Wotans Throne (12,730') overlooks Trail Camp along the Whitney Trail. After we set up camp, there were hours of daylight left, so I headed out. The south face is made up of cliffs, so I started working my way to the west side. There was an initial scramble to get above the lake, then I spotted some cairns marking a way to the base of the west ridge. There were stubborn bits of snow along the way, but easily avoided. The ridge started class 2 on solid rock. I tried to follow a couple of ramps, but stay generally along the ridge. About half way up, I got great views of two azure blue lakes. They were half frozen and unnamed according to the maps I checked. The upper ridge moved into class 3 terrain, but there were several good options and none led into dangerous terrain. Near the top, I had to down climb 10' into chute, then out the other side, leaving only a short hop to the summit. A small pile of rocks was my reward, and fantastic views of the Whitney ridge. I continued to the end of the summit ridge to make sure the other end wasn't higher. Round trip from camp was about two miles, 800', and took two hours.
Wotans Throne from Trail Camp
Summit. Lone Pine Peak on the right.
Wotans Throne center from the upper switchbacks
