Trip Report
Tenaya Peak
Sunday August 3, 2014 7:39pm
Getting yourselves up for a SIX AM departure from a cozy RV park in Lee Vining, say what you like, is nontrivial. But We Did That. I think they call it an "Alpine GMT-3" start.

The team passed the entrance station in Ms. Daphne's Vehicle of Universal Terrain with only a few grumbles at the preceding car seemingly waiting for the "Go on Ahead" sign to change.

The approach was going great until, suddenly, the pavement ended and it seemed we were supposed to travel on a dirt trail. Still, the trail was manageable. Despite that, we decided to try a new, grassy, steep, wet and untried shortcut to the start of the route. Daphne: "This sucks; find another way." We followed.

It got easier, so team phylp, JoeyF, Daphne and self scrambled a bit on actual rock. Roping up, we "simoed" for a few minutes when a soloist blowing by told us that we were at the end of "pitch 8" on our Supertopo topo (which topo, apologies, did not help us at all).

Some more scrambing/climbing, and super fun "traversing" at the top secured the summit, after which began the crux descent of, and I am not exaggerating, hear me now, SEVEN MILLION miles, down to Tenaya Lake.

Then a dip in Tenaya with, let us say, fewer clothes than might pass muster with the Pope.

top left corner top right corner
Probably that one?
Probably that one?
Credit: murcy
bottom left corner bottom right corner

There have been worse days.

  Trip Report Views: 1,873
murcy
About the Author
murcy is a concrete particular.

Comments
klk

Trad climber
cali
  Aug 3, 2014 - 07:43pm PT
awesome! philosophy on st!

HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
  Aug 3, 2014 - 07:45pm PT
Well done. Humourus writeup.

Went up there in early July but there was still too much snow on the upper slabs.
Do you have better beta on the descent? I've heard of 2 different ways, one significantly worse than the other.
murcy

Gym climber
sanfrancisco
Author's Reply  Aug 3, 2014 - 08:12pm PT

GPS on a smartphone helped us shortcut the longer one, but it took centuries anyway. Phylp has done both and recommends the trickier but much shorter find-the-bench one.
JOEY.F

Gym climber
It's not rocket surgery
  Aug 4, 2014 - 05:56pm PT
That decent was long!
Good times though, super fun having 2 parties enjoying the climb. Great to be out with all, a first for me with Daphne.
After myself, phylp tied in and said the line of the weekend,"I like a little more tail than Joe does"
Murcy and I kept quiet....


clinker

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
  Aug 4, 2014 - 05:53pm PT
Nice. Did this finally last year, Seems like it took twice as long to get down as to climb it.
tornado

climber
lawrence kansas
  Aug 5, 2014 - 12:56pm PT
cool. Is your profile pic the back of the hatchet?
scuffy b

climber
heading slowly NNW
  Aug 5, 2014 - 01:14pm PT
Nice. Fun day, right?
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
  Aug 5, 2014 - 03:13pm PT
Ha ha nice! I caught word of this ascent. Sounds like a great time to me! Wish I'd been around to cheer the fun!
Daphne

Trad climber
Northern California
  Aug 5, 2014 - 03:34pm PT
After surviving the descent (an interminable sorta-hell which involved lots of stops for discussions of our direction) I did some research on where the mysterious Sunrise trail intersects the descent. I think the trouble is it's such a long way to the trail that we started questioning ourselves. Next time I will opt for the ledges descent although I will allow for 2 hours since it also sounds awful.

The climb was a joy. Mark and Joey and Phyl are the best climbing partners ever-- positive, funny, supportive, intelligent-- we had so much fun together.
Thanks guys! Lets do something else soon.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
  Aug 5, 2014 - 03:38pm PT
I don't know...we have a decidedly new kind of pope.
kev

climber
A pile of dirt.
  Aug 5, 2014 - 04:35pm PT
I recall a quick decent involving 1 short rap which is weird as that means I must have brought a short tag line or something as I was soloing...I also remember doing it another way which had no rap and was a slog.
phylp

Trad climber
Upland, CA
  Aug 5, 2014 - 07:25pm PT
Ha! Funny write up, Murcy!
Joey has the right idea - wingsuits for the descent.
You forgot to mention all the WINE and GREAT FOOD!
It was a great time despite the wretched smoke.
xoxo Phyl
murcy

Gym climber
sanfrancisco
Author's Reply  Aug 12, 2014 - 08:25am PT
Tornado: hatchet, yes.
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
  Aug 12, 2014 - 02:56pm PT
Thanks for the TR. I love it! My idea of an alpine start keeps evolving to bigger and bigger numbers as I get older.

I first did this climb in the rain in 1977. We found a way down that I've used every subsequent time. It starts somewhat to the northwest of the Peak, and ends up near Pywiak Dome. We simply started down as soon as doing so seemed no longer to involve either ropes or death, and it kept us sufficiently entertained to make the descent seem like much less of a pain.

John
Go