I had a long weekend for Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples' Day and was hoping to use it to get one or two more SPS peaks before the season shut down for the year with some snow. Shannon and I really wanted to climb Mount Russell to finish out our Sierra Fourteeners, but after some deliberation we concluded there was enough snow along the east ridge to reduce the likelihood of a successful ascent via that route. We figured we could also ascend the South Slope, which is the usual descent route, but we didn’t feel that was very good style, so we turned out sights elsewhere.

After some discussion, we settled on Mount Kaweah, mostly because it was our last remaining SPS Emblem Peak, though we hadn’t been to Mineral King in a little while either, mostly due to the drive. And so, just before noon we settled on a plan for a quick three-day outing and set out packing as quickly as we could, as the drive was a tough 7-to-8 hours. One minor complication is that a storm was forecast to move in on Monday, from north-to-south. It was expected to hit us at home in the early afternoon, but Mineral King was supposed to be spared until the evening, another reason to head south.

There is much discussion online and in print about the fastest route to the Big Arroyo, near the base of Mount Kaweah. Bob Burd believes it’s via Glacier Pass and Hands and Knees (a.k.a. Cyclamen Lake) Pass. This route, however, involves crossing two cross-country passes, with little on-trail hiking over the course of the route. Secor claims that it takes about the same amount of time to follow the trail over Sawtooth Pass, past Columbine Lake, and then down Lost Canyon and past Big Five Lakes. A third option is to cross Glacier Pass, but drop farther down, heading north towards the trail over Black Rock Pass. While this route entails an additional 1,000’ of climbing over the Hands and Knees Pass route, it follows a good trail. We checked the maps and concluded that we would try one of the Glacier Pass variants, but would leave it as a gametime decision based on the difficulty of crossing Glacier Pass.

Shannon took care of most of the packing and we were on the road around 4, heading south, then over Tehachapi Pass, then stopping for dinner in Bakersfield before driving the final, windy 2 hours to Mineral King. Once in the valley, we found a discreet place to pull over and get some shuteye in the back of the car. After fucking around with out sleeping pad and bags for about 30 minutes and waking up our neighbors (whoops!), we were conked out.