Sierra's backpacking trip, 6/20-6/28/09

Ken organized a backpacking trip that started at Bishop's pass trailhead and finished at Lemark trailhead. There were seven of us at the start: Ken and me, Adam and his dad who flew in from NY for the trip, Lorinda and Evo who Ken met online, and Paul. Unfortunately, Paul injured his back hiking and had to hike out on the third day. We were very bummed to lose Paul and worried about his hike back (which fortunately went smoothly and only took a day). Our trip mostly alternated between climbing peaks and moving camp, so we had two nights at each camp spot. My favorite peak was Thunderbolt because it had about 20' of 5.8 to reach the summit. It was too tough to pull in mountain boots, but fortunately there were bolts on top with a piece of webbing attached. Here's an overview of the trip:


View 9 day trip - Bishop Pass - North in a larger map

Sat, 6/20: Hiked in from Bishop's pass ~ 10 miles
Sun, 6/21: Ken, Adam, and I climbed Thunderbolt peak – (14,003)
Mon, 6/22: Moved camp to
Tues, 6/23: Lorinda, Evo, and I climbed "Mt. Lorinda" (~12,300)
Wed, 6/24: Moved camp to
Thur, 6/25: Ken, Adam, and I climbed Mt. Goddard (13,568)
Fri, 6/26: Moved camp to
Sat, 6/27: All of us climbed Lamarck peak (13,416) except Ken who had climbed it a few times before and was needed for marmot duty (a marmot had chewed Adam's unsupervised pack). The peak was only a short distance from the pass, so after summiting we hiked out to the trailhead and went to Adam's favorite Bishop Mexican restaurant: La Casita.

Ken and I posing in front of a waterfall on day 3, hiking down to Le Conte meadow.

From close to far: Evo, Lorinda, Adam, Ken, Adam's dad.


Ken on the summit of Thunderbolt peak (day 2).


Ken and Adam close to the summit of Mt. Goddard.


Me, Evo and Lorinda on the summit of Mt. Lorinda.