Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Kearsarge pass - open and broken in?

With regard to Charlotte Dome -

Yes, there is some serious bushwhacking around the east side. When we reached the creek below the dome, we went up west of the creek and ended up on the south-west corner of the dome. It was bush free but we climbed some slabs and one person slipped and fell on another and that led to a short bit of sliding for both. No one was hurt but a shock. Could have been avoided even but people wanted to climb on rock. Once on the south-west corner a huge wall rises above - and a series of ducks leads around to the east where we took the third class route up ~ only exposed on the last 100'. Coming down we decided to follow the creek down more directly - and avoid bad memories!. It was so thick I recall walking on a thick carpet of bush 3'-4' tall for about a 1/2 mile! Then we decided to cross the creek and the east side was suddenly free of brush with even a camping site or two and a use path past a waterfall and such down to the trail. We did as an overnight trip, backpacked in to below the dome starting around 1:00 PM - and waking and climbing to the dome and backpacked out the second day.