Goat Mountain and Munger Peak

Goat Mountain 12,207′ and Munger Peak 12,040′
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 10:50
Distance: 19.0 miles
Elevation Gain: 8800′
Crux: Class 2
Trailhead: Copper Creek, full services

---

---

---

Forming the northern rim of Kings Canyon in the Sierra Nevada is the Monarch Divide, a subrange frame by Tehipite Valley to the north, Kings Canyon to the south, and the Murro Blanco to the east. Although I had visited Kings Canyon National Park the year before traversing the Palisades, I had not summited a peak out of Kings Canyon proper since my very long day hike bagging Arrow Peak 2 years prior, still my longest hike in the range to date. There are a handful of Sierra Peak Section Peaks in the Monarch Divide that make reasonable day hikes, namely Harrington, Kennedy and Goat Mountains. I had climbed the interesting class 3 Mount Harrington in 2015, and Kennedy seemed like a uninteresting talus heap. So I settled on Goat Mountain, still a talus heap, but at least a bit higher with great views to the eastern Sierra. I left home before 3 AM, settling off on the trail at 5:30. It was the summer solstice, so although the sun was not quite shining, there was plenty of ambient light so as to not need a headlamp.

This was my first trip up the Copper Creek trail, and it quickly gained elevation, climbing up switchbacks above the Valley floor with views opening up to the Sphinx Crest and Mount Brewer. Although not extremely steep, the trail was quite consistent in its elevation gain for the first 1,000′ before heading up canyon less aggressively. I hiked continuously for 1.5 hours climbing 2,500′ in that span before taking my first break to apply some sunscreen, the sun finally hitting me in the deep canyon. Pressing on, I quickly passed an empty camp in Tent Meadow, the trail entering more open manzanita terrain and popping in and out of the pine forest. Just as the switchbacks restarted I spotted what looked like a large jack rabbit hopping up the trail ahead. But as I got closer, I realized it was the smallest newborn fawn I’ve ever seen, two in fact, with their mom guarding them closely. I sat down so as not to spook them, a welcome break with the trail now more rapidly ascending to the saddle below Mount Hutchings.

It took me 3.5 hours (with two breaks) to reach the final switchback below the saddle and my turn off towards Grouse Lake. A small cairn marked the turn off, but I quickly lost anything resembling a use trail in a jumble of boulders. I had assumed it would be pure cross country the rest of the route, but I was quite surprised to pick up a very well defined trail on the far side of the boulders, leading through a meadows, up a gentle forested slope and to the outlet of Grouse Lake.

The lake was quite beautiful, with Munger Peak at the head of the cirque above, and Goat Mountain off to the right. I had planned to take a break to filter water, but the mosquitos had other plans, descending as soon as I filled my filter and sending me scrambling up to high ground away from the bloodthirsty hordes. I followed the west side of the lake on the ascent but had a few cliffs along the lake shore that I needed to go up and over- the east side would be more straightforward on the return.

The granite cirque above Grouse Lake was actually fairly clean slab, no where near the talus fest I was expecting. Since I was planning to climb both Goat and Munger, I decided it made the most sense to tag Munger first, as the rock appeared solid from below and would allow me to traverse to Goat via the easier north ridge. So I made a direct line for Munger Peak, ascending a talus gully with a trickle of flowing water to 11,400′ before ascending the south slopes directly.

The final stretch was deceptively long, 600′ of climbing up a mix of sand and rock, weaving through boulders and scraggly pines higher up before topping out a bit before 11:30 AM. I was hoping to have summited closer to 5 hours than 6 from the trailhead, but I had definitely felt the lack of sleep on the final push, giving my self a long break at the summit to enjoy the views and wolf down a PBJ.

Although the traverse over to Goat looked straightforward, there were two gendarmes along the ridge and numerous small pines that could make travel tedious. I dropped off Munger, finding nice loose sand to drop down to the saddle. I initially stated below the trees before cutting up to the ridgeline to reach more solid rock than the loose slopes below.

Although I did need to scramble around several of the clusters of pines, I picked up a decent climbers trail that avoided most of it, bringing me to solid rock along the ridgeline and on to the summit. The views were outstanding, with the Kaweahs and Mineral King to the south, the Great Western Divide and Mount Brewer to the south-southeast, Mount Whitney sticking up the southeast, Mount Clarence King, Arrow Peak, and the Rae Lakes area to the east, the Palisades to the northeast and the Mount Goddard Area to the north. Although I could pick out dozens of mountains from the summit, I could name very few around Mount Goddard, a remote area I have spent little time in.

It was shortly after 1 PM, and my goal was to be finished by 5 PM to make it home in time to help put my daughter to bed. So I dropped off the summit to the northwest, initially on solid talus before finding some loose sand to boot ski down to the slabs below. I kept to the east side of Grouse Lake on my descent to avoid any cliff bands and cross back over the outlet to find the use trail, getting me back to the Copper Creek Trail in only 1.5 hours from the summit.

With nothing but 5,000′ of downhill between myself and the trailhead, I started aggressively downhill, boot skiing pine needles off trail at times and only taking a short break to refill one water bottle at Lower Tent Meadow Camp before continuing on. It wound up taking less than 2 hours to descend the 5,000′ of trail back to the car, reaching the trailhead at 4:20 PM and making for an 11 hour day. I pulled a gatorade out my cooler and headed west out of Kings, getting home at 7 PM just in time to read Avery a story before bed.