Mount Mills and Lookout Peak

Mount Mills 13,451′ and Lookout Peak 11,902′
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 7:05
Distance: 10.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 3800′
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Mosquito Flats- trash, pit toilets

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At the end of a week of Fourth of July celebrations in Mammoth, I was granted a half day for peakbagging. I had cleaned out all the of Sierra Peak Section Peaks immediately south of town, yet there was still a good number of summits above Rock Creek and Little Lakes Valley, having only climbed Mount Abbot, Mount Morgan (S), and the traverse of Mount Stanford and the other Mount Morgan immediately to the north. Mount Mills was the obvious choice for a half day, only about 10 miles roundtrip and under 4,000′ of elevation gain. Despite the modest statistics, it is not a particularly popular summit, in part due it’s notoriously loose rock, along with being overshadowed by the more marque summits of the area, namely Mount Abbot and Bear Creek Spire. In order to try and make it home in time for lunch, I left Mammoth extremely early, starting out by headlamp at around 4:30 AM up Little Lakes Valley. I quickly reached the turn off for Mono Pass and started switch backing up, no longer needing a headlamp by the time I reached Ruby Lake. I had planned to take a small break at the lake but was immediately swarmed by mosquitos, forcing me to press on further up the drainage.

I had taken this approach to Mount Abbot two years prior and found the cross country to be quite straight forward on mostly solid talus and grassy granite benches. Passing next to Mills Lake, I filtered water at a small stream, my map showing this to be the last likely water source to the summit. The chutes leading up the East Face were still out of view, with a huge snow slope blanketing the terrain above, encouraging to see after finding the Abbot Glacier in such bad shape two years prior.

At the edge of the snow, I stopped to put on crampons although these were likely unnecessary, the snow so deeply suncupped that the traction and climbing was quite easy. While there are a number of chutes leading up to the summit, the correct class 3 chute was easy to find by the huge chokestone at the start, with a ancient cheater sling hanging down the short class 3 bypass on the left.

I stopped here to take off my crampons and leave my ice axe, and was quite surprised to find a set already at the base. I had not seen anyone climbing the snow slope, above, and figured they most have gotten an extremely early start to be already up the face and out of sight. I was a little annoyed that someone might be above me given the loose rock on the face, and was happy to have brought my helmet. Getting around the crux class 3 chokestone was actually quite trivial. There were three rocks wedged in to step up, with an incredible deep and secure handjam at the top to the right. The cheater sling seemed to be anchored in loose sand and seemed very unnecessary, and I debated cutting it, although it did serve as a nice way to ensure climbers chose the correct chute. The worst of the loose rock was immediately above the chokestone where the chute narrowed, although was mostly loose sand rather than rocks or talus.

There were maybe two other short class 3 steps, but the chute was mostly class 2, leading up to the north-south ridgeline above. I cut left a bit before reaching the ridgeline, following ledges covered in scree to a notch and my first views deeper into the Sierra of the day.

Now on the ridgeline, there was about 20′ of scrambling up some of the only solid granite of the day up to the large summit plateau. Walking across, I stopped at the wrong highpoint and continued along until finding the summit register. Although the views were outstanding, I had a sudden pit in my stomach that I had not passed any other climbers despite the fresh gear stashed at the top of the snowfield. The last entry in the summit register was from the week prior- and I would see later that that person logged multiple summits on Peakbagger since that date.

After a short break, I started my descent with a good deal of unease, my eyes peel for a distressed climber, or body, somewhere on the east face below. Although the main chute was almost all class 2 sand, it would be pretty easy to get off route if one wasn’t careful and into loose technical terrain.

The gear was still there when I climbed back down past the chokestone, and I took a picture for Inyo County SAR in case it would be helpful in a future search (still nothing as of writing). I briefly put on crampons for the descent but bailed left as soon as possible, the snow now considerably softer and not holding my weight. I made quick time back to Mills Lake and saw I was ahead of schedule, giving myself 7 hours for the climb. Just above my descent line was Lookout Peak, just under 12,000′ and what looked to be an easy bonus summit. As I got closer, I saw that it would be less than a quarter mile extra distance and a few hundred feet. Adding it on felt like a no brainer.

I filtered another liter of water and started up, traversing right around a false summit and reaching the highpoint in about 15 minutes. I was surprised at how few entries were in the summit register despite this being a fairly easy peak, and the views were outstanding of all of Little Lakes Valley, particularly of Bear Creek Spire which had been blocked by Mount Abbot from the summit of Mount Mills.

From the summit of Lookout Peak, it looked like I could follow a ridge to the north and descend directly to the Little Lakes Valley trail, bypassing Ruby Lake and the Mono Pass trail. This initially worked quite well, with the narrow ridgeline having a nice use trail on the descent. Unfortunately, this fizzled out at false summit, and a more direct line off the top led to some class 3 downclimbing and bushwacking once back below treeline. What little time I had hoped to gain taking the direct line was quickly lost on the cross country, and I had difficulty finding a place to cross the stream leading from Ruby Lake. Once back on the trail, I was met with wall to wall people, Mono County holding one of their annual free fishing days and the entire Valley full of people looking to catch some trout. I hightailed it to the car as quickly as I could, taking a painfully long time to drive out with dozens of cars looking for spots, and the roadside parking full for a solid two miles back all the way to the Hilton Lakes trailhead. Once through the fishing traffic jam, it was a quick drive back to the condo, getting back just in time for lunch.

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