The Land of Little Rain
by SCMA Member Jon Stark

LAND OF LITTLE RAIN; Grade V 5.10c

Brandon Thau and I both felt that this route on the South Face of Lone Pine Peak, put up by Alois Smrz, Jim Mathews and Miguel Carmona in the summer of ‘96, looked like a really worthy goal. After my trip into the area last year to put up a new route called "Autumn Ledges" (Grade IV 5.8) I felt familiar enough with the area that we decided to attempt a fast ascent.

We parked at the end of the 4WD road and got about 4 ½ hours of sleep then hit the trail to the Stone House by 3:30AM. It was to be one of the hottest days of the year. Had we gotten up any later the approach from the Stone House to the toe of the central buttress would have been a brutally hot bushwhack!

We took empty water bottles (three liters each) and iodine, down jackets for an unplanned bivi, light hikers for the approach and descent and a few bars to choke down. The rack required is also light: two 8.5 mil ropes, one set TCUs, Camalots to #3, 1 set of wires, a dozen 24" slings and 15 additional light biners.

After a two hour approach to the stream crossing where we tanked up we headed directly towards the target face. Rather than take the somewhat meandering 3rd class approach we decided to strike more directly and with about 600 or 800 feet of easy fifth class climbing came to the base of the climb. After racking gear and roping up we were 3 ½ hours from the car. The sun was up and we could only imagine how miserable it would have been bushwhacking. The first pitches were still shaded by the central buttress and perfectly comfortable.

Alois’ topo is incredibly accurate! The climbing is just as described although one pitch described as 5.7 was worrisome after about thirty feet off the anchor. I don’t think there is a loose rock on the entire route. We got to the top of the main face and to the notch of the Winter Route and took a breather. It had become warm in the sun so the shade felt good at the tree there. We refreshed ourselves and continued up the last three pitches and additional 300 feet of 4^th class to the summit plateau at 10,500ft.

I had been bawling about being tired since the notch and finally got Brandon to admit to being tired too. We were 13 hours from the car and had the descent to look forward to so we took another breather and polished off our water. The descent gully is about a half-mile to the east down easy slopes. Once in the gully we found a trickle and picked up a liter each of not the cleanest but nice and cold water. Back at the car we wished we had cleaned up in the creek but it’s 200 feet below and we couldn’t muster the energy to go back down. Car to car in 15hrs: 30min.

Now, for those of you who want to do this route (Both Brandon and I highly recommend it!) There are few reasons to go as hard and fast as we did. This is too big and beautiful a mountain to speed past. The bivi to the left of the 8^th pitch looked great. There is another at the Winter Route notch and the summit plateau would be fine too. The summit is about 2500 feet higher reached by sandy slopes. The views of the surrounding massif are astounding and to do this route over an entire weekend would be great. As has been pointed out in the past, the South Face of Lone Pine is the most easily accessible backcountry big wall in southern California. It holds many more lines open to exploration and will reward you greatly.