Mt. Russell (14,086 ft - 4294 m), Sierra Nevada, California

General Information

Mt. Whitney's Mountaineers Route goes up a gully to the north of the main summit mass, and is the usual descent route for the technical climbing routes on the East Face. This route is more interesting than the trail, but it is not for the novice hiker.

Overnight trips require a wilderness permit, which can be obtained at the Inyo National Forest ranger station in Lone Pine. The permit to get is for "North Fork Lone Pine Creek", not "Mt. Whitney Trail". The daily quota for overnight trips applies from late June to mid-September.

Trailhead Approach

Route Description

Mt. Russell - East Arete

From Upper Boy Scout Lake, you are now above the tree line and the path you make is the path you take. There are two easy ways up to the Mt. Russell and Mt Carillon Saddle. The easiest path to navigate follows the stream feeding the northwest end of Upper Boy Scout Lake up the gorge to the south face of Mt. Russell. Prior to reaching Upper Boy Scout Lake, the stream flows over soft, luscious, green, vegetation and descends from a smaller, unnamed, and often dry, lake. From this lake, trek over the scree to the far northeast end of the gorge and climb up the high slopes to a crevasse that leads almost east with the southface of the Mt. Russell's east ridge to the north. The crevasse is long and full with scree, making ascent arduous, but does gain the saddle. The saddle is more directly gained (the other aforementioned easy route) if you travel north up from the east end of Upper Boy Scout lake to the north side of the Mt. Carillon plateau. This climb is slightly steeper and again full of scree. Once on the plateau, head for the low point (the saddle) on the ridge between Mt. Russell and Mt. Carillon. Enjoy the view of Tulainyo Lake (the highest lake in the contiguous US at 12,802 feet) at the north foot of Mt. Carillon (13,552 ft). The ridge runs westward up to the east summit (the false summit) of Mt. Russell. This is Mt. Russell's East Arete (or East Ridge), which is mostly Class 2-3, but the exposure is considerable. Double checking ones mental fortitude might be necessary before proceeding onto the ridge. When you encounter difficulty staying on the ridge, drop down on the right (north) side. Shortly before the east summit, it is necessary to walk on a knife-edge (see below), with sharp dropoffs on both sides. Climb over the east summit, and again drop down to the north to get to the higher west summit. The final approach up the summit comes from the northwest side, so one slightly circles around the peak before ascending the final 30 feet. Don't forget to sign the registry at the top!!

Mt. Russell, East Ridge (the knife-edge below the east summit)

Tulainyo Lake and Tunnabora Peak (Mt. Carillon is to the right) from the East Arete

Mt. Whitney - Mountaineer's Route (The Next Trip)

Mt. Whitney, Mountaineer's Route

Climb Report: Mt. Russell July 2nd, 2000 (Canada Day + 1)

Waking up at base camp in the portal at 3:30am, we left the trailhead at 5:40am for a strenuous and sometimes frustrating hike up the North Fork. For the most part the trail was obvious but sometimes exploring different routes on the airy but easy Class 2 Ebersbacher Ledges was required to regain the correct path. After the ledges, it was a fairly straight hike around Lower Boy Scout Lake (~10,500 ft) and up to Upper Boy Scout Lake (~11,500 ft), now 10:00am. We chose to follow the stream and canyon up to the saddle. Slightly before reaching the lake above Upper Boy Scout Lake, Susan started to experience the symptoms of acute altitude sickness and decided it best not to continue. Mark chose to stay with Susan and the two enjoyed the rest of the day around the beautifully blue waters of Upper and Lower Boy Scout Lakes.

Heyning and I continued up the canyon to its north end. The terrain was primarily scree (loose golf to softball size cube stones with the odd fixed rock popping up as frequently as gopher holes did in Bill Murray's Caddyshack). Some scrambling was necessary to gain the 1000 feet from the canyon floor to the saddle (~13,500 ft) at 12:40pm. The view from the saddle was satisfaction enough. Owen's valley in the east lay roughly 8000 feet below and Tulainyo Lake lay to the northeast at the northern foot of Mt. Carillon. To the southwest was Mt. Whitney, and directly to the west, the east summit of Mt. Russell was visible. All that was left was the ~500 foot climb along the half mile ridge to the west summit.

Once on the ridge, thoughts of what I should get Heyning to tell my parents should I plummet the 1500 feet to the north or the 1000 ft to the south kept flying through my mind. A handful of places were no more than a couple of feet wide and we would crawl or drag our bums along. Luckily, the hand holds for most of the ridge run were great, and I knew 99% of the time, should my feet go from under me, my arms would keep my position and balance. Once the east summit was reached, the toughest knife edge was behind us, and the scramble over to the true summit was fast. We reached the summit at 2:20pm. Our goal was a summit between 1pm and 2pm, but the ridge was slow. There also was also a 3pm turn around time determined at Upper Boy Scout Lake, should we not make the summit. I flew my Canadian flag from one of my hiking poles for about five minutes, and we stayed on the summit for roughly 20 minutes. There was a couple from Poland who had passed us on the ridge when we arrived and another group of two men (aged 59 and 69!) just leaving. We were the only six to summit on this sunny, cloud- free, summer Sunday. The two man party had a third member who was waiting at the Mt. Carillon Plateau after he chose not to continue once he saw the exposure of the ridge. The registry at the top of the mountain indicated that approximately 100 people had reached the summit of Mt. Russell in the past year (assuming all took the time to sign, which is unlikely).

The return along the ridge was just as slow, but the confidence that a trail did exist, made me confident. On the way up, I had constant doubts that a trail could really exist above us. The drop down the crevasse to the Upper Boy Scout Lake was very quick. Heyning and I basically skiied down the talus slope. An abundance of pebbles that found their way into my boots caused my left ankle to bruise, but the poles helped me maintain my stability and I could make the rest of the trip back to the portal using little weight on my left foot. We hit Upper Boy Scout Lake at 6:15pm and the ledges at 7:30pm. Base camp saw us pull in at 8:20pm as the sun was just setting on the far (east) side of Owen's Valley. Mark and Susan were waiting for me to prepare them a memorable(?) burrito dinner and my ankle was happy to see its way out of my boot.

Another good description of the route and photos of the sights I saw are available HERE

The southwest face of Mt. Russell (East Arete slants off to right)

Gear Required

Next Peak to Bag: Mt. Whitney - Mountaineer's Route

Thank you to Tetsuo Fukuchi of Tokyo, Japan for the HTML format and some of the information provided on this page.