Well after that embarrassing wrong turn on June 3rd which stopped my forward progress to Mineral Peak, the thought of getting back there got under my skin. I didn't anticipate getting there anytime soon, that is until my friend Jeff phoned me and said he wanted to get into the mountains for a dayhike. We planned for an early start, 3am from my house. This has become the biggest test of willingness for me, getting out of bed in the middle of the night is not my favorite thing to do. Jeff arrived as scheduled and soon we were off to the twists and turns of the Mineral King road.

The last time I was at Mineral King, a big fat red Marmot had lunch under the hood of my car. This time I showed up with fifty foot of chicken wire and bungee cords to keep the little fat guys from chowing down on my Xterra. Maybe it was false hope, but it made me feel better not having to worry about my car all day.

Marmot sandwich - super sized with chicken wire

This day was to be wrought with quirks, starting with the fact I forgot to lock the car, only to remember when we were a quarter mile up the trail. A brilliant move that rewarded me with an extra half mile for the day. The weather was to be roasty-toasty even at high elevations and it was apparent even with our seven-thirty in the morning start time. We traveled quickly along the first dry part of the trail, reaching the stream crossing. The water was faster than I have seen it before, which meant getting a little wet stepping across the thing. Still it was beautiful day and we were on our way to Mineral Peak via the Crystal Lakes trail. It wasn't long before a Marmot greeted us, obviously fattened from a spring full of car eating.

A fat Marmot greets us on the trail

So while Jeff and I are walking along, we kept hearing the low pitched call of some unknown animal. I said to Jeff that I have heard that call many times before, but have never been able to identify what animal makes that sound. Just about that time, Jeff points at a big Grouse who is obviously generating the wail - which would otherwise seem to come from a much larger creature. This is the first time I've seen the colorful feathers on a Grouse, the only thing we could figure is it must be Grouse mating season?

Is it a Grouse?

After our nature hike on the lower trail we soon came to the intersection of the Monarch Lakes trail and the Crystal Lakes trail. I commented to Jeff that I hadn't been up the Crystal Lakes trail before but if the day allowed we could make a loop and return via the Monarch Lakes trail. It was nice seeing a few new views on the trail leading to Crystal Lakes, but we ran into snow earlier than I anticipated so the going was slow. Someone should devise an index which credits cross country snow travelers with more mileage than trail hikers (e.g. 1 mile across snow equals 3 miles credit). The snow was wet and mushy - making it more of a pain in the backside.

Jeff tops out a snow field to gain the notch at 10,400' above Crystal Creek

After we came over the ridge we could view the outlet to Crystal Lake and the terrain below. I was a little surprised to find a trail sign (and trail) leading to the two lakes below Crystal Lakes as the trail doesn't show up on any of my maps (hint to people that enjoy fishing). As we followed the trail towards Crystal Lake it was apparent to me that we actually lost some elevation. This led to an annoying set of switchbacks below the Crystal lake which had the extra pleasure of being more of a creek than a trail.

The trail to Crystal Lake and the outlet of the lake

After making the grade on the switchbacks we arrived just west of Crystal Lake among snow and rocks. Neither of us were too enthused to wander over and look at the lake, so we took a brief break instead. We also got our first good view of Mineral Peak.

First look at the south west face of Mineral Peak

After our break, we elected to climb up a short rock wall which separated us from the upper (smaller) Crystal Lake. It was from this location, south west of the upper lake, we began our climb of Mineral Peak. We picked a line which looked doable from our perspective and stuck with it to the top.

Jeff signals he's ready to climb

The lower part of the climb simply involved a snow field with a little mixed rock. It was soft enough that we didn't put our crampons on and simply kicked steps, but near the top of the snow I had second thoughts since it got a little steep. Jeff moved uphill like a champ, I would have thought he'd done this dozens of time before.

Jeff starts up the snowfield on Mineral Peak

As we reached the top of the snowfield and arrived at solid rock the views below us opened up a little. It was also becoming obvious that our route was not the easiest route to the top of Mineral Peak, but we stuck with it anyway. Essentially, we climbed the right hand side of the south ridge.

Looking down at upper and lower Crystal Lakes - Brrr

Climbing up further and further, we reached a couple of false summits - simply because the summit was out of view as compared to the verticality of our location on the rock. Our route was easily class 3, I might argue portions class 4 - but we took our time and had fun with solid holds all the way to the top.

Jeff mastering the rock of Mineral Peak

While our route wasn't the easiest path to the top, we really enjoyed the views each time we came to a brief resting spot. The combination of rock, snow, and water really adds flavor to the high Sierra.

Climbing the south ridge

Jeff acquired the summit first and immediately found the summit block. A few moments later I joined him when we both noticed a very unfortunate sound - our ice axes were humming with electricity! We had heard just one clap of thunder a bit earlier and there were thunder clouds within view, but it was clear overhead. Regardless, we dropped out packs, snapped a few quick photos, put our names in the register and got the heck off the summit!

Jeff "buzzing" on the summit block

A few summit shots

Upper Monarch Lake	Lower Monarch Lake	View to Mineral King	Sawtooth Peak
Needham Mountain	Time to go	Thunderclouds	Register Box

So off the summit we headed, we might have been there five minutes maximum. Now the issue was which way down? I wasn't fond of down climbing the same route, thankfully we found the path of least resistance which happens to be the south east ridge.

Leaving the summit, the "easy way"

After down climbing we arrived atop the south ridge that divides the Crystal Lakes bowl from the Monarch Lakes. Jeff and I talked over the virtues of going one way or the other, ultimately we chose to make a "loop" by heading down to Monarch Lakes and around the the trail from that point.

Yours truly on the ridge between Crystal and Monarch Lakes, Mineral Peak in the background

I had unfortunately supposed that most of the snow would have already melted away from the Monarch Lakes trail. "All we had to do was walk around the lakes". Well, the walk down the slopes was a challenge due to the condition of the snow and the steepness of the terrain. We forged ahead and soon enough we were standing at the icy edge of upper Monarch Lake.

Walking down the snowfield, Mineral Peak on the right

We proceeded around upper Monarch Lake - a real pain since we'd occasionally post hole thru the snow, something a bit treacherous when one is within arms reach of an ice laden lake. All of the snow around the lakes had big sun cups, making the walk out that much more of a pain. We went down another snow field to lower Monarch Lake, which again was surrounded by soft and sun cupped snow. To really build character, we soon realized that the "trail" leading away from the lake was completely buried in snow, so all we could do was pick a route, put our heads down and just keep walking. We took one last look at Mineral Peak, put the camera away and forged our way out. If you ever choose to hike to Monarch Lake during the early season, you'd be well advised to carry an ice axe and wear crampons as the steepness of the grade will soon turn you into a human toboggan trying to traverse the valley wall.

One last look at Mineral Peak from Lower Monarch Lake

After the walk out, we found my car had not been consumed by any Marmots. Whether or not the chicken wire had anything to do with it did not matter at that point. Jeff and I donned fresh apparel and raced to the Silver City resort for our prized cheeseburger. To our dismay they had just closed. I did manage to effectively beg the waitress to sell us a few cold sodas and some chips for the ride out.  We stopped at a Denny's in Visalia for some conciliatory cheeseburgers, as Jeff would say the people there were very "diverse". We traveled home a little beat from a long day of adventures in the high Sierra, but happy to have accomplished an otherwise benign Mineral Peak summit on an electrifying day.

Having fun in the mountains, what could be better

Our route and elevation profile