Thompson, Powell

Mt. Thompson (13,494) and Mt. Powell (13,354) are located on the Sierra crest roughly 10 miles southeast of Mt. Humphreys and 10 miles northwest of the Palisades. The morning of Saturday, June 10th found our seven-person team slogging up the trail from Lake Sabrina to attempt them. Co-led by Bob Suzuki and Ron Karpel, the team included Joe Budman, Steve Eckert, Arun Mahajan, Linda Roman, and your scribe Jim Ramaker. After a few snow-free miles, we lost the trial in snow at around 10,500 feet above Blue Lake, then continued up to our camp at Sunset Lake at 11,500. Despite the mild temperatures, snow conditions were excellent, with good footsteps and no post-holing. Sunset Lake was surrounded by deep snow and still frozen over, but we found a wonderful camp in some snow-free ledges on the northwest side of the lake, with even a tiny creek next to it for water. The lake is in a spectacular cirque surrounded on three sides by mountain walls -- a great camp.

Location: Sierra Nevada, CA
Photographer: Ron Karpel
Email: ronny@karpel.org
Phone: 415-987-5109
Date: June 2000
ID: 20000610_09