Mount Starr

[Uncle Rico]

Yesterday, Keith and I met up and tackled Mount Starr which towers over the Little Lakes Valley at 12,864’. It’s easy access from the end or Rock Creek Road which is part of the attraction. You can easily get it as a day hike and still have time remaining.

I went up Friday afternoon and camped at Horton Creek just outside Bishop. Keith drove up from Orange County very early Saturday morning and picked me up at 6:30 a.m. We were at the trailhead by 7:30ish and on our way shortly after that reaching the junction with the Mono Pass Trail about 15 minutes after we began. I was initially concerned about both inclement weather and smoke from the Garnet Fire, but neither materialized and we had clear sunny skies and cool temps the entire day.

The Mono Pass Trail climbs gently out of the valley above Mack Lake for about 1.5 miles before hitting the short spur to Ruby Lake. Here, you can great looks at Lookout Peak, Mount Abbot, Ruby Peak, and the front side of Mount Starr. Continuing on, the trail switch-backs up the southern flank of Mount Starr before topping out at the barren moonscape at Mono Pass.

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Here, we got our first look at the route up to the summit. There’s actually a few use trails to begin with, but those braid pretty quickly and pretty much fade leaving you to just pick you path up. We angled off to the right (south) because the slope looked less steep and then made our way across the long and rocky ridge that involved mostly class 2 (maybe some class 3) scrambling.

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After rock-hopping across the ridge for a bit we made it to a rocky prominence that we originally took for the summit block. But the actual summit is just a bit past this outcropping so we had to clamber maybe another 0.1 mile to reach the formal summit. From the top, we were treated to exceptional views into the Little Lake Valley to the east and the eastern edge of the desolate Mono recesses and beyond north. Looking south, we also good great views of Starr’s ridgeline that we just traversed.

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For the return, we decided to drop off Starr’s western edge thinking that might have provided an easier path down. It didn’t. It was extremely steep, rocky, and loose, but we never cliffed-out or had to back-track. For me, it was actually more taxing going down than it was ascending and my quads had had it by the time we reached the Mono Pass Trail.

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Once back on the established trail, we descended back to Ruby Lake with the idea of climbing Lookout Peak on the way out. In fact, that was the original plan that I concocted when I asked Keith if he wanted to join. But back at the lake, we legs were done and there was no way I was going to get Lookout. Keith seemed game, but graciously allowed me the out, so we took the spur to Ruby Lake instead where I thought I might take a swim, but then had better of it after I touched the frigid water. So we hung out by the lake for a bit listening to some folks speaking Russian (I least it sounded Russian to me) before retracing out path back to the parking lot.

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Nice little peak with breathtaking views. Highly recommend.

Stats for the day: 9.9 miles; 3,136’ elevation gain.

[tekewin]

Thanks for the invite. This was a wonderful hike in a gorgeous area. I was glad to squeeze in one more Eastern Sierra peak before winter. My photos were very similar to yours.

[Sean]

Thanks for the report and pictures! It looks amazing out there. Nice scrambling.

[Girl Hiker]

Gorgeous pics. I remember a friend talking about that peak the last time I hiked around Rock Creek. I am happy to see you both summit. Was there a register or benchmark?

[Uncle Rico]

There is a register at the summit. I did not see a benchmark, but also did not look too diligently for one. Maybe teke saw something that I didn't.

[Nate U]

Can't wait to get out to the eastern Sierra! This is just the sort of thing I want to do. Next time.