Advertisement: The northeast approach to Sierra Buttes is a moderately steep snow climb with a lot of rock features. One climbs up a gully surrounded on both sides by impressive rock walls, then traverses over them along a steep snow slope and finally up to the saddle adjacent to the peak.
More photographs. (Note: I forgot my camera in my tent, so I didn't take any pictures during the actual climb.)
Difficulty: Total trip length is 9 miles, 3100 feet of elevation. Roughly 600 feet of elevation and 3 miles to camp, and 2500 feet and 1.5 miles to summit.
Preparation: This climb was led by Rick Bauer at the Sierra Mountaineering Club. Ice axes, crampons, and helmet are necessary. Snowshoes at this time were necessary for the approach.
Camping
The first decision to make is whether to do this as a day hike or camp overnight. It's very borderline: if the road is completely unplowed (as for this trip), the climb is either a very long day hike or a very leisurely overnight. If the road is plowed further, the scales might tip in favor of a day hike.
Route
We start around 5-5:30am in the morning from our camp above Upper Sardine Lake. It was dark and routefinding was a challenge but expertly led by the event leaders. We took the moderately sloping gully heading south, which ends to the east of the peak, and then traversed over with the peak to our left, and then climbed up the final pitch to the saddle. We claimed the stairs up to the observation tower to the true peak. Descending, we took the ridge to the north and descended via Young America Lake.
Summary: A really fun moderately steep snow climb. One interesting thing was the southwest side of the mountain was almost totally snow free (and would be a easy winter hike) as if the snow had all been blown to the northeast. The views are decent, but what makes this a fun summit is the climb itself. 5/5
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| View of Sierra Buttes from camp above Upper Sardine Lake |
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| Traversing underneath the summit buttress (Photograph by Ignacio Castaño) |
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| View of Sardine Lakes from the final pitch (Photograph by Ignacio Castaño) |
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| Climbing under a small cornice at the top of the final chute (Photograph by Ignacio Castaño) |
More photographs. (Note: I forgot my camera in my tent, so I didn't take any pictures during the actual climb.)
Difficulty: Total trip length is 9 miles, 3100 feet of elevation. Roughly 600 feet of elevation and 3 miles to camp, and 2500 feet and 1.5 miles to summit.
Preparation: This climb was led by Rick Bauer at the Sierra Mountaineering Club. Ice axes, crampons, and helmet are necessary. Snowshoes at this time were necessary for the approach.
Camping
The first decision to make is whether to do this as a day hike or camp overnight. It's very borderline: if the road is completely unplowed (as for this trip), the climb is either a very long day hike or a very leisurely overnight. If the road is plowed further, the scales might tip in favor of a day hike.
Route
We start around 5-5:30am in the morning from our camp above Upper Sardine Lake. It was dark and routefinding was a challenge but expertly led by the event leaders. We took the moderately sloping gully heading south, which ends to the east of the peak, and then traversed over with the peak to our left, and then climbed up the final pitch to the saddle. We claimed the stairs up to the observation tower to the true peak. Descending, we took the ridge to the north and descended via Young America Lake.
Summary: A really fun moderately steep snow climb. One interesting thing was the southwest side of the mountain was almost totally snow free (and would be a easy winter hike) as if the snow had all been blown to the northeast. The views are decent, but what makes this a fun summit is the climb itself. 5/5
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