MIDDLE PALISADE POV: About to drop into a dream line on Middle Palisade. Photo: Nick Russell Words Nick Russell I’VE ALWAYS BEEN drawn to lines that are accompanied by a little bit of lore–the ones that call for more effort than most and come with a low success rate. Lines where photos are sparse and firsthand accounts are even rarer. For myself, Middle Palisade is one of those mountains that I’ve long since earmarked as a true High Sierra dream line. Beyond the fact that this 14,012-foot peak holds a beautiful yet wildly exposed descent off the summit ridge, it’s how rare this intimidating line comes into form that brings much of the allure. I appreciate the process of working up to something grand and even more so if met with failure upon initial undertakings. The first time I truly saw the face with the intention of hope-fully riding it the next day was in mid-March with my good friend Nathaniel Murphy. We had climbed an opposing peak to get a view. The route essentially wraps east to north down the moun-tain. From the rarely snow-covered headwall off the top, one must make a critical rider’s left to avoid the 500-foot cliff below the fall line. Then, the bulk of the line opens up, until eventually leading to yet another guarded closeout where a final crucial move rider’s right must be made to reach the diagonal exit chute. In favorable conditions, she goes clean with no ropes and holds potential for good style. Looking through my monocle in the afternoon shade, even though the snow quality was a big question mark, I could tell that it was good enough to try the following day. We set our alarms for 12 a.m. at a modest motel in Big Pine and left by 1:30 to make it to the base of Middle Palisade by sun-rise. Upon first light on the skyline, those butterflies that tradi-tionally come with a big project had multiplied. There was far more snow than either of us had anticipated, creating the kind of glorious, fluted spines normally reserved for Alaska. It looked too good. We hemmed and hawed at the base for quite some time, de-bating the current situation. Ultimately, the abundance of deep, unsettled snow on such a big, exposed face led to our decision to abort. Bailing isn’t always easy, but the writing was on the wall. Several weeks later I was back home in Truckee when I re-ceived a text from friend and photographer, Ming Poon. Turns out that two mutual friends, Jeff Dostie and Jeremy Frumkin, had their own ongoing saga with Middle Palisade and were plan-ning to give it a shot that weekend. We all crammed into the back of Dostie’s truck and made our way down Highway 395 for a late-night arrival at the trailhead and short rest. With headlamp lumens on high, we made relatively quick work of the sloggy approach–5,000 vertical feet over eight miles–to reach the base of the giant. Taking lessons from my previous attempt, we adjusted our route and came in a little higher, then traversed down to a diagonal snow pitch above the lower rocks to begin the 2,000-foot ascent. 056 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.3: Page 56
