On March 27-28, 1976 myself, Ellie Heston, Lynn Morra, Jim Meadowcroft, George Lozito, Gil Beilke and Scott Morton backpacked into the Middle Palisade area on a ten mile round trip. This was an Explorer Post 82 trip (based in Lone Pine/Independene)
We left Lone Pine at 6 a.m. and hit the trail about 8 a.m. from the bridge just above Glacier Lodge. There was a thin snow cover on the flat area as we approached the slope up which the trail switchbacks. This slope was mostly hard packed slab snow which we climbed straight up to the bottom of the cliffs, then traversed up over the top of the ridge - getting above the trail and its "pass", then dropping down to the "pass" and following the trail to Willow Lake for camp.
Jim and George came up the north side of the creek, and felt afterward, that it would be a good route in good snow cover. We made camp around 2 pm or so. Jim and George started on toward Finger Lake to try Middle Palisade, however the loose snow and their unfamiliarity with the area soon turned them back and they camped with the rest of us.
Sunday morning Gil and Scott headed for Temple Crag but were forced back by the 60 mile winds. They left camp for home in San Diego about 2 p.m.
Jim and George climbed the ridge to the south and traversed west on a sightseeing trip to plan for a future climb of Middle Palisade. They returned to camp about 4:30 p.m.
Don, Ellie and Lynn left camp about 9 a.m. (late) and headed up a gully toward peak 12,861. We made slow time but were fairly well out of the wind most of the time. Just after lunch we made the top of a plateau at about 10,800 feet. We proceeded to a high point with great views of this portion of the Palisade range. About 2 p.m. we headed down the west slope into the drainage above Willow Lake, then on to camp, arriving about 5 p.m.
We quickly packed up and headed for the car. The going was fairly slow on the snow in the gully where the trail goes down, then traversing over sometimes soft snow. We finally reached the bottom of the steep slope just as it got dark. We proceeded by flashlight and headlamp to the car, arriving about 8:30 p.m. in the dark. All tired, but a great trip. After a side trip to Bishop for steaks, we headed home.
