Mount Irvine Adventures!

Mt. Irvine is located in the Mt. Whitney Zone just outside Lone Pine, CA in the beautiful Sierras. It is turning out to be one of those mountains that we just can't seem to summit. Dave and I attempted in November of 2001, the weekend after Thanksgiving. What was supposed to be a mild approach to Lake Meyson and a summit attempt the next day turned out to be a lot of hiking in the snow and very cold snow camping. A late start (yeah, it's a common theme for our group) coupled with fresh snow prevented us from reaching the lake the first night. After camping on a switchback and being covered in another foot of snow, we set out for the lake the second day. The deep fresh snow, and our lack of snowshoes, broke our spirits and froze our asses. At lunch time we decided it best to retreat and try again later. What follows is an account by Dave and Bill of the latest attempt, March 2002, St. Patrick's Day weekend. It was taken from an e-mail forwarded to me by Dave, typo's corrected. ;)

Dave's side of the story:

My side of the story goes like this:

Bill and I had full plans on blasting this mountain like champions, but I got sick. I got sick as a dog. I had cramps, chills, headaches, snotty nose, shaky limbs, and just generally fucked up. I not only missed out on this mountain (for the second time) but I also missed out on Green beer and carbombs.

Fuck.

Bill's side of the story:

Well the mountains won that one again. Finally made the decision to go late, almost 7. I could not count on Ken to show so I was going to solo if it came down to it. I had pack for two people so I did have enough gear. I did finally get a call form Ken on my drive south, so we were going to meet up.

Driving over the 58 I got hit by a pretty good snow storm and was a little worried. I have heard that this weekend was going to dump. But I figure we would be ok on the other side of the sierra's. Driving up the 14 we had crazy winds 30+knots and shit. Finally made up to portal road and meet ken. Clear skies.

Woke up the next morning to see whitney surrounded by clouds. That was the only time the whole trip that I got to see the actual peak. The day was a little over cast and the mountains seems to fend off a storm on it's western faces, and the remaindering clouds would just pop over. That morning we lagged. We'll some of us lagged, and started hiking just past noon. It was cold as fuck, and the weather never got that clear. We hiked from 8 thou to 10 thou, and switched to snow shoes. That took about three hours. Moving pretty slow. We then went off trail to look for little Meyson lake. We thought that we might do Lone pine peak instead. It was a little lower and might be more attainable due to the weather, and time.

We ended up the approach at about 10350. Right at the cloud line. The could line would move about 500 vertical feet up and down. Sometimes we were in it sometimes below it. When we were in it, the shit was blowing hard. Kindda like basin mt. We put the tents door to door, and hunkered down. I had my tent to the wind. Which sucked ass. It was a cold night. I sleep in all of my clothes and was still cold.

After I woke from a little nap I decided to start cooking. I had ditched my cooking gear to try to shave some weight, since I had to bear the weight of my tent. Set up Ken's Dragon Fly and started the task of melting snow and boiling water. Jsut as the water began to steam, the stove cut out. Fucken piece to shit. I should of just used the luke warm water but instead I attempted to fix the stove. The pump unit was not delievering and I had no tools. In my weight saving furry of tossing out gear, I tossed out the leatherman as well. Luckily I had my MSR Ti spoon and was able to remove the main plunger valve, and tried to clean it out. Everything appeared to be in good condition, the stove is less than a year old. But it just would not work. After an hour and a half of trying and almost burning down both tents I gave up. Box of raisins, frozen chunk of cheese, and a bowl of crushed ramen made up my dinner menu for the evening. Oh yeah the ice tea tasted pretty good too.

The next morning, I waited for the wind to die, and maybe try a summit run but it never did. Till about 11, but the clouds just hovered a few hundred feet overhead and were thick and mean looking. I was weak, and it was the wisest thing to just come down. We packed up our shit and got the hell outta dodge. I can now add Irvine and Lone Pine peak to the ever growing list of peaks I have been spanked off of.

There you go Dave, my trip report. Oh yeah I cursed you about every other step of the way. Though it was probably best that you did not go, I would have at least had a stove that worked and some booze to drink. Much Love brother.

BS