6.14-6.15.2008 eastern sierra – red slate

Red Slate Coulior, Eastern Sierra, CA. 6.14- 6.15.2008

I had been dreaming of Red Slate for a while now, ever since I 1st laid eyes on it. A year ago atop Bloody Mtn. one fine day in April, 2007 I stood there looking at the view of Red Slate from the peak and was amazed at that line. It just calls out to you like a siren. That summer I hiked convict canyon in late July and when I got back to lakes back there I could see even in that bad snow year, Red Slate still held snow late into the summer. Of course then it would probably be a nice ice climb.

Well having thoughts about the season being over in the Sierra I wanted it to end on a good note. I could have just ended it with last weekends amazing adventure to Mt. Powell but like a junkie I had to have one more fix. So since I hardly unpacked from the last weekend I just threw together some stuff and headed up. Got a really late start on sat which was kind of a mistake, it was super hot hiking up the canyon. Summer is in full swing down there at convict lake and the hikers were mildly entertaining. How many times can one endure the question “are you going snowboarding?” without making some wiseass comment.

When hiking the summer trail under Laurel you get a nice view up the canyon. Lookng back to the weekends goal.

rock art – the canyon walls have all kinds of crazy patterns in them.

Anyway I had planned to hike and make camp at Constance lake but only ended up making it to the back of the field past mildred lake, which was way low and short of my goal. Found a comfy grass patch next to a stream and setup camp.

Mildred lake

The moon came out and it was quite a nice night. Sunday morn I snoozed way past my planned alpine start time and with a long slog ahead got moving.

Finally at about 10 am the coulior comes into sight!

It looked like it was in good shape with no debris at the bottom, no suncups, and no runnels. About another hour and I was finally on the apron. This is one amazing coulior.

The views out to the lakes were not bad. Its wild to see how many lakes are up there in this one huge basin.

I hate to say something like “this is the end” because I never want it to end but it has to at some point….so until next season….