Charlotte Dome, near Independence, CA 8/30-9/3

Picasa Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/sierrasclimber/CharlotteDome83093

Ken and I left late Wednesday night and arrived at our usual camp site near Ridgecrest around 12:30am. Our hike in was delayed to 4:30pm, and we ended up camping at the lakes on the far side of Kearsarge pass. Friday we hiked the remaining few miles and set up camp at Charlotte lake.

Adam arrived at about 11:30pm Friday night and we agreed to get up around 5:30am to climb Charlotte dome. While Charlotte dome is one of Steck and Roper's 50 classic climbs, we figured the majority would be climbing the route on Sunday given the three day weekend.

From previous trip reports, the greatest challenge seemed to be route-finding (even with the aid of a supertopo). Fortunately, Ken and Adam were good route-finders, but even so, the 13 pitches took us about 10 hrs. We left the summit around 7pm, and after a long, heinous struggle we found the trail and returned to camp around 11pm.

We pretty much ate and slept for most of Sunday, which enabled a fast, easy 3.5 hour (8 mile) return on Monday from camp to the car.

Total rock-climbing distance: ~1,200 feet
Total mileage: ~26
Supertopo: http://www.supertopo.com/rockclimbing/route.html?r=hichsout