Bear Creek Spire Trip Report: July 20, 2024

“My fellow guide, Alex, and I took a group of four clients to attempt the North Arete of Bear Creek Spire in the Eastern Sierras. We stepped off from the trailhead around 7 AM on Saturday morning, planning to set up base camp that night at Dade Lake. It was a magnificent 5-mile hike, gaining 2,000 feet in elevation. We took our time, passing beautiful lakes, lush forests, and alpine meadows, and reached Dade Lake around 2 PM.

We found a great bivy location with flattened areas and wind blocks about 100 feet from the lake for our camp. Across the lake and up about a mile of talus field, we could see the prominent North Arete of Bear Creek Spire, which was our objective for the next day. We spent the evening shoveling in calories, playing cards, telling jokes, and checking the next day’s forecast. The forecast indicated a ten percent chance of rain for Sunday evening, so we planned to start our climb the following morning at 3:30 AM, hoping to make it down before the potential storm arrived.

On Sunday morning, the alarm went off, and I could already hear the rest of the team gathering their packs. I popped out of the tent to find the clients fully dressed and ready to go. We skirted boulders around Dade Lake and made it to the first snowfield. With crampons on and axes in hand, we trudged up the steep snow, navigating through several rocky outcroppings. As our line of six headlamps marched toward the base of the North Arete, we were greeted by an incredible sunrise and a blazing red sky, eerily foreshadowing our day (red sky in the morning).

We reached the base of the North Arete around 5:30 AM and excitedly began gearing up for the climb. We needed to carry our crampons, axes, and boots in our packs because we would use them for descending the northern slope on our way down. We began climbing by 6:30 AM. The first few pitches of technical rock climbing were a bit slow and clunky as our bodies adjusted to the elevation and as warmer blood returned to our limbs. By the third or fourth pitch, we were in direct sunlight and found ourselves settling into a good groove and pace.

The next five or so pitches were an absolute dream, allowing us to navigate incredible rock in great weather, with views of the entire Little Lakes Valley stretching ten miles back to the Owens River Valley at 13,000 feet. At the top of the eighth pitch, we had officially reached the summit ridge, and everyone was ecstatic to have made it through the most technical sections of our climb. However, we still had a lot of technical ridge to tackle; as we looked down the valley, what was a beautiful view just an hour ago transformed into dark billowing clouds heading our way. Our best option was to complete the rest of the climb quickly!

We started climbing along the ridge around noon, and pitch after pitch greeted us with multiple false summits as the sky grew darker and the wind battered our faces. By 1:30 PM, we reached the proper summit, but the rain had finally caught up with us. We hurriedly enjoyed the summit with a few wet high-fives before quickly setting up a rappel down the east side of the mountain onto a sand and boulder slope. As we made our way down the northeast ridge to the next rappel, which would bring us back down to the snowfields, the real storm began. Heavy hail pelted us painfully as we urgently set up the last rappel.

I went first and reached the end of the rope, still on steep snow terrain covered in hailstones. I quickly began cutting a standing ledge with my axe while I called up to send the rest of the team down. The first team member reached me, and I had only managed to carve out an eight-inch ledge in the ice. I continued digging as the rest of the team rappelled down to my ledge. Everyone was wet and cold by this point. I pulled the ropes, and Alex bravely soloed down the slope to join us, as I lowered the rest of the team from the cut ledge to an area where the slope eased off enough to gain purchase with our crampons.

We all made it back to the base of the climb safely, albeit cold and shivering. An overwhelming feeling of relief and accomplishment washed over us just in time for the sun to reappear. After another hour down the snowfield, we arrived back at base camp, grinning and laughing about the incredible climb and the storm we had just endured. It was an amazing trip that will be a profound lifelong memory for us all.”

- Luke, Co-Founder, AMGA Guide