First on Judah this year?

I had a day to myself and decided to wander up to the Sierras to see if there was maybe something to hike. I brought a book (Diemberger's Omnibus) and figured I would hang out and read. I was thinking that the next day I would finally take a shot at doing Pyramid Peak in the Desolation wilderness the hard way - via the 4000 vertical feet in three mile Rocky Canyon route.

I got up around Donner and was looking at Castle - it looked too snowy and I'd been on there in winter. I was going to just go take a look at Judah since I've never actually done the liberty trail hike that everyone else uses to get to the top.

When I climbed it with my son before I found a broken plastic marker pole for Sugar Bowl. I pulled it out of my trunk figuring I would use it as a walking stick - much smarter move than I ever would have thought.

The steep initial section of the trail normally has switchbacks, but on this day it was just a wall of snow. The snow was soft and sticky and easy to kick steps in - steps which held. The stick worked like a much lighter version of my ice axe, allowing me to dig in for a good hold and feel comfortable on the exposed slopes.

When I got to the main trail there was the typical creek running down the middle of it. Also, large sections with lots of virgin snow (no one else was on the mt. as far as I could tell). It was only about noon and I was still in the 'I'm just going for a little walk' frame of mind. It was much more snowy than the previous year and the walking stick became more and more of a need to have item. When I reach the point in the trail(after some route finding) where it reaches the wide ski runs of sugar bowl before circling back I looked up to see if there was a way that wasn't snowed over. Sure enough there looked like a viable route up the Western headwall, via some weird, steep rocky areas.

I kept thinking I wouldn't do it, but then quite suddenly decided to.



It was steep enough that again i used the pole like an ice axe - both for distributing weight, and to use as a hold. On some very steep parts I'd transfer my weight over it to relieve my legs. I'd never done that before (a standard ice axe move) and enjoyed it. As expected, I was able to skirt much of the snow. However, there were the occasional mud rivers that almost sucked my shoes off.

The top was different than last year. There was a lot of snow on the top with a huge overhanging cornice all along the eastern exposure. I was very careful to climb the 1/2 mile or so to the true summit well back. It was windy as always (20 mph), but i was fine in shirt sleeves. My new mountain hardware shirt - supposed to wick the sweat away - acutally worked. It was great.

Saw the mountain marker on the ground and figured I must be first up this season. Replaced it and rebuilt the cairn.

Going down was easy, and I really felt how all my conditioning this year was paying off.

Till next time.