Southeast Face 5.4

I love alpine, for me there is nothing better. I love the long days, the sketchy downclimbs, route finding, using my brain, and exhausting my body. I have been working my way through Sierra peaks this summer, Mt Emerson makes my 12th peak this year, and my 5th technical peak. As an added bonus, this was the first time I have climbed something in a Supertopo book that was not swarming with people! We actually had the mountain to ourselves.


The hardest part about alpine is finding the right partner. The young bloods I have met at the gym can climb strong, but seem to lack the endurance, enthusiam and time to climb in the High Sierras. Luckily I recently met a fellow via. Mountainproject who just moved to the Central Valley, who is itching for some challenges.
Last weekend we climbed Crystal Crag, and with that success we headed to Bishop this past weekend to climb the Southeastface of Mt Emerson


We roped up and climbed through the crux, I lead a second pitch, before we unroped and began around 1500' of 3rd and 4th class scrambling



We reached the summit ridge where the real fun began. This really was the highlight of the climb. We came to a short section of knife edge, my testicles decreased in size by 70%, so we roped up again, and I lead through the section. Its amazing how being attached to a rope increases confidence!


Not long after, we were relaxing on the summit


Then the long descent. A couple thousand feet of loose class 3 scree and sand. Not exactly pleasant


Overall, a fantastic climb. I can't wait to make it back into the mountains. If only the smoke from the Rough fire would clear a bit!