Laurel Mountain

Laurel Mountain 11,818′- Mendenhall Couloir
Rock Climbing– California
Total Time: 9:00
Distance: 7.9 miles
Elevation Gain: 4450′
Crux: 5.2
Pitches: 2
Protection: Singles 0.4 to BD #2, slings, 40m rope
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: Convict Lake, full services

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I’ve long admired the east face of Laurel Mountain, a broken and wavy series of alternating bands of grey and red rock, perched perfectly above Convict Lake. The Mendenhall Couloir climbs directly up the steep face, rated 5.2 and the is first known use of a belay in the Sierra Nevada during the first ascent by John Mendenhall and James Van Patten in 1930. Although it has a reputation for some loose rock, I had wanted to tick it off due to the uniqueness and history of the route, along with its proximity to Mammoth Lakes. So with a weekend of childcare arranged, it would be the main event, getting into Mammoth late Friday with an alpine start the next morning to beat the heat along with a slight chance of afternoon storms.

It was shortly after 6 AM when we left the trailhead at Convict Lake, following the familiar trail along the western shore until reaching a junction with the Convict Canyon trail and wilderness boundary. I had been on this trail when I climbed Mount Baldwin several years prior, but this was Holly’s first time on the trail as we climbed a series of switchbacks over Convict Creek.

Our route was the obvious gully directly ahead, and we left the trail at a rocky wash, reaching the base of the climb in about 45 minutes from the trailhead. Surprisingly, there was some compacted avalanche snow at the base, easily avoidable, and I scrambled up the first ledge to a short, borderline 4th class crack where I got out the rope.

The most difficult climbing was through the first few dry waterfalls, and our plan was to do a few short pitches to get past the obstacles and scramble the rest, although with the rope with us if needed. The first crack was very straightforward, and I body belayed Holly up, where she continued past up a bit more class 3 to the actual crux of the climb, a 20′ 5.2 waterfall.

The rock was polished from eons of intermittent running water, but also simultaneously covered in a thin layer of sand, causing me to be a bit more deliberate on the otherwise easy moves. There was a beautiful cam placement right at the crux move (I believe it was a BD #0.75 or #1) with one more placement opportunity slightly higher. I scrambled up a ledge to the right to bypass the next waterfall, then brought Holly up, throwing the rope in our pack for the rest of the day. It looked like there was one more dry waterfall to contend with, but we followed ledges up and to the right to avoid it, butt scooting down loose rock to regain the gully. We were now at the first branch point in the gully and kept right, in general trending left the remainder of the climb.

Some early clouds were building, a bit darker than either of us would have liked, although the rain would hold off all day and the clouds kept us relatively cool on what would otherwise be a very hot route. We continued up the gully, finding the best rock at the very bottom, although occasionally utilizing ledges to the left to bypass small waterfalls. There was a short 10′ fourth class fall where the rock began to transition from grey to red. We briefly considered getting out the rope, but Holly ultimately went for it with a spot from behind. We crossed over the first band of red rock, swooping across the gully and up to the ridgeline above.

The gully widened considerably here, and there were countless variations as we trended left, alternating between the bottom of the gully and ledge systems to work around chokestones and smooth, slabby waterfalls. We then moved into the thick layer of red rock roughly halfway up the mountain, the rock quality deteriorating considerably compared to the grey slab. Thankfully, it was much less steep than the waterfalls below, mostly second to easy third class.

It was almost 10 AM when we reached the upper grey layer of rock, taking about 2.5 hours from the base of the route. I spotted the prominent vein of red rock cutting up along the right side of the gully, and we climbed this directly, the interface between the two rock types providing knobs and edges to scramble up the otherwise smooth slab. It only took about 30 minutes to get through the grey slab and up to the final layer of rock, which unfortunately was nothing more than loose volcanic choss.

I did my best to find pockets of stable rock, but the loose rock and lack of acclimatization meant the last layer took the longest, ultimately hitting the summit just before noon. The summit views were outstanding, with Mount Morrison, Mount Baldwin and Red Slate Mountain to the southeast, Bloody Mountain and the Sherwins to the south, Mammoth Mountain, Ritter and Banner to the west and northwest, and the Glass Mountains to the north. We took a long break at the summit, the small chance of rain seeming to hold, although with isolated thunderstorms in the distance near Sagehen summit and Granite Mountain.

There were a number of way to descend from the summit of Laurel, and I hoped to utilize the hanging valley described by Bob Burd in his 2004 trip report. So we dropped off to the north, utilizing an excellent use trail through the talus, skirting steeper and loose rock on the left.

As the trail neared the obvious saddle below, it rejoined a subsidiary ridgeline to the northeast, working around small rocky outcroppings. The hanging valley described by Bob Burd was to our left, and as the use trail began to weave around scraggly pines, we dropped off the narrow ridge into the valley below. In reality, we probably could have stuck to the ridgeline as the use trail connected with the hanging valley at a shallow saddle, Convict Lake and the trail now roughly 2,000′ directly below. After a little bushwacking, we found a pretty good use trail made of very loose sand that would have been miserable to ascend, but was about as good of a descent trail that I could hope for.

Unfortunately, Holly does not like boot skiing sand anywhere near as much as I do, and she was very over the descent by the time we reached the trail, her boots completely filled with sand and her flank covered in spines from a slip into a hidden prickly pear cactus. After a break plucking out as many spines as I could with my leatherman, we finished the easy hike back to the car, taking about 9 hours with two long summit and cactus plucking breaks. From there we headed back to Mammoth to shower and grab a well earned dinner.

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