Harlan WS
August 6,7 2017

Walt H was on his yearly pilgrimage through the west, and was interested in a Sierra hike; Jim M joined us.  The monsoons had been drenching the area with rain, and it was a high snow year, so we picked a goal with southern exposure and modest distance. We went up Emerson (13204') by the S face, a route that has a long boulder-filled gully and about 100' of class 3 in the last 200' of vertical climbing. Even though the weather gods called for rain, we got just a few drops.  The accumulated ascent is over 4000'. Jim had been on "Thoreau" the previous day, and had been in rain much of the time; that peak also requires about 4000' accumulated, so Jim did damn well.

I planned to drive home that night, but got tired, and decided I had to stop somewhere soon.  First choice was White Mt to practice snow skills on the remaining snow fields... but the thick clouds and heavy rain were a disincentive.  So I went to Lida Pass, set up in the rain, and got up early for Magruder, a sagebrush bald on the S side of the pass. I had driven by this mountain for 13 years, thinking some day I would stop and climb it "on the way" to or back from the Sierra; in 2015, I tented at 7450', and woke up to 6" snow, which didn't bode well.  Finally.