[ozzy]

The forcast for saturday looked most promising on the east side so off to Lemah we headed! I recruited my buddy Bryan for the ensuing journey. I'd been wanting to get up to this gnarly little beast for awhile and I knew it was gonna be a long day lol! The Smoot guide deceived me a little into thinking it might just be a little 16 mile jaunt! The track I had (Scott Rice) from peakbagger had it more at the 23 mile mark, anything over 20 miles is gonna be a long damn day for me! We arrived at the pete lake th and it was packed. We started hiking around 6am. We made it past the lake joined the PCT and walked south to the washed out bridge at Lemah creek. Probably around 7 miles or so.(from the car) From the washout we paralleled the creek up to the alpine where it gets pretty awesome, not to mention we didnt see another person past this point!!! The bush wasnt too thick through here, always easy to find gametrails. We followed pleasant slabs aways up til we found a nice little perch overlooking the valley/meadow and our objective, LEMAH!! Wow, this is one of the most beautiful valleys I've encountered! The waterfall at the head of the valley was sweet too! We planned to go up the snow filled gully and I thought it might be a little worse than it was, its kinda an intimidating looking mountain from down there.

the slabs takin us upward

one of many waterfalls

ohhh damnnnnn!!!

cool memorial found

pristineness

After resting/eating at the perch we mustered up some courage and made our way through the meadow and up towards our gully. At the end of the meadow there is some bushwhacking to be had but it doesnt last too long. The closer we got the less steep the snow looked, thank god! I'm not a big fan of large steep snowslopes. Before we knew it we were at the snow, this is where Bryan decided to call it a day. It was a slog to get to this point and I was envious of his decision to chill here in this amazing place, lol! I put the crampons on and donned the axe and headed upwards. Clouds started to pour in overhead towards the summits as I departed Bryan, making me almost want to bail. I topped out in the gully in 40mins, the route follows the path of least resistance. None of the snow in the gully was ever too steep, the snow on the leftward traverse wasn't ever too bad either. I made it to the little bowl between Lemah 2 and 3 pretty quick. The clouds were hovering around the 7000ft mark, I was happy it wasnt a complete whiteout. I was definitely feeling the fatigue at this point!

nice waterfall at the end of meadow

gully

lookin back down valley

gettin higher

up in the gully proper

clouds coming

topped out in gully, go left up slabs

starting traverse

three queens

The route looked pretty gnarly and I started my way up the steep snow to the cliffband. Once on the rock it was some fun class 3/4 climbing! I made it to the upper snowpatch and then made my way towards the ridge which had some more fun scrambling!! There were no moat issues. Unfortunately the top was socked in and rather chilly, the time was 330pm 9.5hrs from the car! Whiskey was had, 20min power nap, register acquired, then the hasty retreat below the clouds! I was so stoked to push on and bag this beautiful mountain! What a day to be alive! I casually made my way down soaking in all the glory this place has to offer. When I made it back to Bryan he was covered in clothes from head to toe trying to avoid the onslaught of mosquitoes, lol! All in all it was one long ass day but soooo worth it, you know I'll be back! We made it back to the car around 1am, partly due to me having to take a nap in the bushes 4 miles from car. Cheers friends!!

cliffband class 3/4 sweetness

lookin down towards approach, pete and cooper lakes

on the slabs with goat overhead

reg

getting below the clouds

Spectacle lake way down there

Awesomeness

until nextime

[Bootpathguy]

[lopper]

Thanks for the report. Love the Lemahs. "having to take a nap in the bushes 4 miles from car": magnificent.

[puzzlr]

[geyer]

Nice work! Looks like you had pretty good climbing conditions! Hah your pictures made me realize I never wrote the date when I signed the register guess I had other things on my mind...

[mtn.climber]

Always enjoy an Ozzy report. Thanks.

[General ****]

Ozzy, I just saw your logo photo for the first time, The Hard Way... 75th Rangers.... "Rangers Lead The Way". Nice trip report, thanks.

[ozzy]

[ozzy]

[ozzy]

Geyer your TR had me kinda nervous for sure, conditions permitted a safer passage though! Pretty fun little route.

[ozzy]

[Fletcher]

Lemah is one of my all time favorite climbs. Excellent job dude!

[contour5]

Great stuff! I need to get up there for a bit of wandering...