[Stefan]

The ying meets the yang. On Friday, Mike and I left the White River trailhead at 3:30. Since I had to be back home by 6:00p.m. on Saturday, I needed to find a short two day climb and so Clark/Luahna fit the bill. Within 20 minutes a horse pack train and a WTA crew was coming out for the trail maintenance they had been completing towards Boulder Pass. We made our way to 5000 feet in the basin below Boulder Pass and followed the old sheepherders trail (very easy to follow) around the basin and to the pass south of point 6937. Brush was wet from the morning rains, but we had non precipitation skies and clouds keeping down the heat. The ying was in. Following the sheepherder’s path was glorious going through wondrous meadows and babbling brooks. Ying baby. We continued on the ridge directly and finally found two postage stamp bivy sites just south of point 6937. The location was at the lower level of the clouds. At 5:00 we woke up and were soon on our way. Blue skies were the ying for the entire day and we followed the ridgeline north while it became cumbersome and annoying some class 3. Recommendation: leave the sheepherders path between 5800-6000 feet and make a beeline to the ridgeline at 7200 feet. Eventually we came to the ridgeline at 7200 feet and went down the class 2 gully for 200 feet. This gully is obvious and located just before the ridgeline makes a large upward lift in the rocks. From here we made an upward traverse to 8200 feet on the south ridge of Clark and went to the summit. 7:00a.m. Ying is still happening. No register. At 8400 feet we came down a class 2-3 gully heading NW towards point 7970T and worked ourselves to the 7640+ pass and then around the 7970T peak on the SW side at about 7800 feet (do not go to the top of 7970T). We then dropped down to the 7720+ pass on the NW side of peak 7970T and here we donned the crampons working ourselves onto the Richardson Glacier and up to the east ridge of Luahna. The ying was still with us because the snow was perfect for cramponing. Not too slushy. Not too hard. From the east ridge of Luahna we went up 200 feet and ran into some slabs. We then cut around to the north side of the east ridge and went up the first ramp (class 2-3) all the way to the summit. "Duck Soup" as Mike called it. The advantage of this route is that it avoids downclimbing the SE ridge rock route and you can enjoy the snow of the Richardson glacier on the way down saving your knees. We found ourselves at 9:30a.m. back at the 7720+ pass just over 4 hours after leaving our camp. We headed down the Luahna basin always hugging the east side of the basin towards Thunder Creek. Fantastic meadows. Ying was overwhelming and beyond giddiness. Eventually we met the forest and guess what? We came across the sheepherders trail again around 5200 feet in the forest. Ying was becoming overconfident. We followed the easy to follow trail to around 4400 feet and then we lost the trail. The Ying ends. The transition begins. I thought, "No problemos" because we can go down 2000 feet to the trail through regular cross country terrain. The Yang begins. In a very short period we lost animal trails. Note to all climbers: The loss of animal trails is a bad sign, because animals know something. We hit massed out leafed vine maple and one period of intense yew trees. For 2000 feet. For two hours. Yang. This area was an area I would like to call "Mike and Stefan's Sisyphous-like playground". We were like spiders at times not touching the ground for several minutes as we hopped from one vine maple branch to the next. Our hopes rose with each visible conifer working our ways to them, only to notice no other conifer existed beyond it, and more vine maple dominated the scene. Such as the life of Sisyphous. We finally worked our way and crossed Thunder creek at around 3000 feet, working our way though more vine maple and eventually had about 200 feet of decent cross country to the trail. Yang. On the walk out, I thought that was the end of the brush. Wrongo dudes. The White River trail from BM2579 to about 300 meters before the Boulder Pass trail cutoff is dominated by small fast growth about chest height for a great majority of time without the benefit of shade. Interspersed with strategically placed stinging nettles along the way. The Yang continues. Maybe in spring the growth is not so bad. On the way out we met another WTA group going in for trail maintenance and one of the men who came out on the horses the previous day. Car time was 3:00. This is a great trip, and I highly recommend the route. Just do not leave the sheepherders trail in the valley below Luahna. If you can manage that, you will have an excellent time. By the way, I know the sheepherder’s trail crosses Thunder Creek at 3800 feet. Stefan 7/23-24/2005

[Tazz]

excellent Tr Thanks Was waiting for the yang through out then you delivered it. I have had the same thing happen on animal trails. They are smarter than we are when it comes to moving through the mountains. At least there was more ying than yang. sounds like a great climb!

[Mike Collins]

It felt as if we were in a hiker's purgatory of never ending vine maple. The branches viciously entwined our ankles and released the leg only to whack our shins into another branch. It was fun finding the old sheepherders route and we probably should have backtracked to it once we realized we were off its route.

[Guiran]