Mammoth area: Wheeler, Bachar, Abbot 8/4-8/5/07

Ken and I headed up to Bishop Friday night and camped at the buttermilks. On Saturday we hiked about 3.5 miles to Wheeler peak to check out couloir conditions and acclimate to the altitude (in preparation for Sunday's hike/climb up Mt. Abbot). From what we saw the Wheeler peak couloir did not look well-formed, but the rock route on the ridge to the right could be pretty good. After the hike Ken introduced me to the Bachar boulders near mammoth.

This bouldering area was super!! The Bachar boulders are conveniently close to the 395, have virtually no approach, safe landings, and a bunch of fun vertical to slightly overhanging problems. Not a destination (since it's about 6-6.5 hrs drive from LA and smaller than the Bishop bouldering areas), but if you're passing through mammoth in the summer time, it's a must-stop!

Sunday's trip up Mt. Abbot (13,701) was a challenging mountaineering experience. It was only my 3rd mountaineering trip and first day trip. We started hiking from mosquito flat campground around 7:30am, and after about 2-3 miles on trail we headed up the drainage to Mt. Abbot. The 3-4 miles of off trail approach was generally friendlier than the talus scramble from last weekend's attempt at Mt. Thompson, but it was still difficult! We simul-climbed the 800ft snow couloir which went from a moderate slope to about 50 degrees, with some patches of hard ice on the last 100ft or so. Ken led the rock pitches (on the left side of the couloir) to the top, which turned out to be much more challenging than the 5.0/5.4(?) grade implied. We summited around 5pm, and then began the descent. We descended the opposite side of the couloir, which also appeared to be the more traditional route up Mt. Abbot. We were out of the snow field by about 6:30pm, made it back to the trail about 2 hrs later, and returned to the car around 10pm. It was a long day, but I'm already looking forward to the next trip. :)

I lost my camera on the descent of Mt. Abbot, but here is a picture of the couloir route.