After our backpacking hike and a day’s rest we met up with Jack at the Willow creek campground just below South Lake on the South Fork of Bishop Creek. The intention was to climb Cloudripper.
We had a nice relaxing afternoon by the creek and a good campfire in the evening. Mosquitoes were an issue, but we did not let that get in the way of enjoying the location.
On Monday morning we started our hike from the South Lake parking area this was supposed to shave of some elevation gain for the hike. Unfortunately I had not read the hike description careful enough and we ended up going down hill for a while so in the end we added some distance while only saving very little elevation gain.
Once we were on the Green Lake trail we rapidly gained elevation. The trail is shaded and it was comfortable with the cool morning temperatures. Eventually we reached some meadow area with lots of flowers just below Brown Lake. We took a quick break here to apply some more mosquito protection and have a snack. Then it was on to Green Lake. Srisuda stayed here while Jack and I continued on the trail for a few hundred feet of elevation gain before we headed up a ridge that was to get us to Vagabond and Cloudripper behind it.
The terrain was easy to walk on with sandy ground and we were able to avoid the remaining snow fields. The sand changed into talus and walking required a bit more attention. We reached a ridge from which we had to go down a little bit and then up to the 13,000 ft level. There was a bit more snow here, but we managed to almost entirely avoid it. Once on the saddle just below Vagabond we realized that there was no easy way around Vagabond as we had hoped. Big rocks needed to be negotiated. We followed the route of least resistance which took us a bit too high and we ended up on Vagabond peak.
While taking a break on the peak we looked at our path to Cloudripper. It was very rough and slow terrain and then on the northern slope of Cloudripper there were some snow fields to cross. We looked at the time, estimated how long it would take us to get across and back and came to the conclusion that we’d barely beat sunset if we tried it. So we made the tough decision to leave it for another day. I guess Jack has to come back to get this mountain with such a great name. The approach from Big Pine Creek North Fork with camp at the lakes there is probably the most enjoyable way to do it.
The slow progress over the rough terrain on the way back confirmed our decision to turn, it took longer than expected. Once we were on the trail again we made good speed. We did not want to repeat the mistake of adding distance and elevation gain so we made sure we found the correct route which is to follow and old pipeline down to the lake. On has to walk on the old, rusty pipes which requires some balance but after some practice almost was fun. We arrived at the truck just 15 minutes after Srisuda who had set a time for herself to leave Green Lake to go back.
We didn’t get Cloudripper, but with Vagabond we did get a 13er or 4000+m peak.
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