Palisade traverse attempt: Thunderbolt, Starlight and North Palisade

The Palisades keep drawing me back. They stand austerely far away from the glances of the crowds (non-mountaineering folks mostly still are not aware of their existence). It gives me strange joy when someone asks me "so where did you climb", and to my reply "in the Palisade regions of the high Sierra" they respond with an empty stare.

After the Gayley and Thunderbolt trip around May 1st, I had been mostly pre-occupied with research and had been using that as an excuse to sit on my ass all day and eat waffles. I did run a slow 4:37 Pasadena marathon, and made that first in 2011 trip to climb El Whampo (5.7, 5 pitches) at Tahquitz with Dan Berisford. But that's pretty much it - further worsened by Echo Mountain run induced ankle injuries. So scare was a natural state of mind when I found myself facing a 3 day trip to traverse across the Palisade ridge, involving 5 jagged peaks above 14000 feet. Especially because my partners on this trip (The Kedrone, Patrick and Jon the Wiseman) are in common parlance known to be some of the fittest hikers around who also poke you with a stick (or ice-tool) if you lag behind. Patrick and Kedrone had also climbed Russell East Arete the week before, so I was also worried that they will have much superior acclimatization than me. But in retrospect, looks like garlic and gingko IS the way to go (gingko having the additional advantage that you won't be mocked upon by your girlfriend for having a perennial bad breath)!

We set out June 23rd 7.30 PM from Pasadena, and drove up to the high Horseshow Meadows campground to spend the night, next to a gushing waterfall on the roadside. Next morning, after stuffing ourselves with donuts and bagels at the appropriately named "Donut and espresso shop" in Lone Pine, we went to the ranger station and collected our permits. We soon reached the South Lake trailhead, and by 11.30 AM, we were stomping across the trails headed for the 12400' Thunderbolt Col. The hike in was mostly uneventful but had great views as usual. The undulations between Bishop Pass and Thunderbolt Col led to extended swearing and spitting on my part. By 6 PM we reached our small campsite hidden between rocks right at the Col. We melted snow, ate and drank, and soon were ensconced in our sleeping bags. We did not bring tents and the calm and clear night sky full of gazillion stars and occasional shooting stars lulled us to sleep.
Only to wake up at 3 AM. By 4 AM, we were cramponing up the semi-icy Southwest chute #1 of Thunderbolt.
We reached the notch between Lightning Rod and Thunderbolt at around 6.30, and soon thereafter we were at the summit block after some class 4. Peak number 1 done, 4 more to go.

We downclimbed the 5.6 chimney (which seemed much easier) as advised by Stephen. Some class 3 slabs, and we were at the top of Underhill Couloirs. I later saw some other climbers descending the alternate (to the 5.6 option) class 4 slabs, and that was scary (3rd picture below). We then scrambled some exciting class 4-5 to get stuck at a point where we saw rappel slings. Like the Donkey in Shrek 3, who can not but eat waffles wherever he sees them, we could not but rappel when we saw slings. So we rappelled. Jon had stayed back at TB and would descend later on his own.
Now we reached a chimney, which I thought looked easy. I started free-soloing it, but very soon found myself doing 5.7ish moves, and so I stopped at a ledge. Kedron then led it placing adequate pro, and belayed me and Patrick. It was a bad idea to climb that thing in boots since there were some slabby moves which I slipped on (good that the prussik belay held). By 12 noon, we had climbed the phallic Milk Bottle of Starlight Peak. 2 done, 3 more to go.

A couple of fun rappels (including a twist-and-shout one at the gap between Starlight and North Pal), some more class 4 and we were 50 odd feet below North Palisade's summit block. The wind had now picked up. The class 4 route on the east side of the summit was all snow covered and looked super sketchy. So we roped up again and climbed the 5.5 chimney variation. Roping up takes time! Especially with 3 climbers. This meant it was 4.30 PM or so when we reached the summit of North Palisade. 3 done, 2 more to go.


I was here a year ago on the Caltech Alpine Club's winter mountaineering trip, and knew well the way back to U-Notch. The key is to immediately jump down the summit block, and not traverse west. Some more fun scrambling, 2 rappels, and we were at U-Notch. Time was 6.30 PM. We almost immediately started climbing the class 4 to Polemonium. But almost immediately, we also discovered a collective dip in will-power. We knew the terrain now was much less technical and that we could do it if we tried. But it was too windy for our morale, and as The Kedrone said, we decided to sand. We then downclimbed the west side of U-Notch. Some scree, and big crevasse shaped holes left in the ground by the waterfall. But overall an easy downclimb. It was 9 PM when we reached camp. I was too tired to eat or talk, but still pretty happy.
Next morning we woke up when the sun was so high and strong it almost perforated through our sleeping bags. Marmot at the campsite, deers at Bishop Pass going from somewhere to somewhere. The Palisades shone, enticing me to come back to finish the traverse. We hiked out the 10 odd miles, and rewarded ourselves with dinner at Still Life Cafe in Independence.
Peter Croft calls this traverse a Magical Mystery Tour, and now I can see why.

(All pictures courtesy: Patrick, Kedron and Hamik)