[evergreen199]

To celebrate a friend's birthday we went up Thomson via the east ridge yesterday. With Saturday's "mostly sunny" NOAA forecast we left the lowlands with high hopes for some good weather, but were a bit worried throughout the morning as we remained stuck in the clouds about wet rock on the short class 4 section near Thomson's summit. The misty weather did make for some interesting photos.

Kendall Catwalk

Alaska Lake in the mist

We took the Commonwealth Basin shortcut to cut off some of the PCT mileage and sure appreciated it at the end of the day. We saw a couple of tiny snow patches but never needed to cross snow on the PCT, or after leaving it to head over to Thomson (so don't bring your ice axe if you're heading there this season). Once we got over Bumblebee Pass and into the basin we headed up the talus in the direction where we knew the notch giving access to the east ridge should be, and eventually could make out a path through the talus taking us where we wanted to go.

Reaching the east ridge of Thomson

Gates of Mordor?

Somewhere around 6300 feet the trail traversed west below a band of cliffy stuff, taking you to a kind of slabby area that looks ok to scramble, but has considerable exposure if you were to fall. We explored it a bit and decided it wasn't what we were expecting from the route descriptions we read, so backtracked and found the proper route up (see photo below) - I think the trail we were following may be from where some groups rappel down from the summit, and they are rejoining the main ridge route.

Don't go this way around 6300 feet, look to your right and ascend (next photo)

Go up this way

After that it is a short distance to the class 4 moves (apparently I didn't take any photos of it, but you can see it in other TRs) and then a walk to the summit. We found the summit register (most of the entries wet and soggy), but nothing to write with, so the next group up may want to bring additional paper and a pencil.

summit view

No views from the summit, but - as tends to happen - as soon as we got off the mountain and back into Bumblebee Basin the weather cleared and the rest of the day was beautiful.

Bumblebee Basin

Looking back at Thomson, the notch on the right is where you gain access to the east ridge

Alaska Lake again

Kendall Catwalk

16 miles and about 5300 feet of elevation gain according to my GPS. We brought ice axes in case there was snow on the north side of Bumblebee Pass, but didn't need them. We also brought a rope to rappel the 4th class moves near the summit, though all of us ended downclimbing it (a couple on belay for peace of mind).

[Fletcher]

Thats a fun route. I went back and looked at some route photos of the crux after reading your report. Everyone calls that thing class 4, but I think that, depending on how you do it, it may involve a few low 5th class moves. There are some slabby foot placements!

[evergreen199]

Fletcher, I'm not always sure how to appropriately attribute the different classifications, it seems like everyone has their own definitions. I called this one class four based on the Yosemite decimal system definition: "Class 4: Simple climbing, with exposure. A rope is often used. Natural protection can be easily found. Falls may well be fatal." I'm not too much of a rock climber, so don't have a great sense of what constitutes a 5th vs 4th class move, but without a couple of key hand and foot placements near the top of this pitch I would certainly have wanted to be roped up to climb it (and those placements might not be reachable for all climbers).

[b00]

nice work dr. b!!! no wonder you did not join us this weekend. so glad your climb worked out so well. wish you had better weather. no problem though, as i bet you will be in that area again(do chikamin next time when it is nice, as it has better views :>) not sure if this will help you and fletcher, but here is what beckey said about mt thomson: "Class 3 initiates elementary climbing, scrambling with frequent use of hands. There may be moderate exposure; for the average climber, a rope will not be desired, but one should be available... Examples are Mount Thompson(sic), East Ridge..." for what it is worth, i've been up thomson both the east and west ridge and thought that east ridge was class 4 for a few feet. :>) ps - uber congrats on your graduation!!!