We had snagged a coveted Whitney permit for the weekend - 4 days out at Iceberg lake, with plans to climb Mt. Russell and Mt. Whitney. But 2020 had other plans for us, and the day we were supposed to leave, a 5.3 magnitude earthquake rocked the Lone Pine area, and boulders came crashing down the trail to Whitney Portal. Rumors flew that they even fell on routes, changing them forever… I’ll believe anything this year. There seems to be no end to one disastrous event after the other.
So we had to adapt, and chose to hike out to Mt. Goode - another incredible High Sierra granite formation with striking lines up its North Buttress.
With a group of friends in tow, we hiked out of South Lake on the Bishop Pass Trail, staying overnight at Margaret Lake. Our intention was to climb the Croft & Lella route put up in 2014, Sky Pilot (11b) the next day. Watching the sunset on Mt. Goode, I can never stop myself from being in complete awe that you can drive up from the dusty desert floor of Bishop, hike not even 5 miles, and feel like you are in another world.
It’s the end of June during a low snow year, but a glacier sits permanently below Mt. Goode so we brought an ice tool just in case we needed to kick steps. We were happy to find a boot pack already there, and the snow was soft enough that we felt secure without the axe.
Sky Pilot shares the same first pitch as the North Buttress (5.9), and we climbed up the excellent moderate corner to gain the huge ledge at the base of the headwall.
Luke enjoys a Mt. Tom sandwich from Great Basin Bakery on the spacious ledge above pitch 1
I racked up for the first of three 5.11 pitches that go up the beautiful, vertical headwall just to the right of the North Buttress. I started up the thin corner, placing small gear and pulling delicate moves around some loose blocks and up a tenuous but splitter tips crack. Pulling around the corner when it ends and onto the face, I wasn’t psyched about the rock quality + lack of gear, but climbed carefully through the run-out but more moderate terrain to a fixed nut anchor tied off with cordalette at a slight stance.
I looked up at the next pitch and gulped - it was the crux 5.11b pitch that Mountain Project rated PG-13 and I could now see why. Off the belay I could only see one placement, a small nut, and the rock seemed a lot more friable than the pitch before. This was my pitch too, and I took a deep breath and started climbing. I slid in a tiny offset nut, and made some moves to get onto a hollow flake. The next 100 ft proved to be a delicate dance between discontinuous cracks and face features, with the added mental and technical aspect of figuring out where to place gear, all of it being very, very small. In times like these, I find that I’m able to go into an almost meditative state, where I don’t let fear in, and focus on just making the next move.
A splitter finger crack leads you to the next anchor, more fixed nuts at a crappy stance. Looking up at the next pitch, we knew made the heady climbing worth it: a splitter .5’s crack that arched into the sky.
Luke won this lead, and climbed the pitch the route was named for — with little purple sky pilot flowers sprouting from the cracks, encouraging little mementos that contrast greatly with the strenuousness of climbing enduro fat fingers at almost 13,000 ft.
Luke leads up the last 5.11 pitch on Sky Pilot - the money pitch.
The last pitches to the summit, with Hurd Peak in the background.
I thought these three pitches of 5.11 climbing were pretty fantastic and contained high quality climbing movement. But I had to detract a star for the heady gear and the loose rock. Nonetheless, we romped to the top via easy ledge systems, and enjoyed the 13,085 ft summit views of Bishop Pass and the Palisades.
Views of Cloudripper and Picture Puzzle Peak on the descent.
Psyched to have ticked off a more obscure high sierra 5.11 as our first alpine route of the season, we descended back to camp in golden hour, the orange light playing off the dark peaks of the Inconsolable range next to us. We made dinner back at camp with our friends who had climbed the North Buttress, and shared stories about our days, happy to have escaped the crazy world for a couple days of fresh alpine air.
BETA
Mt. Goode
Sky Pilot (5.11b) PG-13
Gear List:
Double rack from .1 to #1
#3 x1, #2 x1
Extra: #0 (purple metolious), .2 x3, .3 x3, .4 x4, .5 x4
Set of nuts, emphasis on small offsets
Things worth noting:
There is a glacier at the bottom of the formation, even in a low snow year. We got lucky that it was warm enough overnight that the snow didn’t freeze and there were already steps kicked in towards the base. But we were warned that the snow has the potential to be bullet-hard, and brought an ice axe just in case.
The guidebook suggests you can leave things at the base, but we found that it would be a pretty significant distance back to the base from the descent, and is not obvious or easy, with elevation to be gained over talus.
The route starts in the shade but gets afternoon sun.
Resources:
“The Good, The Great, and the Awesome” by Peter Croft
Mountain Project