Peak 10824 Hike
(Thursday, July 4 in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness, CA)

I got the idea in my head to climb Highland Peak while reading Bob Burd's Peak reports. Since its not too far from my family's cabin, I thought it'd be fun to give it a go as part of my training for hiking Mount Whitney in August. At almost 11,000 feet, it would be the higest I've ever been - a good test to see how I fare above 10,000 feet. The plan was to hike on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) to Nobel Lake, then cross country over Peak 10824 and Highland Peak, continuing on to Silver Peak if we felt ambitious (which we wouldn't). Barry (my father) & I started hiking at around 9:30. There was a nice meadow right next to the parking lot. The PCT trailhead at Ebbetts Pass had a bazillion signs warning of various things, and after making sure there weren't any surprises, we were on our way.

There were wildflowers everywhere along the trail. Corn lillies, aster, paintbrush, lupen, and various other flowers whose identities I will leave to the more botanically-inclined. We didn't make very good time on the PCT, as we were stopping every few hundred yards to enjoy the scenery and take pictures, but we weren't in any hurry. We met a surprising number of hardy backpackers (6, in several small groups) who were hiking the whole PCT. A woman who was soloing the PCT commented on how clean we smelled :)

We saw a pair of snow plants, which I hadn't seen in quite a while. The trail descended into and back out of a canyon, then up the south side of Nobel Canyon. There were a bunch of seasonal streams crossing the trail, and a couple of full-time ones, the last being Nobel Creek. After crossing Nobel Creek, the trail switchbacked its way up a ridge, eventually dumping us out at Nobel Lake. This was a nice little lake, but we didn't linger long, quickly finding the use trail that leads up to the saddle between Peak 10824 and another numerically-named peak to its right.

We passed a mucky pond and campsite above Nobel Lake, then headed across a small ridge towards the mountains. We periodically lost the use trail on our way to the main ridge, but it was obvious enough where we were heading. It was fairly steep going getting up to the ridge. Thankfully, the terrain was easy enough to walk on. This would change shortly!

When we got to the ridge, we had a clear view of Peak 10824 high above us. It looked somewhat intimidating! The mountain rose steeply as we hiked up it. Our progress was hindered by the very loose scree covering the mountainside. Every step forward would slide back up to a foot. We found some patches of more solid talus and walked on those when possible, but it took us a good long while to get to the rock mass about halfway up. I could feel the altitude slowing me down, but wasn't suffering from any symptoms of altitude sickness, which was encouraging. We decided we definitely wouldn't attempt Silver Peak, and even Highland Peak was in question, given how slow we were going and the time. The ground was a little bit better after we went around the rock mass, but it got steeper, and I had to use my hands for balance in a few places. As we rose, the views opened up all around us. We could see Bull Lake, Highland Lakes,and a bunch of Sierra Crest peaks.

At around 1:30, after some fun class 2-3 climbing, we arrived at the nearest (and lowest) summit of peak 10824, elevation 10450. Given the hour, we decided this was our turnaround point, so we relaxed for a little while, taking a bunch of pictures, eating, and enjoying the wonderful views. I was somewhat disappointed at not reaching any of the summits, but so it goes - there's no sense in risking being caught out after dark. If the route to the true summit had been obvious (it wasn't), I might have gone for it, but it looked like it might be a bit tricky, and I'm not at all experienced in rock climbing, and so erred on the side of caution. I took a couple of panorama picture sets (1, 2), and the obligatory summit shot.

We eventually tore ourselves away from the view and headed back down the mountain. This was much easier than climbing as we slide-stepped down the slippery scree. It was fun heading down, except that rocks kept getting into my hiking boots - I was wishing I had gaiters on. I had to stop about halfway down to empty my boots, but in short order, we were back at the low point of the ridge, and followed our faint trail back to Nobel Lake. At the lake, I put some moleskin on the not-quite-yet-healed blisters from my hike up Monument Peak the previous weekend. I took the opportunity to eat some more, noticing that I was well behind on my calorie intake. I was nearly out of water, and was glad I'd asked Barry to bring along his water filter. I half-filled my 100oz water bladder from a stream going into Nobel Lake, and we continued on our way back.

The hike back across Nobel Canyon was lovely, but it was a bit of drudgery going back over the ridges that separated us and my car. I was ready for the hike to end about 2 miles before it did, and mosquitoes were aggressively munching on me (note to self: bring insect repellent, stupid!). We got to the car at around 6:30, and drove back to the cabin.

This was a much more difficult hike than I had anticipated, largely due to the looseness of Peak 10824, but it was a lot of fun. The abundant wildflowers were an unexpected bonus!