EISPIRATEN

Norma R and I joined my friends Dan Bishop, Bob Huey and Bill Stratton--all members of the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group--on an exciting 3-day climb of 13,960' Mt LeConte. The first day we backpacked through mostly soft snow into the ~11,000' meadow just below and NE of Upper Meysan Lake and made camp. The next morning we set out at 0630, skirting around the southeast shore of the frozen lake and headed up the steep center chute to the plateau between Mts LeConte and Mallory. From there it was easier terrain up to the north face of LeConte where we descended ~100' west and then climbed up the northwest chute to the summit. A short rope was brought out to protect and rap the infamous Waterfall Pitch, which had a small amount of ice. Dan continued on to tag Mallory, while the rest of us enjoyed a thrilling glissade down to camp. On the third day we packed back out to civilization. Pics:http://www.flickr.com/photos/21042415@N ... 772143243/

Ice is nice.

Dang you guys for being free and getting out etc!

Thanks for taking me along through the eye of your lens, Dave!
You got some great shots. Looks like y'all had a fabulous trip.

Nice work Dave and Norma

Can anyone explain the plaque at the base of the mountain? That's a fairly young age to have a plaque put up in your memory.

Dave if you look closely Norma did have the "kitchen sink"

Best part of all you look like the leg is back in order and working fine, thanks for sharing that adventure, pictures say it all, niceeee.

Nice outing. Congrats on a big spring summit. Was your calf still bothering you?

Patrick: Some background on the memorial plaque can be found at http://www.snwburd.com/bob/trip_reports/leconte_1.html (scroll down to the bottom of the page)

Sam: Thanks for asking about the calf. The heavy pack on the first day really hurt, but it felt a bit better with less weight on summit day. I swapped my snowshoes for awhile with someone who had heel lifters on theirs and it made a huge difference. Looks like I need to design a retrofit for mine.

Heckuva nice climb, but DANG that chute was steep.

Thanks for the excellent pics.

HJ

P.S. Excellent plan by Norma to use the florescent green shovel so we could tell who she was in every pic.

Looks like you all had a really nice time - great weather, too. Wondering why Norma did not bring her snow shoes, though? Too much other stuff?

T

hey G-man, i didn't realize you posted a TR until this moment. thanks!

it was a great time indeed! even the kitchen sink enjoyed it! only sucky part was that i had just colored my hair and the new blonde roots made me forget my snowshoes! if there was ever a snow hike that snowshoes would have made a huge difference, this was one of 'em! not to worry, i just figure that the extra "umph!" it took with each step as the guys were gliding along on their shoes made my quads stronger for the next hike.

it was a pleasure to hike with such nice mountaineers and be back in the Sierra again. i especially liked the challenge of the summit day terrain from: snow hiking, climbing steep slopes, battling the steep icy rocky rib, to scrambling boulders, loose scree and finally climbing the waterfall pitch in double plastic boots. mountaineering definitely ain't for sissies!

turns out there is much discrepancy on the height of the mount. Secor states 13,960, Wikipedia says 13,930 and this morning our own En Fuego told me on Facebook that the recent National Dataset calculated elevation is elevation 13,773 feet. so whatever the height is, it's pretty darn tall.

Our objective, Mount Le Conte nearly 14,000 feet


This is one of Dave's photos, but it shows how much terrain we must cover. Me and the boys look like ants ahead.


Dave enjoying the the deep pow on this steep slope


The seemingly never-ending rocky rib we chose to do, to avoid...


...this steep slope that felt just too unstable


Again from Dave, part of the fun 400 foot rock scramble to the summit


Happy summiteer!


all of my pix are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... eApril2010#

Awesome TR and awesome pics.

almost forgot to post this...

this is for you Taco! Dave channneling his inner warrior.

thats the best one yet....love it.

norma r wrote:turns out there is much discrepancy on the height of the mount. Secor states 13,960, Wikipedia says 13,930 and this morning our own En Fuego told me on Facebook that the recent National Dataset calculated elevation is elevation 13,773 feet. so whatever the height is, it's pretty darn tall.

Our objective, Mount Le Conte nearly 14,000 feet...

Excellent! Always round up when talking summit elevations!!!

Great pics!

Most excellent! 8)