Lone Pine Peak (12,949 ft)
Nov 11, 2023
Every year I try to do at least one big hike in the Eastern Sierra of California. I hadn't gone yet this year, but as the weather got colder, the window of opportunity was getting smaller and smaller. So, Veterans Day weekend, I called up some friends for an adventure before a forecasted snowstorm would end our hiking season.
On Friday, Fischer, Kari and I drove from SF down to Lone Pine, CA to meet up with Emma and David coming from SoCal. We checked three different campsites and countless dispersed spots in Alabama Hills before finally finding a site. It was a struggle, surprising for this time of year.
Lone Pine Peak (12,949 ft) happens to be the Mac OS Sierra default desktop (image credit: Apple).
Having visited Lone Pine a few times for other hikes, I've always wondered what it would be like to climb its namesake peak, which often gets mistaken for Mt Whitney from town.
After a poor night of sleep, we arrived at the Meysan Lakes trailhead by Whitney Portal around 6:30 am to begin the hike in the early morning light.
Beginning the hike on the Meysan Lakes trail
Grass lake, (11,000 ft). We left the trail here to go cross-country
After Grass Lake the trail ended and the scramble began. A traverse across easy slabby terrain led us to the other side of the lake and over a talus ridge.
Starting the scramble
Halfway up the chute
We located the chute which looked way too steep from afar, but it turned into the obvious way up when we got closer to it. Loose sand and rocks of all sizes stood in our way as we ascended the steep slope. Walking on this mixture was much harder than I expected.
Getting tired
Top of the chute at 12,000 ft.
Finally we crested the ridge and collapsed from fatigue on the flat bit at the top of the chute. Since David had hiked much faster, he went on to the summit, another 500+ feet up. The rest of us were too tired so we waited at the windless col, enjoying the views until David came back.
Back at Grass Lake
Frozen
Sliding down the scree chute felt much easier than going up but I started to hit a wall after being on tricky terrain for so long.
Sunset illuminating the mountains across the Owens Valley on our hike out
The rest of the hike down to the car went smoothly, although part of it was in the dark. It had been a cold cold weekend and we all felt the effects of the weather. However we were lucky to have no wind at all and the trail all to ourselves except one other group. On Sunday we stopped in Bishop and some hot springs on our way back to San Francisco.
