Traverse of Pinnacle Ridge

This ridge looks rather interesting. And it has an important role in the geography of the Whitney region: Separates the North Fork Lone Pine Creek drainage from the South Fork basin. The views upward to the Whitney needles and downward to the basins on each side are wonderful and unique, especially in early season with snow around.

The challenge of traversing this ridge is more one of navigational adventure than of interesting climbing sequences. Virtually all of its north side and much of its south side has a very steep wall. But the wall are mostly a reasonable distance apart, so there's usually options for which side of the crest to try to go on, or how far below the crest to try to go.

The rock mostly comes in larger chunks than other granite ridges in the Sierra (e.g. ridge south of Mt Whitney, nearby Mt Carillon, and Little Lakes Peak farther north), and more smooth and slopy rather than lots of positive holds like those other ridges. So only a minority of the gendarmes can be climbed up one side and down the other, a fun special thing about ridge routes - (even is climbing up the one side is fun + interesting, it feels disappointing to then have to go back the same way, since the idea of a traverse is to go forward. And many of the obstructing towers cannot be climbed free at all (at difficulty grade anything like low 5th).

Not many knife-edge sections. Narrow ridge-crest sections near the East end have a blunt top.

strategy

The traverse was historically reported to have similar difficulty in either direction. It's easier to access the low points near either end from the South side. Likely easier approach to use the well-maintained Mt Whitney trail to gain as much vertical as possible, which favors starting at the West end (which also fits with camping the night before). The longest sections of less-interesting climbing (or walking) are near the East end.

The key drawback with this approach is that getting a wilderness permit for South Fork Lone Pine Creek section of the Whitney Zone is usually more difficult than for the North Fork section.

Trying it from the north side indicates starting at East end, then after completing the traverse, either try to rappel down north from the West end, or hiking down the south side then hiking east and then north up over Pinnacle Pass to return to North Fork -- or climb up Third Needle and over the Mt Whitney summit to descend the Mountaineers Gully.

some details E to W

From Pinnacle Pass, walk W up gentle, then a little scrambling to reach a small high point. Avoid some large blocks to get over it and down the other side. Soon some narrow sections which can be taken on the crest. Next down along S side, some gentle walking. Next up a narrow loose gully (with some interesting climbing), then up a long ramp with scree. Just after passing through a hole, climb up side wall about fifteen feet to reach a rock ramp (still on the south side below crest high above). Up left on this (with a couple of harder sequences to get around left side of steep obstacles), then back right, and up and further right (finishing with a slabby/slopy sequence) to reach the crest at lower point. Cross over to the N side, then scramble up along the N side of the crest mostly non-difficulty to reach a higher point (N36.5738 W118.2773) in the midst of the East part of the ridge.

From here various ups and downs and getting around obstacles by going low or lower. Next down a little then up to reach the highest point (N36.5736 W118.2795) at the East end of the central high section, next to the other highest point (N36.5741 W118.2817) at the West end of the central section, and on to the low section at the west end - (which is below the least-difficult route continuing up to the Third Needle, which is on the high ridge south from Mt Whitney).

difficulty

Historically this traverse was said to be 4th class, in either direction. But there have been no reports in recent decades, and

one recent report

found several sequences significantly harder than that. Perhaps some holds have broken in recent decades. Or the route was so long, taking the time to place protection in multiple sections would have been too slow, and the early explorers had done it solo anyway, so nobody had a sense of how it would work with using a rope (as giving it a class 5 grade would imply).

Anyway lots of old Sierra (like most other mountain regions) difficulty ratings are now seen as too low. I doubt many climbers have done this route in recent decades, partly because the rock is not the style most of feel to be "fun" nowadays, and because the other route it logically sequences to on Third Needle is not felt to be "fun". But also because the obvious easy way to access both ends of this traverse is from South Fork Lone Pine Creek, and it's more difficult to get permits for that side -- and the south side is not perceived by modern climbers as having other routes of interest to make it worth sleeping there for multiple days to motivate the advance planning and cost of getting a permit.

Traverse of Pinnacle Ridge

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Pinnacle Ridge