Muah Mountain

Muah Mountain 11,013′
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 4:40
Distance: 12.1 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,850′
Crux: Class 2
Trailhead: Horseshoe Meadows- pit toilets

---

---

---

I was feeling pretty wrecked after Clarence King, but definitely didn’t want to waste a day in Lone Pine without bagging another peak. I had put some feelers out on climbing the North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak but came up empty- probably for the best considering how physically tired I was. I had climbed most of the other peaks in the Whitney zone, and those that I hadn’t either needed a permit (McAdie) or were too deep for how I was feeling (LeConte and Cocoran). So I decided to climb Muah Mountain, a summit just over 11,000′ out of Horseshoe Meadows that I had been saving for a day just like today. I hoped to get home by dinner to see Holly and Avery, so I got up early despite not going to bed after midnight, leaving the hotel by 7 and starting down the trail shortly after 7:30 AM. After passing a corral, I entered Horseshoe Meadows, a lone hiker heading south on the same trail.

I quickly passed them as I climbed up to Mulkey Pass, climbing the 550′ and 1.8 miles in about 35 minutes. I was feeling surprisingly good considering the big day before, and began the long descent towards Muah Mountain and the Diaz Creek drainage.

It was a bigger descent than I realized looking at the map that morning, dropping 700′ to the creek that would need to be reclimbed on the both the ascent and the hike out. As I neared the creek I startled a herd of cattle, not quite the same wilderness experience as yesterday. I found a cattle trail at the turnoff for Diaz creek and turned up another use trail that paralleled a drainage that ran between Muah Mountain and Peak 10,472′. My goal was to hit the saddle between these two peaks then cut east towards the summit. I was able to utilize cattle trails almost to the saddle before striking off on easy cross country through a beautiful stand of Foxtail Pine.

I needed to skirt a false summit to the south before climbing the easy talus to the summit rocks, a surprisingly narrow fin of rock running from north to south. The climb had taken me 2:20 from the trailhead, not record breaking but pretty good considering how sore I was.

After a quick snack and signing into the register I dropped off, this time taking a more direct line towards Diaz Creek with pretty good boot skiing down. With my work cut out for me heading back up to Mulkey Pass, I wasted no time, continuing back up the trail and regaining the pass 4 hours in. Although I tried to jog downhill from the pass, the best I could muster could be described as pulsed trotting, my glycogen stores pretty well spent from the day before.

I got back to the car a bit after 4 and a half hours and started back home, getting a late lunch at Coso Junction and getting home in time for dinner.