"17 hour car-to-car via West Face route. Weather was all over the place from blustery winds and driving ice pellets to beautiful sunshine. Started around 4am and back to car by 9pm, just in time to find a hotel room in Lone Pine. " — danishclimber • Aug 24, 2024

"This is a big mountain. After bailing on Williamson last Labor Day after climbing Tyndall, I went back with an even more intrepid set of partners to try again. TH parking was full on Saturday so ended up ditching car on side of road (to be continued...) and hiking up the road for a bit. Uneventful but warm climb up to Anvil Camp. Sunday we got a fairly leisurely start at 7am which turned out to be too late in the day for this big of a mountain. Climbing up Shepherd Pass was made eerier by the set of deer carcasses strewn about the bottom of the hill. Bear? Mountain Lion? Snow Drift? Rockfall? Hard to know but it definitely made me hike faster through that segment. It was a bluebird day across the Sierra with minimal wind. I really enjoyed the stretch from the pass proper up to the rim of the Williamson Bowl. Unfortunately, descending into and crossing the bowl was as tedious as its reputation makes it out to be. Interminable talus, ledges, and generally inscrutable terrain caused us to spend over an hour crossing the bowl. We were finally lined up for the start of the climb proper around noon. The chute is class 2 but it's incredibly loose and generally unpl..." — edg • Sep 2, 2018

"Day 3 of a 4-day trip in the Shepherd Pass area. I was well-acclimatized from climbing Trojan and Barnard the day before. I joined up with a group of three strong hikers I met at camp near the pass and left to tackle Williamson at 5:30a. I was in the Bowl the day before, so I had no problems route-finding our way to the Black Stain. There was one frozen snow field along the way that needed to be hiked around (long) or slid down (sketchy). We climbed to the stain and the monstrous chute up through the West Face revealed itself. We climbed the chute, not taking a single break until reaching the infamous cl. 3/4 chimney. I thought I would be nervous, but it was actually a lot of fun climbing the short, solid pitch. At the top, we emerged onto the summit plateau and into the bright morning sun. We enjoyed about 20 mins on the summit before heading down. This mountain is a beast, but it's really a great trip!" — klotito • Sep 3, 2017

"One does not simply hike up Williamson. Big Willi was the second 14er of our three night trip. We camped one night at Anvil camp below Shepherd Pass, and two nights near the lip of the Williamson Bowl. After spying on the West Face route from the summit of Tyndall the previous day, we had a good idea of how to get through the Williamson Bowl and to the base of the route. After dropping in the bowl, follow the prominent ridge on the moraine that holds back the lake closest to Mt. Tyndall. Contour along the talus to your right to avoid a couple cliff bands in the center of the bowl. Stop and stock up your water at the "4th lake", which is the most southerly lake in the bowl. That sets you up for a pretty straight shot at the base of the West Face Route. It seems that the further you go into the bowl, the better. Heading to the base of the "chute" too early will put you in a nasty scree field. We tried to stay on the larger more stable rocks as we made our way up to, and through, the chute. Still, there is a lot of loose stuff, so every step takes concentration. Lots of fresh scars from rockfall, so speed is your friend in the chute. Wear a helmet. Do not be tempted to t..." — benjineer • Aug 28, 2017

"Did this as a 3 day trip to also climb Mt. Tyndall. We started the day prior hiking up ourselves and all of our gear to Shepard's Pass and the first lake. Very exhausting. My GPS said 10 miles and 6700 feet of gain. We filtered at the pass's first lake but didn't both at the Williamson Bowl. The bowl was non trivial with about 500 feet of gain each way. The black stripe is the one farther to hiker's right. There is a fainter one on the left, don't be fooled. The proper black stripe has black rock to the right of it. The chute was extremely exhausting. It is worth noting that rockfall is a real concern, stay close to one another! The chimney is in my opinion is class 4. If you are comfortable on rock it won't seem so bad but going with someone pretty fresh it was quite intimidating for them. Once you are up the chimney its pretty easy going. The views were good! Met several mountaineers at the top. Two of them we ended up doing Tyndall with tomorrow morning. We got the date wrong on the register..." — Irrationalist • Aug 15, 2015

"Copy and pasted Kevin's description... "Hiked up to 2nd Lake via Shepherd Pass on July 3rd with Amber, Doug & Brenda (that's me), then went to bed early. Amber, Brenda & I got up and started hiking to Mount Williamson through Williamson Bowl around 3am via the standard route up the chute/chimney, getting back to camp only moments before a horrible afternoon hailstorm. The next morning, we slept in until 7am, then Amber, Doug & I headed up to Mount Tyndall via the North Rib, again returning to camp a few minutes before a rainstorm. After napping for a few hours, I got up & hiked to Polychrome Peak solo to watch the sunset. We hiked out on July 6th. This was a fun, but tiring holiday weekend!"" — Brenda • Jul 4, 2015

"Hiked up to 2nd Lake via Shepherd Pass on July 3rd with Amber, Doug & Brenda, then went to bed early. Amber, Brenda & I got up and started hiking to Mount Williamson through Williamson Bowl around 3am via the standard route up the chute/chimney, getting back to camp only moments before a horrible afternoon hailstorm. The next morning, we slept in until 7am, then Amber, Doug & I headed up to Mount Tyndall via the North Rib, again returning to camp a few minutes before a rainstorm. After napping for a few hours, I got up & hiked to Polychrome Peak solo to watch the sunset. We hiked out on July 6th. This was a fun, but tiring holiday weekend!" — Kevin • Jul 4, 2015

"A Long Day hike started at 1:00 AM and Finished at 7:00 PM, Hail, Rain, and Wind hit me just 400 Feet below the Peak which made it hard to continue climbing this wet Rocks, Had Fun and overall a Great Experience." — Nuernberger • Jun 29, 2015

"Chuck and I drove up to the trail head on Friday night after work and ent the night there. Min the morning we hiked up to the top of Sheapherd's Pass and spent the night. On Sunday morning we cl Ibex our way across the boulder filled Williamson Bowl and climbed up the west slope or the mountain up to a chimney. We climbed up through the chimney, then hiked up the last set of boulders to the summit. We returned to our campsite at Sheaperd's Pass and slept. When we woke up on Monday morning we hiked Back down to thfe trail head." — brettmurphy85 • Aug 26, 2012

"What an outstanding climb! Many may disagree, but I personally felt it was more strenuous then Orizaba. The Williamson bowl (more like an egg carton of ridges and lakes) was gorgeous and the the west chute was a slog-fest of scree- two steps forward, one step back. The class 3 chimney was alot of fun though, and I was the first one to summit for the day." — Christopher • Jun 23, 2012