The Thunderbolt - Sill Traverse

(5th in series about my 2012 trip to the High Sierra)

This photo was taken from the summit of Temple Crag, but the Thunderbolt to Sill traverse starts at the second notch from the right and ends on the summit of Sill, the prominent mountain in the middle of the photo.  It covers 5 peaks over 14,000 feet, but which of the little bumps they decided was a peak (and which ones they didn't) seemed a little bit arbitrary.

This little bit of Americana was visible from one of the Subee cool-down breaks on the drive up to the trailhead (the Subee didn't fare so well with the long climbs in the intense heat, and needed rests.  She's getting old, after all.)

We met back up with Chris for the one (Chris, Stolz, and Stolzie are all the same person, fyi)  We hiked in the night before, and this is Stolz trying to make sense of the approach beta in the dark.

Sunrise on the morning of.

The hike up involved getting going up this mini-waterfall to get around the snowpatch. Its like coffee, except it wasn't delicious and didn't make me shit.

GO, GO, GO!

At some point during the morning, Stolz and I got slow (Neale took this photo, see me and Stolzie in the distance?)  After food, I felt better.

We started scrambling.

We were mostly unroped.

The first summit is a 5.9 boulder problem that Stolzie hiked up.

Neale poses. 

My turn.

Lowering off.

Another of the summits.

Neale heads up to another of the summits.

Part of the traverse.

Setting up the rappel into one of the deeper notches.

Another summit, but the weather was going sideways.

Chris likes to free solo since he read somewhere that its cool, but me and Neale have decided that we're not into it.  However, on this route it was clear that climbing unroped was necessary in order to move fast enough.  In the end, it was fun and no big deal.  In fact, in retrospect it seemed obvious that we probably should have been unroped or mostly unroped on routes like Conness and Mathes' Crest, since ropes on those routes were really a pain in the ass (especially Mathes).  Of course, a month of climbing really helps to build confidence.     

We weren't fast enough, though.  We got caught in a storm.

We were a short distance from the summit of Sill, but the descent doesn't require going over the summit.  We were cold, and it was a short bit of unpleasant 3rd class on wet rocks, so we skipped it and went down.  There was actually one other summit where the true summit was a few feet away and a couple of feet higher, but it was a 5.8 boulder problem to get to the top of, so we skipped it.  So we only actually climbed 3 of the 5 summits - so, did we do the traverse?  You decide.  

Walking down the Palisade Glacier.

GO, GO, GO!

This photo isn't that pretty, but that's not really what was there.

The Subee was a the hero of the trip, handling the hot summer weather and the mountain ranges with aplomb.  I hate this, I hate hate hate this, but Neale took this photo.  I didn't take any heroic pictures of the Subee! What's wrong with me??