Big Pine Lakes 2021
Cloudripper summit
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Index <<Previous Next>>
A
highlight of this trip was summiting Cloudripper, at 13,525 feet
elevation, around 2400 feet above our camp at Sixth Lake. The
climb turned out to be more difficult than expected. A saddle
between Seventh Lake and Thunder and Lightning Lake was our first
goal. The slope to the saddle consisted of talus fields and scree
with small rocks mixed in. Climbing was easier in the
talus. It was quite windy on the saddle. We found a good
use trail heading up from the saddle that mostly stuck to the Big Pine
Lakes side of the ridge and eventually went to the top of the
ridge. A relatively flat area between Cloudripper and Vagabond
Peak was reached, followed by a climb up more talus to near the summit
of Cloudripper. The summit block has a couple of class 3
moves. We'd call this climb almost entirely class 2, with the
class 3 summit. Awesome views!
Journal Entry: Another beautiful day! Packed our day packs and prepared camp for a day trip. Started walking around 8:30. Steady uphill to the bottom of the saddle slope. No class 1 route to be found—solid class 2. Talus hopping up to the saddle with gale-force winds! Continued uphill on a good use trail, then easy terrain followed by more talus. Last section involved a bit of class 3 to the summit. Signed the register and enjoyed the far ranging views! Hazy toward Owens Valley but really not bad haze in other directions! Got to the summit around 12:30. Started down at 1:30, taking different route down to the saddle between Cloudripper and Vagabond Peak. Mostly the same route the rest of the way to the saddle, then followed a scree-ski trail most of the way down. Back to camp around 3:30. Awesome summit hike! Quite a bit harder than I had imagined, given the class 1 description.
 saddle over Seventh Lake |
 saddle ahead |
 saddle ahead |  Mt. Alice and Temple Crag over Sixth and Seventh Lakes |
 view north from saddle, Thunder and Lightning Lake |  view south, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Lakes |
 view back at the saddle |  Thunder and Lightning Lake and saddle, Baker and Hidden Lakes |
 Cloudripper summit ahead |  Vagabond Peak |
 view northwest, Table Mtn. and Mt. Humphreys |  South Lake, red above to right is Piute Crags, just behind Table Mt. |
 Big Pine Lakes below |  view south, Sill, North Palisade |
 close view of summit block |  summit rocks |
 Ruwau, Long, Chocolate Lakes, Chocolate Peak |  Baker and Hidden Lakes, Sky Haven |
 zoom on Sill and North Palisade, Palisade Glacier |  Ron & Steve with Palisades |
 Mt. Darwin in center, from saddle between Cloudripper and Vagabond |  Clark's Nutcracker in Whitebark Pine |