsarge Peak, Dragon Peak, and Mount Gould

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If you can spare a few bucks for those affected by the Pack Fire, a little bit goes a long way ❤️

Mokelumne Peak

Mount Kaweah Day 3: Exit

Mount Kaweah Day 2: Mount Kaweah

Mount Kaweah Day 1: Approach

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