It was the second-to-last weekend of our Mammoth Lakes workcation. Shannon and I were planning to try and do the Evolution Loop in a day the following weekend and wanted a bit of preparation in advance. With that in mind, Shannon mapped out a route out of Onion Valley that went up and over University Peak, down the southwest side to the John Muir Trail, and then took a side trip up East Vidette before returning back to Onion Valley via Kearsarge Pass. Ambitious!

We were a bit on the fence about whether to go through with this plan. Smoke from the various California wildfires had crept into the Owens Valley and dispersed a bit each day. The AQI was well above 200 in the valley, but more reasonable up in the mountains. We decided to give it a try but be willing to turn around if the smoke demanded it.

We got up and out the door early and managed to set off from Onion Valley at about 6:30. While the smoke was awful down in Independence, it was capped with an inversion and was quite pleasant up at Onion Valley.

We set out from the very busy Onion Valley parking lot up the trail towards Kearsarge Pass.

Independence Peak high above Onion Valley. On our way up the trail we passed a hiker we had ran into on Mount Agassiz a few weeks prior. She didn’t remember us, but we recognized her.

We stopped for a mini breakfast break at Flower Lake, trying not to disturb the campers nearby before following the less obvious trail towards Matlock Lake. We did better following this route than I had the last time.

University Peak above Matlock Lake.

We continued up, past Bench Lake and onto the North Face of University Peak. I think we chose a slightly worse route than the previous time I had climbed this peak as we climbed through 200 or 300 feet of really shitty rock just above the small tarn at the base of the peak. It was all embedded in crumbly sand and just fell away as we stepped on the rocks. Taking care not to dislodge anything too large we eventually got onto more stable rock and began making quicker upward progress.

Shannon climbing the North Face of University Peak. From above, we spied another pair making their way up. They seemed to have observed us from below and then, for some reason, climbed up the same poor route we had chosen.

We also noticed the cap lifting off the inversion in the valley, permitting the smoke to start rising up into the mountains – gross!

We continued up and up on more stable rock. At around 12,600’ the obvious route up the left side of the north face narrows before continuing up a faint ridge. There were cairns scattered here and there, but they weren’t much use to be honest.

Just before 11:30 we gained the summit ridge and started the tricky scramble over to the summit. The previous time I had climbed this peak (this May) there had been a bunch of snow on the ledges here, which made it very spicy. Even without that additional obstacle, there were a bunch of short class 3 climbs up and down to traverse over to the summit. Soon enough we reached the keyhole slot, crossed through, and climbed up onto the summit rocks.

The view of the upper part of Bubbs Creek and the Great Western Divide from the keyhole.

Mount Brewer and the two Guards. This was the only direction where the air was mostly clear, and offered the best view.

Looking northwest in the direction of Mount Bago, Mount Gardiner, and Mount Clarence King. After maybe fifteen minutes on the summit, the other two climbers joined us, climbing up on the other side of the rocks. They were quite nice, a couple from LA doing a little vanlife vacation.

The other climbers took a couple of photos of us.

During an extended break on the summit, we surveyed our options. It was a bit later than we expected to be on the summit, about noon, and the smoke had wafted up and was worse than we expected. The prospect of heading down and into Kings Canyon National Park didn’t seem quite as appealing now as it had eighteen hours earlier, especially with the possibility of suffocating smoke settling in. So, we opted to just make it a one-peak day by heading back down to the car. For variety, we decided we’d go down the East Slope past Robinson Lake.

I tried to sign into the summit register, but since my visit in May it had been left open at some point and water had gotten in and destroyed the book, so we just left it alone.

Armed with a new plan and the confidence of my having successfully navigated the kind of tricky East Slope from above one time before, we traversed back off the summit for the vague notch and then dropped off the peak to the south. The route was the same as I remembered, sandy and littered with small pebbles, and a little bit of a navigational challenge, but I remembered all of the major landmarks along the way: an impressively overhanging rock next to a cliff that you walk around and down the other side of, and then the plateau next to the moraine. Before long we were sweating through the scrubby pines in the upper reached of Robinson Creek.

Looking down at Robinson Lake. It was getting to be a bit of a barbecue scene: hot and smoky. But we continued on, making steady progress through the talus. The easier grade helped.

It was four o’clock by the time we reached Robinson Lake. We stopped for a big rest here, as it was the first water we had seen in many hours. Also, there was a bunch of shade, which made for a very pleasant retreat from the heat of the day. After cooling off and refueling with some gummy worms, we headed down the Robinson Creek Trail. While this trail isn’t much compared to the Kearsarge Pass Trail, it was much easier than most of the previous miles of today’s hike, and our sore feet were happy for a break from the talus.

By 5:30 we were back at the car, ready for some air conditioning and a break from the smoke. While we hadn’t managed our original plan, we still had a great day out, especially given the challenging conditions. We cranked up the air conditioning and headed down into the Owens Valley, where the car thermometer hit the mid-100s. We picked up gas and cold drinks at one of the reservation gas stations but otherwise didn’t stop until we were back in the cool alpine forest in Mammoth Lakes.

Having hiked 97 miles, climbed 33,500’, and submitted eight SPS peaks in the last eight days, I was ready for a bit of a break. It seemed my timing was pretty good too, as I had had mostly great weather and little smoke over that stretch. It was only in the past couple of days that the Dixie Fire picked up steam and started blowing smoke south towards us.