Mt. Sill is the Shark Fin looking Peak. Took this back in November 2016.
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 Mt. Sill way back there. Shark Fin looking... Took Pic 11/2016 Credit: Esparza |
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 Temple Crag and Third Lake Credit: Esparza |
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 Sam Mack Meadow Credit: Esparza |
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 Bivy spot just above Sam Mack Meadow. Bad mosiquitos but have Whiskey. Credit: Esparza |
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The alarm went off at 3:30am on Sunday morning. We ate, organized our gear and set off up glacier trail around 4:30am. All went smoothly for about a mile or so until we hit the snow below Mt. Gayley (which is a big pile of rock poop it seems). Tully had boots and crampons and was moving just fine. Me on the other hand, hadn't learned a lesson, and only had micro spikes for my approach shoes and an ice axe. I was gripped on the steepness but managed to make my way to the glacier notch area where the crappy loose gully gains the col between Mt. Gayley and Mt. Sill.
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 I'm not a big snow fan. Credit: Esparza |
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 Heading up to Glacier Notch Credit: Esparza |
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 View of the approach to Glacier nothch, Mt. Sill and the Palisade Crest. Amazing :-) Credit: Esparza |
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Once passing through the loose rock, one gains the col and another damn snow field has to be dealt with.... The L colouir of Mt. Sill. Unfortunately this is part of the Descent!
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 Crossing the Sill L-Colouir Credit: Esparza |
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After all this, I guess about 10 or so miles of hiking, dealing with snow and loose rock, one arrives at the Swiss Arete which is awesome solid granite. 6 pitches of really easy, fun climbing get you to the summit which we did around 1:30pm.
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 Swiss Arete. Credit: Esparza |
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 Tully leading Pitch 3. Super fun 5.6 with holds everywhere... Credit: Esparza |
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 Selfie game strong with the cop glasses. lol Credit: Esparza |
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 Summit of Mt. Sill. Woohooo.... Where are the Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Girls? Thought they were waiting for us!!! Oh well, better go then. Credit: Esparza |
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 Gorgeous views to the west! Credit: Esparza |
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 Storm clouds on the horizon.... yikes! Credit: Esparza |
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We hung out at the top for about ten minutes then started our way down. It is a bit sketchy coming down and have to do a rappel to get back to the steep snow gully between Apex peak and Mt. Sill. Coming down the snow gully was slow for me.... I am just too cautious these days.
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 About to descend the snow gully. Credit: Esparza |
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 Sick view of the Palisade crest and glacier. Credit: Esparza |
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 Me, the slow guy, coming down the L-Colouir. Tired! Credit: Esparza |
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After many hours we made it out of the snow fields and on to the talus above Palisade glacier.
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 Talus field above Palisade glacier. Credit: Esparza |
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Finally hit the trail and made it back to our Bivy spot around 6pm or so.
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 On way back to the bivy spot. Credit: Esparza |
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Oh..... Forgot to mention.... The mosquitos are F'n gnarly as F! Packed up our sh#t and started hiking out of Sam Mack Meadow around 7pm. About 8 miles later and 11pm found us at my car. We were pretty worked but the fun wasn't over. Fortunately we had some Sculpin's in the car which were mighty tasty. Next part of the story is driving back to civilization. Dropped Tully off at his place in Fullerton around 5am Monday morning and got to my moms in Westminster at 5:30amish. unloaded all my crap, did a load of laundry, took a shower and got back on the freeway.... made it to work at 8am in Van Nuys and was busy as sh#t. Got off work at 5pm, went to my apartment in Studio City and crashed hard. The End....
