We slept in the next morning, undisturbed by the various parties heading up and down for the popular mountains in this area. We got up with the sun, had our coffee and breakfast, and packed up and headed down for the car. The hike out was mostly uneventful. Down to Lower Boy Scout Lake, across the creek, down through the brush. We mistakenly veered too close to the edge at the Ebersbacher Ledges but we easily course corrected, turning and traversing the ledge at the same spot.

Down below we passed a large, guided group who had climbed Mount Whitney the previous day. We had seen their camp and guessed it was a guided outing. We negotiated a passing of their party along the narrow trail as they stopped for a drink of water, and continued down. It wasn’t long before we made the left onto the Whitney Trail and finished the easy hike back to the car, where we changed into comfortable clothes and grabbed our wallets before heading back to the Whitney Portal cafe for a burger and fries before the long drive home.

With our stomachs full and our sense of adventure somewhat satiated (for a while at least), we headed back north on 395 past Bishop and Mammoth, over Sonora Pass, and back home to Oakland.

A couple of days after returning a friend texted us a news article about a fatal climbing accident on Mount Russell over the weekend. While the details and name weren’t released initially, they came out later and I recognized the name as one of the party of three we had encountered on Thor Peak. They had signed the register before us and I noticed their names. Some more details came out informally on a forum site indicating that they hadn’t fallen in the snowy section, but a little bit farther up on their descent. The news of this accident tinted my memory of an otherwise great weekend. While we hadn’t met for long, I felt quite sad for the loss of a fellow climber who clearly loved the outdoors and the Sierra Nevada and reminded that accidents like this can happen to anyone.