Mt. Russell

Mt. Russell is one of my favorite Sierra Peaks.  I first laid eyes on this beaut when I climbed Mt. Whitney in 2007. When I think of Mt. Russell, I think of hand jams. There are splitter cracks that shoot up the face southeast face, mainly concentrated to the left of Mithral Dihedral, which is the corner system on the lower left of the mountain prictured above.  Mithral Dihedral itself is a beautiful corner system that goes at 5.10 for about 400 feet or so.

When I climbed Mithral Dihedral with Allen Higgenbothem in 2009, things went unexpectantly.   The whole trip was spurr of the moment, to tell you the truth.  We drove down there after meeting in Tuolomne Meadows one evening and hiked halfway in at night, woke up the next morning and finished the hike up to Iceberg lake.  We brought enough stuff for just two days.

We climbed Western Front the first day.  We were punked out by some flat landers, who had been spraying about their mountaineering experience the night before, and we let them go first.  Turns out, they werent used to the elevation and were awful at route finding.  We ended up getting stuck behind them, sitting for hours at each belay.  They refused to let us pass.

Watching them climb the upper crux was epic and it scared the shit out of me.  It is a 10c lie back pitch where you dont get good pro for a good 10-15feet (keep in mind this is at nearly 14,000′).  The guy got up there and he was just thrashing up there, he had elvis leg and the whole body shakes/convulsions.  It was terrifying.  I thought he was going to fall.  He got a piece in was lowered and then his partner proceded to do the same.  Then, it was my turn.  I got up there, climbed up the corner and then got to the spot where I could place a good piece of gear, but I couldnt get it clipped.  I was way too gripped and couldnt do it.  I grabed the piece and cliped the rope in.  I have been weary of lie backs ever since.  We toped out as the sun was setting and did the tricky route finding off the mountain in the dark.  We still curse those men who slowed us down that day.

Allen and I getting psyched for tomorrow’s climb up the Western Front.

The next day, we made the decision to stay.  We wanted to climb Mithral Diehedral and it turned out that one of our new friends up there got altitude sickness and left all their food with us.  We looked at this as an opportunity, so I ditched out on work and we stayed for another day.

Mithral Dihedral had been calling me to climb her ever since I saw her in 2007.  It is a very aesthetic feature on Russell that you can see clearly from the top of Whitney. Allen got the first pitch in the corner.  We were using 70m double ropes and Allen wanted to climb the full 70m length of the rope.  Well, if anyone has ever belayed for a pitch thats 70m, it takes FOREVER!  I was pertched on a little belay ledge and my ass fell asleep.  As a shifted my weight, trying to get some blood flow to my cheecks, somehow my approach shoe came unclipped and tumbled off of my tiny ledge!  Nooooooooo! I looked for it on the descent, hiking back to the base of the climb, but no luck.  We had to hike out that night, so Allen, being the gentleman that he is, loaned me his climbing shoe to hike out in.  I owe him a resole.

Well, this story is not over.  As we returned back to our base camp, we noticed there was a ranger sniffing around.  We had left out a jar of honey and so he had been waiting for us to return.  We tried to explain to him that we left the honey out because it was in a sealed bottle and no martmot would be able to open the jar.  None-the-less, he had no symphany and proceded to ask us for our permits.  BUSTED!  We had no I.D.s, no Permits and in violation of the food storage law.  Dang it.  We were fined about $300 and told to get outa there.  And this was cutting us a break, we were originally looking at $600 in fines.

 A few weeks later, Allen’s friends from the Valley found my shoe and returned it to me. We had seen them on Fishhook Arete while we were climbing Mithral, and convinced them to come climb the Dihedral the next day.  They found the shoe wedged in a crack near the start of the climb.

Mt. Russell is magical.  That weekend was one of the best weekends of my life.  Did I mention there were meteor showers at night while we were there?

I’ve been back, on my own, to climb the East Ridge, which is a fun 3rd class ridge line.  This line will take you to Russell’s second peak on the right.  The approach is from Upper Boyscout Lake. Head up the broken cliff line to the east of the lake.  Traverse to the far east side of the scree field and scramble up on whatever solid rock you can find. You’ll make your way back westward to the top of this ridge. If you glance to the East, you’ll see another mountain peak that you can go bag (the name escapes me right now).  But, keep heading west and you’ll be able to see Russell’s ridge line from there.  Try to stay true to the ridge.  If there are any difficult sections, drop down to the east side and bypass it.

Mt. Russell’s East Ridge Line

Fishhook Arete is a classic climb that goes at 5.9.  This is probably the most popular route which climbs another aesthetic feature on the mountain.  You can see it in the photos of Russell at the top of this page.  Find Mithral Dihedral and look for the ridge/arete that is to the lower right and goes to the top of the Mountain (to the left peak). Most of it goes at low fifth class and is blocky.

I would love to go back to attempt the link up  between Star Trekkin, Bloody Corner and Mithral Diehdral, in day (car to car).  All are on the same face and go at 5.10.  If you are feeling good, add on Fishhook Arete.

For more beta on any of these routes, I recommend Peter Croft’s book, “The Good, The Great and The Awesome”. Falcon also released a guide for the High Sierra (has really good historical information in it) and so did Super Topo (only look at this if you like being spoon-fed beta).

Me on top of Mt. Russell. Thats Mt. Whitney behind me.