Mount Agassiz with SoCal Peakbaggers

pics by Harlan W.S. and others
Aug 20, 2011

Another great trip organized by Kathy Wing. The folks in this group are great.

I almost didn’t go; 2 days before the trip, the doc called and said my X-Rays showed that I had fractured my ankle. The next day, a specialist concluded that the fracture was old and healed; my foot/ankle pain was due to an encapsulated ligament, from a previous injury. Wonder of wonders-- the day after the hike, my ankle felt the best it had in 17 days.

Ah the irony. My biggest problem was from a prostate medication that lists “feeling like you might pass out” as a side effect. And indeed, when I started up from Bishop Pass, I had bad vertigo. So I “played to my strengths” and went up a class 3 ridge adjacent to the gully; I couldn’t balance on loose rock, but I felt great climbing up bigger boulders. The medication wore off enough that when I was on the peak, I began to feel quasi-normal.

As a group, we turned out to be the walking wounded. One fellow had a stress fracture in his foot, and later injured his knee; one woman had painful neuromas in her foot.

24k topo map of route.	100k topo map.	Google Earth synthetic, view from N; the top of Agassiz fades into North Palisade.
Google Earth synthetic, view from NE; Bishop Pass to R of peak.	Google Earth synthetic, view from NW. HWS denotes route I took on ascent.	OK, now real pictures. We start off ~6AM from near South Lake.
Agassiz is the prominent peak at L.	The crossing was submerged, so we went to W around it.
		Columbine.
Heading up tight switchbacks below Bishop Pass.	View WNW to Mt Goode. The big boulder is a landmark for Agassiz.	Sad-looking polemonium.
Craig J just below.	Tommey raced by me 30 seconds below the top… but actually missed the highpoint! He asked me, “is that the highpoint?”	So I said “yes,” and took a pic of him. The higher Palisades are to his L; the most distinct points are Sill (L) and N Palisade (R).
	I think this is Mt Robinson.	Yep, this is from the same point in the picture above. Dan didn’t catch me at full leg extension, because he felt it was more important for me to live.
The Ladies arrive! View toward Dusy Basin.
	Tina and Kathy.
Tommey.	Kathy.
Ivy (R) and I (L) pose! Pic by Craig J. I hadn’t planned on doing this stuff, because of the vertigo, so I hadn’t stretched. This pose was a comedy of errors; one of us would be ready, but the other wouldn’t. Craig finally caught this compromise.		Starting down… this time I’ll stay in the normal chute.
Tina, view back up.	Folks near the final snowfield.	Inconsolable Range in back.
	We came down the right-most chute, carefully avoiding the steep hard snow.	Tommey trucks out!
Heather with bee.	More heather.
Heading N, just below Bishop Pass.	Cinquefoil.	Rockfringe.
Rockfringe, granite gilia, and onion.	Pale version of scarlet columbine.	Magenta penstemon.
	More penstemon.	Larkspur.