Nine years later, I was ready to drive the very curvy road up to Mineral King and climb Eisen & Lippincott. My route taken largely follows Bob’s 2007 trip. The only non-minor deviation was cutting over toward Eisen half way up the switchbacks to the Black Rock Pass. This allowed me to avoid some of the ridge traverse and extra elevation gain, likely saving a few minutes. The Kaweah Peaks Ridge commands attention for most of the day and this collection of rugged rocks is so inspiring that I easily took over 1,000 photos of it with my iPhone and dedicated camera. Despite culling the majority, there’s probably still way too many Kaweah photos posted here. The following day I did a very nice loop including Mineral Peak, Needham Mountain, Amphitheater Lake and Sawtooth Peak which I look forward to sharing on the blog soon. It took nine years between visits to Mineral King and I hope the next time will be much sooner!  Full photo albums: Camera; iPhone 

The route to reach Eisen & Lippincott begins in the charming Mineral King valley. After an initial climb on the Sawtooth Pass Trail, the most efficient route to Glacier Pass leaves the maintained trail at a small meadow and begins a traversing climb on an old unmaintainted trail. There’s some brush and some boulder hoping in sections, but the old path is followable all the way up to another meadow area above a headwall of Monarch Creek. The path disappears in this meadow, but veer left into a broad gully that leads toward Glacier Pass. On the left side of this broad gully the use path can be regained. With careful routefinding the use path can be followed most of the way to Glacier Pass.  Alternatively, one may stay on the maintained Sawtooth Pass Trail which reaches the Glacier Pass vicinity after a long series of gradual switchbacks, a circuitous trip to the lower Monarch Lakes and an annoyingly sandy climb. The correct crossing of Glacier Pass is slightly south and above the low point.

After passing over Glacier Pass, a use path descends to the gorgeous headwaters of Cliff Creek, one of the most enchanting places in the Sierra. The descent features picturesque small tarns and grizzled Southern Foxtail Pines with increasingly closer views of exquisite Spring Lake, which sports a spectacular blue color, particularly when contrasted with the red bark of the foxtail pines. Rising from Spring Lake’s shores is a impressive granite buttress which is the terminous of Sawtooth Peak’s north ridge. For Mount Eisen, follow Cliff Creek downstream from Spring Lake moving through a talus field and then easy meadows to join the Black Rock Pass trail. One may ascend the Black Rock Pass Trail all the way to the Pass or depart about halfway up the slope and angle toward Mount Eisen to save some time and extra elevation gain. Once the ridge is gained a false summit is reached with one of the most memorable views of the Kaweahs as Lake 10410 (one of the Little Five Lakes) is perfectly framed.  Some scrambling leads down to a pass between the false summit and Mount Eisen before the final scramble up Mount Eisen commences. Pursuing the summit register I learned that a ridge traverse from Eisen to Lippincott has been done in the past by staying right on the crest, but the easiest and most efficient route follows a route underneath the ridge.

From Eisen retreat back to the pass between Eisen and the false summit before picking one of many class 3 possibilities down the east side of the ridge to friendly granite slabs below. Traverse north to a gap along Eisen’s east ridge with a distinctive horn to the east of the gap and then descend a gully (likely containing snow) to a rockbound tarn. From here aim for a pass between the two unnamed peaks on the Great Western Divide that are between Eisen and Lippincott. There’s some slabs to descend followed by a large talus fields that leads to the pass. On the other side of this pass one is on the west side of the Great Western Divide and the traverse to Lippincott’s southeast ridge is fairly straightforward. It is recommended to loose some elevation to reach easier terrain versus remaining high. Lippincott’s southeast ridge is a fun class 3 scramble with lots of options to make it interesting on the ridge proper or tone down the difficulty by moving left off the ridge. Lippincott’s summit is a wonderful perch with views toward the Tablelands, Nine Lakes Basin and the Great Western Divide stretching to the north all the way to Mount Brewer and North Guard. The Kaweahs continue to command the greatest attention, particularly Black Kaweah and Red Kaweah, but with an added twist: at the base of Lippincott’s precipitous north face is an unnamed lake (“Lippincott Lake”) with a wonderful deep blue center ringed by a turquoise shoreline.

Some class 3 downclimbing is required on the upper part of the Lippincott’s east face, but it soons transitions into pleasant granite slabs. Following the drainage down leads to a wonderful parkland of Southern Foxtail Pines and small lakes. At the outlet of lake 10,295 curve to the south to reach the Big Arroyo Trail. The Big Arroyo Trail passes through one of the most pristine Southern Foxtail Pine woodlands in existence with some truly amazing trees. The scientific name for Southern Foxtail Pine is Pinus balfouriana subspecies austrina and it is endemic to the high country of the Southern Sierra Nevada. Most of the groves are within Sequoia National Park and the Big Arroyo and Upper Kern River watersheds contain the highest concentration of Southern Foxtail Pines anywhere. This fascinating tree occurs in nearly pure stands of widely spaced woodlands and the bark has a distinctive reddish color which is particularly striking in sunlight. The Foxtail Pine is slow growing and the arid, high-elevation conditions also mean it is slow to decay. Some living trees are thousands of years old and woody crowns can persist for much longer. In exposed places near tree line, numerous winter storms with high winds and ice sculpt and twist the trunk and branches into picturesque snags peeling away the bark to expose complex inner layers and striking colors. 

After some rolling hills through the Southern Foxtail Pine forest, the trail reaches Little Five Lakes with more great views of the Kaweahs. The shortest route back to Spring Lake and Glacier Pass is via an off trail traverse to Cyclamen Pass (point 11,145 on USGS). The east side of the pass is fairly straightforward with wonderful views down to the Big Five Lakes while the west side of the pass is a fairly arduous descent with sand in the upper part that transitions to talus below. Ultimately, one returns to beautiful Spring Lake where a use trail leads up to Glacier Pass. Here, the climbing is done for the day and it’s all downhill to Mineral King.