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| Home > Hiking in U.S.A. > Mt. Russell |
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MT. RUSSELL by Alex Chen Mt. Russell is the not-so-famous peak adjacent of its southern Mt Whitney Peak. Since the peak is also over 14 thousand feet, we decided to give it a shot. Coach Quang told us that as long as we did not get vertigo, we would be fine. We did our usual test hike on Friday, but to our surprise it snowed a little. We pitched two tents at the trailhead and tried to get some sleep. This time we decided not to have a hot breakfast to save more time; so we woke at 4AM and started hiking at 4:30AM. The weather looked fine so we were not too concerned. We went up the same route as Whitney MR with some shortcuts, and split off after the slabs to head up north. This was where the hike got much tougher. The ground was mostly made of pebbles that would go when stepped on. Just like East Baldy, we fought through the tedious uphill. It seemed endless, and all of a sudden the wind started to pick up. It became significantly colder and I had a pounding headache that worsened as I got to higher elevation. When we finally reached the saddle, the wind picked up again and we were considering turning back. There were no clouds around, but the irregular cold wind made our steps unbalanced. Quang and Jack loaned Hester and I their extra hats to keep our heads warm. At that moment, we all doubted our possibility of success. I asked the team to take an early water and food break. After the short rest, it was like a miracle that I somehow felt better. So we continued our hike towards the class 3~4 section. We dropped our day-packs and carried the camera and water up the ridge. Here, the rocks became remarkably solid but extremely cold. We had to climb the freezing rocks with our bare hands and it numbed our fingers, but it seemed that the wind had died down quite a bit. Without a minute to waste, we charged up the ridge. It was my turn to lead; Quang had told me early on that here was where our guts would be tested. I scrambled up a few large rocks and kept telling myself to stay to the north side of the ridge, according to the information posted online. At one point of the climb, I looked to my right and it was sheer cliff, so I figured if I climbed up the rock I was laying on, there would be solid ground on the other side. When I hugged the rock and reached over to see the south side, I was shocked to see that the rock I was hugging was the ledge of the south cliff. There was nothing else to do but to just continue up the rock. We reached 3 fake peaks only to see another peak behind it. We were worn physically and mentally. I somehow knew that this next peak was the final one; and when I mentioned it to Hester, she became emotional and I felt adrenaline kicking in. Reaching the final peak was really tough. Our coach had lied to us; it was much tougher than Mt Whitney-MR. Now all that was left was to descend without slipping to the void. We tried to take a different but easier route back, only to end up stuck in a few rocks that were escaped by using class 4~5 descends. I was relieved only after we got out of the class 3 sections. From there, we “skied” down the pebbles all the way back to the slabs and then continued the long hike back in the dark to our car. It took us 16 hours. This is a hike that I will remember for the rest of my life. See Photos of Mt. Russell hike Read about other hikes: Strawberry Pk Clamshell Pk Cactus to Tram Sugarloaf Mt. Whitney MR Mt. Russell Cactus to Clouds Iron to Baldy |
© copyright 2006 Hester Han. All Rights Reserved.