East Vidette

7/27/08

Made good time to Vidette Meadow but then had problems after that.  Climbed from the West side up to the south ridge.  I came up well south on the ridge only to be confronted by a serrated ridge with endless class 5 gendarmes between me and the summit.  This cost me a lot of time as I tried to figure out what to do.  I crossed over 2 chutes into what I believe Secor describes as the "West Chute".  An expanding thunderstorm had me considering an abort for awhile.  After descending a bit I took one of the terminal branches of the West Chute back up to the crest.  From here on the climbing was enjoyable with some fun class 4 along the way.  Despite the quick time I made to Vidette Meadow (2 hrs 43 mins) I lost considerable time getting up to the summit.  Bob Burd did it (via the East Ridge) in less than 6 hours from Onion Valley (during the 2006 Sierra Challenge).  It took me well over 7 hours via my less than ideal route.  It was fun though.  I descended via the SE side.  RJ describes this as a "good descent route".  I found it rather heinous and ended up cliffing out but fortunately found a way down off the cliff.  I made pretty good time from Kearsarge Pass back down to Onion Valley by running quite a bit of the trail (54 minutes).

Log

07:18a - Onion Valley
08:55a - Kearsarge Pass
10:01a - Vidette Meadow
02:42p - Summit
04:46p - Vidette Meadow
06:50p - Kearsarge Pass
07:44p - Onion Valley

Stats

Time to Kearsarge Pass from Onion Valley: 1 hr 37 mins
Time to Vidette Meadow from Onion Valley: 2 hrs 43 mins
Time from Vidette Meadow to Summit: 4 hrs 41 mins
Time from Onion Valley to Summit: 7 hrs 24 mins
Time from Summit to Vidette Meadow: 2 hrs 4 mins
Time from Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley: 54 mins
Total Time: 12 hrs 26 mins