THE ASCENT

7/19/23

7pm - Drove towards the base of Boundary Peak with pounding rain and flash flood warnings all around us. We were wondering if we’d have to bail. Stopped in at a BNB to talk to the folks there, who told us nothing to worry about in this area with the flash floods. but we would have to make it up the road which we thought might be muddy.

8:30pm - As the sun set behind Boundary Peak and dusk set in, we sped up the dirt roads towards the trailhead, getting there with no trouble at all. The road was in great condition, passable by a sedan with 2WD. A few areas were pretty tight with grass cleaning the undercarriage and bushes rubbing the sides and even the top of the car, but it was still fine.

9:30pm - Mosquitos and other bugs immediately swarmed us, so we closed ourselves into the car and set up our pads with no airflow. Ohhh it was steamy and hot fast, but did get cooler overnight.

7/20/23

5:20am - Awoke early, and the bugs were still swarming but maybe not as bad. Got dressed and packed all our food and water while jumping around to avoid the bugs.

6am - Started out on the approach. A little muddy but not bad at all.

7am - After doing most of the easy part of the approach, we noticed the ridgeline nearby to our left seemed to go all the way around up to Boundary Peak. The standard trail took us straight up a gulley that was supposed to have lots of scree, so we decided it would be a fun adventure to instead top out on the nearby ridge and hike along that to the peak.

The short, technical hike up the steep hill had some scree on it and some bugs started to attack us again, but was pretty smooth going. Once on top of the ridge, the views already began to look stunning.

We hiked up the ridge a bit more to get out of the buggy area, where we had our first stop for some food.

8am - We continued up the ridge and upon approaching a minor peak decided to go around to the left (opposite of the standard gulley approach to the right) on the topo line that would have us still only going up. This was challenging as we walked slanted along the side of the mountain with small scree sometimes slipping, but there were enough medium to large rocks that we could sometimes avoid the scree. Some light scrambling as well to get over parts of the rocks while staying at the same elevation.

~10am - Once getting around the minor peak, we ascended to the ridge again and continued with some gorgeous views on the left and right, with Boundary Peak barely peaking out. Some forward movement hid the peak and it was false peaks for a while as we ascended mostly to the left of the ridgeline.

~10:45am - Right before our last false peak, at around 12,700 ft I was getting some altitude sickness and feeling a little off. But after stopping, drinking, and eating a little I began to quickly feel good enough after 15 minutes or so.

~11am - We got up to the ridge again, joining with the standard hike and began doing the fun, technical scramble along some ridge rocks with the peak getting closer up ahead.

11:30am - Made it to the summit of Boundary Peak at 13,155 ft!

THE DESCENT

Noon - After lunch, chillin, and photos, we began our descent back down the ridgeline, planning to go down the standard trail.

12:30pm - We left the ridge and began descending straight down the gulley where there was a bit of leftover melting snow. (I later looked at paths others did and it seems the standard trail was a bit farther along the ridgeline, but what we did was fine.)

After a few switch backs and big rocks going down, the scree started to be in good condition to do some controlled slide/skating down it for most of the steepest part here.

12:45pm - Getting down to the snow patch in the gulley, I decided it would be fun to glissade down that section. I picked up a rock to use as my “ice axe” like tool to self-arrest and slow myself down. Sat on my butt and slid, while directing myself with the rock I found. My glissading was quite successful, but the gulley began to slant so I had to keep getting up and walking back over to go down on the snow.

1pm - After some decent via glissading, we were back on the trail that maps were showing, and we descended down a bit more scree like area and then steep little switchbacks as we slowly got back into the valley and down to the car.

2:22pm - Arrived back at the trailhead. Drive all the way back to San Francisco with a few stops for food and resources, arriving around 11:15pm.