Middle Palisade

On Friday, September 6th 2008 me and my friend BJ left LA just past 2PM and headed for the Palisades in the Sierra Nevada range. We got to the ranger station 5min before it was to close and had to negotiate with a ranger for a permit since obviously they wanted to go home a bit early. Just before sun set we were at the campground next to the trail head. We went to sleep and waken up around 6AM. After eating and packing our stuff we were off at 7:20AM. Last civilized washroom break and our official start time moved to 7:30AM. After less than 1h the trail changed into a steep uphill climb. However, after just three hours we reached Finger Lake. We taken a short cross country route at a small lake and arrived at our destination early. Starting elevation was 7700ft, base camp at Finger Lake was at 10700ft. Total distance from trail head to base camp was just over 5 miles. We unpacked and taken a food break for one hour. We started in the direction of Middle Palisade at 11:30AM. The route goes to the right of the finger lake, through large boulder hopping fields and under a glacier. Then you go onto a scree hill from which you go around 50ft to the left, along bergershroud of the glacier. At this point hardest part of the climb begins – first 20ft to get you off the glacier and onto a ledge that leads to the main shute. Once on the main route climbing is steady class three until the summit block. At the summit block we spent at least 20min looking for route to the top – turns out it’s around 50ft below end of the route to the left. We were on the top at 3:30PM after climbing 3300ft and going over 2 miles in distance. We stayed at the top a bit, taken lots of pictures, I made a short movie and then started our descent. Before dark we were back at the base camp. After eating my massive meal I went into my sleeping bag for a well deserved bivy under the stars. The following day we hiked out in 2.5h. On our way back we stopped at hot springs as well as at a WWII memorial site. I was back home before night has fallen. This was a great trip and for the first time in a long while I hiked during the day and slept during the night – as I think is more natural choice for most people.

Click thumbnails to see larger image and more detailed explanation of what is shown on a given picture.

waterfal from the top	view from the top at our way back	view from the top - other side
unknown mountains	taking a break at finger lake	still long way to go
standing at the top	small waterfal	small lake where trail goes to finger lake
right side of the glacier	rest of palisades	palisades crest
other side view	old broken register taken to be fixed	more great views at foot of palisade crest
looking down from the top	left side of the glacier	lakes looks like a crater
lakes from 9000ft	lake from above	high peaks and a glacier in semi circle
glacier from above	glacial moraine from the top	getting closer to climbing part
from the trailhead top looks close	finger lake in the morning	finger lake from top of mid pal
finger lake from the river outlet	finger lake from above	finger lake at our base camp
finger lake 2	climbing the last few feet	big smile with shaky legs
at the top for the first time	Last lake on way back	BJ sleeping in our small campground
BJ relaxing few 1000ft above solid ground	BJ getting some water from lake at 11000ft	BJ at small lake

Album created on 2008-09-08 and last updated on 2008-09-08