Sierra Nevada - John Muir Wilderness

On June 22-23, 1963 a combined Sierra Club and Explorer Post 360 group made an attempt on 13,960' Mt. LeConte. There were 40 people in the group of which 16 were Post 360 members and 4 men.

Mt. LeConte sits on the Sierra Crest roughly halfway between Mts. Langley and Muir, the two most southerly 14ers in California. By a mere 70 feet was it left out of that coveted list, and as a result it gets only a few dozen ascents a year instead of several hundred. The summit prominence is about 150ft high and 250ft in diameter, and class 3 by its easiest route, making it a challenging scramble much like Mt. Russell.

Mt. LeConte was named in 1895 for Joseph LeConte, a professor of Geology and Natural History at the University of California. Many other Sierra features were named for the senior LeConte as well as his son, Joseph N. LeConte, including LeConte Canyon, LeConte Divide, LeConte Falls, and LeConte Point. Both were active in early Sierra exploration and charter members of the Sierra Club.

The east side of Mt. LeConte is located in the John Muir Wilderness and is accessed from the Meysan Lake trail. See also here.

From Whitney Portal we headed up the steep Meysan Creek trail at 8:30. People arrived at Little Mesan Lake between noon and 3:30. Some of the group were altitude sick so we left part camped at Little Meysan Lake and 11 Post 360 Mountaineers plus 11+ Sierra clubbers went to upper Meysan Lake and camped in rocks and wind.

Up at 4:30 a.m. and on the way at 6:30 a.m. We made the 13,300' ridge, 99% on snow by 11:00 a.m. (4.5 hours). The rest of the peak route was too icy to climb so we glissaded 2000' down (15 minutes).

We made it back to cars by 3:30 and home around 11 p.m. A beautiful area and weather.

On May 29-31, 1970 an Explorer Post 360 group of 19 Explorers and 7 men set out to climb 13,850' Mt. Mallory. Beautiful weather. Left cars at 8:30 and made camp about 1:30 except for two stragglers. Camped at 11,200' in meadow below Meysan Lake.

Saturday 16 people climbed to LeConte Plateau. Nine people then climbed Mt. LeConte and three (plus 3 later) climbe Mt. Mallary. Four stopped at the plateau. There was much rock fall. Steve Henderson and Carl Foster were hit on head by small rocks in the LeConte chute.

Back at camp we learned that someone had been injured on the face of Lone Pine Peak and we watched a Helicopter bring in the rescue team.

I didn't make either peak on these two trips.