(GPS: N37 25.615 W118 45.970)
Here is how it looked toward the west. The high point on the right is Bear Creek Spire and is the one you usually see when people take pictures of Rock Creek Canyon from below.
Mt. Morgan when I started panning to the south.
This is looking more to the east. You will notice I was not at the highest point.
Panning around more...
and more to the north.
Finally, seeing over the ridge I was looking up at from Mono Pass below.
Why didn't I get to the actual summit? Part of the deal was that when I had read up on this particular mountain hike I knew there were two summits. Some dispute which one is higher than the other, but also say that is hard to tell when you are there. I knew that would be an issue when I got up there. Back to that third picture I show above, I did get around that huge rock, but it became obvious that I was going to have to descend some and then come back up to reach the highpoint in the distance. I was already content with what I had done and started to lose the motivation to keep doing it. I was happy with the views I had, and my main concern was to make sure I had enough energy to descend back down to the pass.
At the time I did this hike, it was the first one I did when I got to the Eastern Sierra in August. I did it because I wanted to explore the area, but mainly to make sure I was in climbing shape. I had been thinking that this was going to be one mountain climb of as many as four more I intended to do while I was there. Then, about a week or so later, the Yosemite fire reared its ugly smoke which messed up the other climbs.
This ended up being my last mountain climb last year. I did get in a few other cross country type of hikes, but this was my last high point. Looking back, had I any idea what the fire was going to do, I probably would have pushed myself to explore more of the ridgeline of Mt. Starr.
This ends the mountain climb part. When I get to my next blog entry I will talk about a few issues about my descent and then show the nearby Summit Lake.
The Climb Up Mt. Starr (Youtube Version)
The Climb Up Mt. Starr (Vimeo Version)
