I had some dayhikes planned for the weekend but nothing concrete. Ari texted me inviting me to join in on the Sierra Challenge on Sunday. I figured it would be a great chance to try for a harder peak that I wouldn’t be comfortable climbing on my own. Clyde Minaret had always been a goal of mine. Its cliffy spire dominates the skyline across much of southern Mono County.
I did a mini-sierra challenge of sorts: four SPS peaks the previous weekend, two on Friday, and one on Saturday. Clyde would be my eighth SPS in nine days. (Including three days of work in the middle).
Ari, Mitchy and Jojo all camped with me in the yard that night, and we all drove together to the trailhead in Jojo’s Delica. We arrived 15 minutes before the 6am start, and there were already some 30 people amassed at the Agnew Meadows trailhead. Jojo wanted a longer day, so he drove to Red’s Meadow, and planned to add a 10 mile run on to the morning and meet us on the mountain.
As every minute ticked away, people would scream “7 minutes”, “6 minutes” etc. so people knew if they needed to hasten their packing or not. I found this helpful, and enjoyed the atmosphere of the mass start. This stood in stark contrast to the starts of my mostly solitary peak bagging earlier in the summer.
At 6am sharp, most of the group gathered for a picture, and we were off. I found myself right by the trailhead. Many of the other hikers were faffing around with their phones, starting a strava segment, or perhaps too nervous to take the lead. I had been on this trail a few times before though, so I started hiking down the trail. My Sierra challenge lead was shortlived however. Within 30 seconds, ten running vest clad runners had darted past me and out of sight. I maintained a steady but quick pace, as the trail slowly winded down towards the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin
The next few miles flew by. Starting in such a big group really helps make for a quick pace. We very quickly reached Shadow Lake and started to keep an eye out for Jojo, who would surely come running up any minute. At Ediza Lake, the clump of ten or so of us split up. Half turned to Ritter, the actual challenge peak of the day, and half of us towards Clyde Minaret, the main alternate peak. It took us only two hours to cover the first seven miles. We maintained a steady 3.5 mph pace despite the elevation gain.
A large group sat down for a break at Cecile Lake. Ari insited on grabbing water and continuing onwards. It was her third day on the challenge, so I was just along for the ride. I would have been amenable to a short break, but it did feel good to pass some of the people who had run by me at the start.
Clemence, the french phenom who was leading the challenge, was a few hundred feet above us. Ari, Mitchy, Parker and I formed the chase group. We climbed higher and higher above the beautiful lakes below. There are two options to get into the start of the Rock Route. One involves a 5.5 chimney, the other one involves crossing the glacier. Mitchy had been itching to get onto some tougher terrain. For the rest of the party Clyde Minaret was right at our level of climbing, but he seemed annoyed to be spending his one day off that week on such an endurance focused objective. He shouted up to Clemence to ask for beta on the crack, and Clemence shouted out a brief but encouraging “There are good hands”. This gave Mitchy the encouragement to take the shortcut with Clemence while the rest of us took the big switchback across the glacier.
Luckily, a large crack formed in the glacier exactly where we wanted to cross. We did not have to don our spikes, which would have not done us much good on the icy glacier. A bit of scrambling and a nice ledge brought us into the chute.
The chute was quite steep, but there were lots of good holds. Luckily the holds were not as friable as other parties had reported on. Since there were three of us, we had to take turns and communicate about rockfall.
The exposure towards the lakes below grew and grew. While no individual move felt that hard. I was climbing near my ropeless limit for most of the 2,000 feet, which can really get the heart pumping.
Eventually, the chute reached the ridge, and the route allowed us to spread out more. I got ahead of Ari and Parker, and found myself near the summit. At the start of the day, I put my odds of summiting at around 50/50 so it felt incredible to be so close now. I could see Mitchy and Clemence above nearly at the summit.
On the ridge now, only one class four move separated me from the summit. Luckily, the move was not that difficult, and I had Mitchy to spot me below.
After downclimbing the class four bit, I leaped and bounded the remaining easy rock to the summit. It felt incredible to be up here on the roof of the skyline that I had stared at for so many years. The precipitous dropoff towards the lakes below felt almost unreal. Panoramic views abounded in all directions.
Soon, Ari, Parker and Mitchy joined us on the summit, and Clemence prepared to head north to solo the 5.8 Michael Minaret along with some other sketchy objectives. I wished him luck. Mitchy almost joined him, but backed out at the last minute.
The four of us enjoyed the summit, and took our first sustained rest of the day. We began to see other members of the Sierra Challenge appear on the ridge. We had not seen Jojo all day, but assumed he had decided to go for a longer run instead. No matter, we would find a ride back from someone else.
One can’t stay atop a mountain forever, so all too soon we headed down. The descent was a little scarier with all of the people on the route. Rockfall was always on our minds, and we had to communicate consistently to ensure eachother’s safety.
A couple hundred feet up the ridge, we saw Jojo bounding up the route. He had gotten a later start on his run, and apologized for the delay. We were elated to see him, especially so close to the summit. Our group was all looking forward to getting back on solid ground though, so we agreed to meet him at Minaret Lake.
The descent went quickly. We crossed the glacier again, and were all happy to be back on easier terrain down by the lake. I felt proud to have felt comfortable on this steep route. Years of hiking and scrambling had gotten me to this point. We walked a few miles to Minaret Lake, and I took a swim while we waited for Jojo there.
We mustn’t have been at the lake more than 20 minutes before Jojo came jogging up. We all walked back together to Red’s Meadow, which made the day into a satisfying horseshoe. We drove up the dusty road back over the Sierra Crest at Minaret Summit. I gazed in awe across the valley to Clyde Minaret. From this angle it appeared an impossible spire, jutting sharply into the sky. I almost didn’t believe that I’d just been up there. Now, every time I see Clyde Minaret on the horizon, I am filled with that same feeling of awe and accomplishment.
Anthony Ottati 