Gearing up for a winter ascent of the complete NRLPP

All Locations > California > High Sierra > 14 - Whitney &… > Lone Pine Peak > N Ridge (5.6 4c 14 V 12 S 4b)

Gearing up for a winter ascent of the complete NRLPP

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looking back down toward the owens valley

North Ridge, Lone Pine Peak

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Scotty Nelson

May 10, 2010

“Gearing up for a winter ascent of the complete NRLPP”

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Nearby Photos

the notch

North Ridge, Lone Pine Peak

OSX High Sierra wallpaper annotated

Finding the decent gully. Annotated photo.

Features on North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak.

start/end of approach ramp noted

looking back down toward the owens valley

Gearing up for a winter ascent of the complete NRLPP

North Ridge, Lone Pine Peak

Lone Pine Peak's North Ridge

the long ridgeline

first thought-provoking crack

Caroline Schaumann on the North Ridge, Lone Pine Peak

David on tower 2 approaching the hand jams corner on p3 of the sketchy far east chimney variation.

looking down the n ridge

Matt passing the leaning flake. The downclimb for the tower 1 bypass is slightly down and climber's left.

rest of the crux section

Caroline Schaumann after the short approach to Lone Pine Peak

final push

The North Ridge follows the obvious right skyline of Lone Pine Peak. The ridge line dropping to the left and then towards the camera is the North East Ridge which is also supposedly quite good but requires a lot more hiking and thus a significantly longer day.

the rare and very cool foxtail pines (Pinus balfouriana) found around Meysan Lakes

snow in the notch

A view of the towers from the notch marking beginning of technical climbing.

notch before the summit tower

Start of tower two goes up this corner.

I turned off the trail at 10,000 feet, as suggested by the Croft guide description. The approach ramp is in the background.

easier ground before the summit

I had a satellite image loaded onto my GAIA app on my iPhone (very useful!), clearly showing the descent gully that goes all the way back down to the lakes. This is the only one that does not cliff out.

more easy climbing

Mike pulling a short grunty move

Lisa Pritchett and Dave Burda getting an early start on the North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak.

Ally approaching the cat walk

early season ice

Winter ascent of the complete NRLPP

fixed pins mark the start of the crux

the first major obstacle

Knife edge somewhere on the N Ridge

Keeler Needles & Whitney peeping over the right-hand skyline

ridge to the summit tower, many ways to go on the tower (we went right)

heading toward the leaning flake on tower 1

the many towers that make up the n ridge

The correct descent gully. All others apparently cliff out.

view to the west

the leaning boulders in early season

looking down to the Owens Valley

final slabs to the summit

chossy downclimb into the notch

crossing the slabs

many towers left to go

The 5.7 layback. NOTE: You CANNOT see this from the ground below. After about 45 minutes of trying various options, I found the easiest way to get to the layback was to just climb blocky terrain directly above the notch.

The 5.7 offwidth above the layback. Protects with a #3.

looking down the alternate approach

Miguel just before the crux

slabs on the alternate approach to the ridge

looking upcanyon toward LeConte and Mallory from the approach ramp

alternate, more technical approach to gain the ridge

on tower 2 before the crux

Mike investigating a harder variation

Looking north up the eastern edge of the Sierras and the Owens River Valley from the North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak.

looking down from the final summit tower

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