Starlight Peak NW Chute 8/20-8/21/2005 Brian McElwain (Big Pine) Courtney Pursell (sp:cp0915, Las Vegas) Paul Allegretti (sp:Completebum, San Jose) Rick Kent (sp:rwkent, Bakersfield) Report Climbed Starlight Peak this past Sunday. Great climbing and definitely rewarding. The group included Paul Allegretti, Courtney Pursell, Brian McElwain, and myself. We hiked in and bivied at Thunderbolt Pass on Saturday night and then got up at 2:30am for an early start up the NW chute. At 3am just before we got going we were surprised to see two headlamps high on the mountain working their way down. We quickly surmised that these must be the climbers we spotted way up at the milk bottle around 5:30pm. We were somewhat concerned however because this seemed like an odd time to be coming down the mountain. Turns out they had the same strategy as we did: to use the light of the full moon (not sure why they didn't start descending before dark though). After extracting as much information from the two descending climbers about the route we continued on. About halfway up Brian wasn't feeling well and opted to head down. About this time it started to become light and the remaining 3 climbers continued on. Near the top of Starlight chute (just below the Sierra Crest) we climbed some easy class 4 to the crest at a notch between North Palisade and Starlight. This deviated from our intended route described in Secor. We then proceeded up the crest toward Starlight Peak making at least one awkward (possibly class 5) move in the process. By 7:12am we approached the base of the milk bottle. Paul was first to reach the milk bottle and by the time I got there he had already solo'd up to the top (Paul has no fear). We then set up a top rope and had fun climbing the more difficult side of the milk bottle (5.8?). After spending about an hour and half playing around on top we then descended down back to camp. For the descent we headed down the Secor route (making another awkward and exposed move) going out on the West ridge before dropping back into Starlight Chute. Courtney displayed his incredible downclimbing prowess and beat Paul and I back to camp by over an hour. By 12:15pm all were back down at Thunderbolt Pass. Courtney and Paul soon set a fast pace back to the trailhead followed later by Brian and I who took a more leisurely pace back (we wanted to prolong the torture of crossing over all the talus in Dusy Basin! Well, ok, that wasn't the plan but that seems like how it worked out). It was a fun time and definitely a peak we'll remember. Notes Hiked in from South Lake. Camped right at Thunderbolt Pass. There are at least half a dozen sandy spots here to bivy. You have to descend down a bit to get to water though. There are three class 4 sections on this route (lower, middle, and upper). The lower section is encountered soon after entering the base of the entry chute. The chute that you start out in at the base of the mountain is NOT the chute you use to reach the summit (if you're following the route for the NW chute that is). You only go up the entry chute about 150 feet before you turn to your right and climb up the lower class 4 section. Secor says "this is the first chute right (southwest) of the Southwest Chute No. 2 on Thunderbolt Peak". When looking at the multiple chutes however it's not immediately obvious which one this is. Perhaps another way to look at this is to take note of the talus fans which spread out below the chutes. The 4th fan south of Thunderbolt Pass is the one you want. Also note that the chute just to the left (North) is more deeply cut than the rest. The class 4 sections aren't extremely long. Each is perhaps a single pitch (100 feet or so). All other terrain is class 2/3, though it's certainly possible to end up doing a class 5 move or two depending upon how well you pick a path through the class 4. The lower and middle sections of class 4 were relatively easy. If you're solid and confident on class 3 then this shouldn't be much of a problem. The lower section has some sandy gravel. The middle section of class 4 is located just to the right of a small waterfall. This was a good source of water. The upper section lies not far below the summit and below the Sierra Crest. The middle section was solid and clean (nice stuff). The upper section is more of a challenge, the optimal route being somewhat less than obvious. Though some of us brought them, ice axe and crampons were just extra unnecessary weight. There were a few snow fields in the lower and upper chutes but they were easily bypassed. We did use the crampons and ice axes to cross over a hard slippery snow field (due to our 3am start) below the mountain on our traverse from Thunderbolt Pass to the base of the entry chute. Again however this could have been avoided by simply navigating around it. As is typical with the Palisades the NW chute and Starlight chute have an abundance of loose rock. It is nearly impossible to keep from knocking at least a few down. It's often possible however to avoid the looser stuff by using more solid rock on the sides of the chute. Misc Ending Pack Weight: 160.5 - ~130 = 30.5 lbs Gear (for the entire group of 4) Lots of overkill here. We essentially prepared for just about any situation we thought we could encounter. We brought enough gear to supply 2 groups of 2 should that be necessary. In actuality we could have gotten by with almost nothing. It depends on the comfort level of the climber and whether you want to be able to do rappels, etc. To do it again via the same route I would just bring one rope (preferably a thinner one) for the group plus harnesses (with belay device and locking biner) and some webbing. The only time we really used a rope was on the summit block. 2 ropes - a 60m 9.2 and a 50m 10.5 2 fulls sets of stoppers 10 or 12 cams loads of webbing and utility cord several cordelletes harnesses, belay devices, locking biners 10+ slings with biners (2 ft and 4 ft) several quickdraws ice axes crampons helmets