Temple Crag

I had heard of Venusian Blind (13 pitches 5.7) for a while, but honestly never thought I’d climb it. Carlos and I had a successful first climb together on Crystal Crag. We talked about it a bit, and figured if ya seen one crag you seen em all, why not give Temple Crag a go.

We set out alarms for 3am, and planned to be on the trail by 5am. Carlos was going a little bit too fast through Bishop, and we got pulled over by a CHP officer. Luckily we got a break, and didn’t get a ticket.

It was just before 5am when we set out on the trail. I threw the rope over my pack, and Carlos packed the rack. We donned our headlamps for the first hour as we waited for the sun to illuminate the eastern horizon. To pass the time, we practiced our spanish until the sun rose.

I wasn’t too excited to get out of bed so early, but upon seeing Temple Crag for the first time, I was full of energy. What a beautiful mountain. What a treat to get to climb such an aesthetic line, and on an SPS peak to boot!

The approach continued to go well, and after 3 hours we were at the base of the climb. We simuled up a 5.6 chimney to bypass the glacier, and continued on simul for quite a bit of 3rd and 4th class terrain.

Now we were at the base of the arete. High in the air above the talus below. The arete extended up into the cliffy upper reaches of the peak far above. As I do not know how to lead on trad, Carlos would lead all 13 pitches. I threw him on belay, and he began to climb up into the abyss. The climb started off well. Carlos lead each pitch quickly and I tried to clean each pitch as quickly as possible. It felt great to be so high up on the wall. The views down to Big Pine Lakes were stunning.

Occasionally, if the going looked easy, we would simul for a bit, but we mostly pitched it out. The 5.7 felt comfortable for me, but once or twice when we strayed from the route, I got close to my limit. Luckily I was on top rope. Carlos mentioned he would like to free solo the route on his next outing, or try the nearby darkstar arete. Couldn’t be me.

As we got near the top, I began to get more and more tired. I had never done a climb anywhere near this long. Each pitch was easy, but the cumulative effect of all of the pitches began to wear on me. I had Carlos check the supertopo, and we still had 5 pitches to go! Luckily Carlos found some gear off the route, and this gave me some extra long belays to recover. I dug deep, and pushed on. Luckily the last few pitches got even easier, and we were even able to simul some more near the top.

Finally we topped out, and emerged on the edge of a giant scree slope. We met some InyoSAR members engaged in a search effort. They were happy to hear that we had just cleared Venusian Blind, and did not see any evidence of the missing person. I had met one of the Inyo SAR members down in Bishop earlier in the year, so it was funny running into her atop a mountain. We left our belonging on a rock, and hiked the final 300 vert to the summit. I was filled with a great sense of accomplishment. I stood proudly atop temple crag and took in the awesome views of the Palisades.

We didn’t have much beta for the descent. I had heard there was a 3rd class route, but we were not seeing it, so eventually we rapped down to the pass.

As we got closer to 3rd lake, the descent sped up. By the time we hit the trail, we were almost at a light jog. We began to see a lot of dayhikers, which was a bit of a shock after seeing no one but InyoSAR all day. Three older women asked us what we had climbed, and we gestured up towards Temple Crag. “No way, you went up THAT?” one of the women said in disbelief. “I’ve never seen so many carabeaners in my life”, another women told Carlos. I took one more look back at Temple Crag. I have to admit, I shared in her disbelief a bit. From afar, the arete truly looks like something I am not capable of climbing.We trotted on, and before we knew it we were back at the parking lot fist bumping after another incredible day in the mountains.