We slept in a bit before waking up and enjoying the lovely morning.

Another shot of North Palisade and Mount Sill from camp.

At 8 we set off for the upper lakes of the North Fork of Big Pine Creek and then up to Cloudripper.

A family of ducks in Seventh Lake. The hike up to Seventh Lake was easy. Then, we set off cross country avoiding the boulders to our right and climbing through meadows and light forest. Soon, we hit the chute up to the saddle east of Cloudripper and followed a faint use trail up.

Shannon climbing towards the saddle. There’s an awesome view from here.

After a short break at the saddle, we set out up the northeast ridge of cCloudRipper. The first 400 feet of climbing were a tiny bit loose, but above there it was fine. We easily rock-hopped to the summit and were there just after 11. The final summit rocks offered a brief bit of class 3 climbing to a small perch.

The impressive view south to the Palisades from the summit of Cloudripper.

Mount Agassiz and Mount Winchell to the southwest.

The Black Divide to our west.

Mount Goddard and the southern portion of the Evolution Group.

Mount Darwin.

And Mount Humphreys all the way across the Bishop Creek drainage.

Looking back down at the lakes of the North Fork of Big Pine Creek.

I thumbed through the summit register before signing it. It seemed this peak is quite popular, perhaps owing to a combination of its easy access, easy climbing, and impressive-sounding name. There were several entries about “ripping clouds” on top of Cloudripper.

And a declaration that “SIERRAS ARE EXTREME.”

Plus a climber who was “the most shook [they] have ever been.” We stayed a while longer, enjoying the view and a lunch break before heading back down.

The way down was easy, though the loose section between about 12,600’ and 13,000’ was a bit more tedious to descend. Descending the chute below was also not quite as easy as we hoped, it was filled with rocks that were a bit too big and a bit too loose to really make it easy. Once back at the lakes, we tried to follow a different route back to Fifth Lake. Instead of rejoining the trail near Sixth Lake, we followed the creek directly down.

Another (different?) family of ducks.

We had a little bit of trouble navigating the southwest shore of Sixth Lake. It was a little bit brushy and had some small outcroppings that we had to negotiate.

Mount Sill and Mount Gayley through the trees above Fifth Lake. Once at Fifth Lake again we had to cross a small talus field to rejoin the trail, where we headed down and stopped to refill water and have a rest at the lakeshore.

Mount Sill through the trees.

We were back at the lake at 3 and after refilling our water bottles and our stomachs, we hiked back to our campsite, packed it up, and headed down the trail. It was much quieter out on this Monday afternoon than it had been on the Saturday we hiked in.

Impressive Temple Crag from below.

We stopped at Instagram Point again, which we had all to ourselves, to admire the view before continuing down.

Temple Crag from slightly lower down.

Tiger Lillies along the trail.

We continued down, through the river gorge and out to the exposed trail. It was pretty hot down lower in the sun, and we had to take a few breaks in the shade. But soon enough we reached the shadow cast on the trail by Mount Alice and the flat section back to the parking lot.

Middle Palisade and Norman Clyde Peak high above the South Fork.

We passed a couple of more parties, mostly families out for walks, and one very stoic looking mountaineer who told us he planned on climbing Mount Sill the next day. We were somewhat confused by his 6PM start but figured he wasn’t planning to sleep too much. We wondered if he would be successful or not.

Around 7 we reached the car and changed into clean clothes and comfortable sandals.  We didn’t waste a ton of time before getting in to head north. After all, we had burgers to eat. When we returned to Mammoth we were pretty tired. We tried to order takeout from the Mammoth Brewery, but to our dismay were told that they were only doing dine in. Not having the energy to search elsewhere, we obliged and sat out in the beer/free-range children garden and wolfed down our burgers next to a loud game of cornhole before leaving. It wasn’t the relaxing and rewarding burger we were after. We’d soon discover some slightly easier post-adventure restaurants.

In all, it was great weekend and an excellent start to a long stretch of adventures in the Eastern Sierra. It’s easy to see why this area is so popular, but despite the crowds it’s also not hard to find some relief from the hordes, just don’t camp at Second Lake or Third Lake.

I took the next week off to go for several day hikes up and down 395, enjoying the mountains and continuing to make progress on the SPS list.