Thunderbolt Peak--Memorial Day weekend, May 1999
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3 day weekends over one's half birthday are not to be passed up so it was off!
peak bagging in the Palisades. Friday afternoon I BARTed to Fremont to meet
my ride, a quick stop then Sabrina and I set forth into Memorial Day traffic
to Yosemite--the southern route in through the Merced river canyon is quite
pleasant--and over Tioga Pass which had opened that very day to the Eastern
Sierra. Meeting Stanley and Chris Jain the next morning we pooled gear--there
wasn't quite enough for two racks so Chris and I pored over the guide to 
find a route all 4 of us could go up and picked out a minimal but hopefully
adequate rack. Then it was off 'neath blue skies and craggy peaks past lakes
1, 2 and 3 to set up base camp in snow clad Sam Mack Meadows--a somewhat
busy wee spot what with us, a group of skiiers from the Sierra Club and a
couple of other parties. That evening it transpired that Stanley hadn't used
iceaxe and crampons leading to moonlit discussions between Chris--whom
Sabrina addressed as Christopher, most disconcerting when you're used to your
full name being reserved for occasions such as "Are you having difficulties
Christopher?"--and I about whether to let him come and the difficult 
decision he shouldn't. I had another sleepless night in a tent on snow then
Stanley saved us the trouble by deciding his body wasn't up to it and that
he'd head out and hotspring-wards. The rest of us got off to a sub-alpine
start (not quite early enough to be an alpine start!) for our chosen 
destination: Thunderbolt Peak, a touch over 14,000 feet, via the class 4 route
up the Underhill couloir. Partway there Sabrina decided she was too slow and
turned back not wanting to hold us up: and then there were two. The attrition
stopped there though and after a steep slog up the couloir we gained the
notch. Roping up shortly after we ascended rock to the summit ridge and 
reached the peak. But not the very summit--a steep sided block loomed a 
little higher than us, requiring "creative rope tricks". "Do we really want
to go there?" "Yes!" came the reply. A veritable engineering project got
Chris to the top, I took my turn, then we headed down. It was now far later
than it should have been and as we reached the notch I was torn between
admiring the beautiful evening light and thinking that this wasn't the place
I wanted to be seeing it from...Later in the descent I enjoyed perfect 
cramponing conditions by moonlight. After a much warmer night abandoning the
tent in favour of sleeping on earth we headed home, getting back in time
for me to make a last minute tired and smelly appearance at storyreading
--where I was apparently very hyper...