Ascents in Mammoth Lakes Area

Clouds were looking dark so we hiked up without any gear thinking we'd just check the approach out... but the weather was holding so we scrambled the descent route anyway. Great exposure up the top!!

mock lead

Mock lead.

First ever outdoor class 5 climb.

Fun little dyno

Stiff first moves

Mike lead this, I followed. I'd already lead a 5.8, and the gear needed to be cleaned, so felt no need to lead.

A good climb, generally good gear with one bit that was a bit run-out (for the grade).

Opening climb on this rock. Good climbing, good moves, and good gear.

It was the last day of the ICM, so I decided to push my lead grade a bit by going for a 5.9 trad climb. It was long, so I borrowed a few extra trad draws and since there were "seams" some small offset cams from Mike. I ended up using all the draws -- but none of the offset. It protected surprisingly well, though not without a few places where I might have wanted more gear.

Definitely a fun climb and well worth doing. I spent a bit of time looking for the (non-existent) bolted anchors.

8 of us headed up to Crystal peak with the ICM group -- the initial thought was that a few would be doing some cragging near the base, and only a couple teams go up the peak. As it turns out, we ran 4 teams of 2 up to the top, and I was leading for the 4th pair.

The climbing was generally easy, the gear generally good, and the rock alpine... meaning some loose, and be careful what you're doing.

The descent was very... alpine. The approach was long for the altitude, but on good trails.