Merced Peak, Edna Peak and Triple Divide Peak

Merced Peak 11,726′, Edna Peak 11,588′ and Triple Divide Peak 11,591′
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 13:35
Distance: 22.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 9100′
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Quartz Mountain, no services

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Merced Peak is the highest summit in the Clark Range of the Sierra Nevada, and one of only a handful of summits in the area I had left to do. Although it’s the closest Sierra Peak Section peak to my home, I had been putting off bagging it, with a fairly long approach and, unlike more exciting scrambles in the range to the north, was mostly a class 2 affair and a bit of a slog. But after several bad fire seasons in a row, I made it a point to climb Merced Peak early in the season, the trailheads of Southern Yosemite at fairly high risk of being closed by the next California inferno. Although the Quartz Mountain trailhead is less than 50 miles of driving from home, it still took nearly two hours to get to the trailhead, thanks to the last 15 miles being rough dirt road. It’s by no means the worst road I’ve taken my car on, but it’s pretty consistently not great for most of the drive in. There were two cars at the trailhead when I arrived, but I wouldn’t see a soul all day as I started down the trail to Chiquito Pass. This was my second time utilizing this trail, the first time traversing Redtop, Sing and Gale Peaks two summers prior. Wanting to burn through the early miles of the day quickly, I half jogged down hill, climbing back up and reaching the junction to Chain Lakes in a bit over an hour. I quickly lost all the elevation I gained continuing on the trail north to the South Fork of the Merced River, with a decent flow rate in the early spring.

Some tenuous rock hopping got me across with dry shoes bringing me to the trail junction up to Fernandez Pass. Merced Peak was hidden in trees to the north, and I set off cross country angling slightly to the east, hoping to reach the unnamed small lake just above the 10,000′ contour to top up on water before the ridgeline. The cross country was about as good as I could hope for- open pine forest mixed with clean granite slab with very little deadfall or brush to deal with. As I climbed higher and the trees thinned, I had some of my first view of the southern edge of the Clark Range with Gale, Sing and Redtop Peaks to the south.

As I neared the unnamed lake, I found a great granite ramp system above a shallow drainage that I was able follow all the way up to the lake and give me the first good look at Merced Peak for the day. Although small, the lake was surprisingly deep and would be a reliable water source year round, and I refilled my two liter bottles and took a short break.

I was pleased with how close Merced Peak looked as I made a more or less direct line towards the notch between the summit and 11,266′. Although I was worried it would be loose talus from afar, I was pleasantly surprised to find fairly clean granite slabs that brought me all the way to the southern ridgeline of Merced Peak.

After another short break I started up the ridgeline, again pleasantly surprised by the quality of rock, nothing harder than class 2 but very solid. It was about 11:30 AM when I reached the summit, taking 5.5 hours to cover the 11 miles and 4,000+’ of elevation gain. I was pleased with my time, and felt like I was on pace for my goal of 12 hours on the day, rewarding myself with a long lunch at the summit. The views were tremendous, the Mount Ritter and Banner along with Mammoth Mountain to the east, Red Slate and Bloody Mountain to the southeast, the Evolution Group and Palisades further south, and Mount Whitney, the great Western Divide and Kaweahs further in the distance. The rest of the Clark Range blocked views of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley, although it was easy to pick out major landmarks in the northern part of the park including Mount Conness, Mount Dana and Mount Lyell.

I had hoped that the traverse over to Triple Divide would take about two hours, especially after realizing that I had lost one of my water bottles ascending the ridge, leaving me with one liter until I could drop back down to refilter. Dropping off the summit to the east, the rock was initially the same solid class 2 talus that I had ascended from the south. But as I approached the intervening unofficially named Edna Peak at 11588′ along the ridge, the quality quickly deteriorated, becoming loose and tedious, with several class 3 bands that I needed to negotiate. It took over an hour to go up and over Edna Peak, and I can safely say it would have been faster to completely drop off the ridge and cut across the intervening basin.

The rock quality dropping off Edna Peak wasn’t much better, and it took another 45 minutes just to reach the saddle between Edna and Triple Divide. I was hardly in the clear, with small pines annoyingly blocking progress. Thankfully, the rock quality dramatically improved as I started up the northwest ridge of Triple Divide Peak and I made slow and steady progress up to the summit.

The views were honestly even better on Triple Divide, with a closer look at Ritter and Banner, and the afternoon light giving better definition to the Tuolumne area peaks, Matthes Crest in particular casting a dark shadow from its huge granite cliffs.

The traverse had taken 2:45 now putting me behind schedule. I had also finished off my water and was definitely starting to feel a bit dehydrated. So I dropped off directly to the west, cutting through some cliff bands down a class 3 gully and reaching the first trickle of snow melt in about 15 minutes. I filtered a liter and drank about half before following the headwaters of the South Fork of the Merced River. Granite slabs gave way to green subalpine meadows and the river began to widen.

I paused for no more than 10 seconds to decide if I should stick to the north or south side of the river, when a swarm of dozens of mosquitos descended, sending me in a sprint along the river bank to escape the bloodthirsty horde. I strangly had not encountered any mosquitos all day and had almost forgotten about them, but they would plague me the 10 miles all the way back to the trailhead. I followed the South Fork of the Merced as it merged with small tributaries and grew in size, sticking to grassy slopes above or occasional rock slabs in the drainage directly. The Fernandez Pass trail materialized in the forest allowing me to pick up my pace, and I crossed back over the Merced to make my way south back to the trailhead. I finished off the second half of my liter of filtered water as I hiked, but the constant swarm of mosquitos keep me from taking a real break since dropping off Triple Divide Peak. I paused just long enough to refill my Sawyer filter and drank from it directly on the hike out, reaching my car shortly before 7:30, taking about 13.5 hours on the day. Not quite the speed record I was hoping for, but the traverse was more tedious than expected, and I certainly wasn’t in peak alpine shape this early in the summer. I headed down the bumpy dirt road, grabbed a late dinner in Oakhurst and finished the drive home.