August 24, 2002

Scotty and I had planned on climbing Middle Palisade on the same day as the the rest of the palisades, excluding South Palisade (Split Mountain). Our first time making the Palisade Traverse took longer than we had planned, and we had to come back and get Middle Pal on another day. We drove down from Reno on Friday night, spent the night near a pumping station, and hit the trail at 6:15 am. The hike up the South Fork of Big Pine Creek was pleasant enough, most of it was in the shade at that hour, and we made pretty good time. We left the trail and climbed a 3rd class buttress to Finger Lake, and continued over large talus from there. We stopped at the snout of the glacier to fill up on water, and hopped on the lateral moraine to get to the toe of Middle Pal. We apparently took a route different than the regular route, and the initial climbing moves were 4th class, instead of the expected 3rd. We soon joined the regular gully, and resumed the 3rd class to the top. The only sour note on this climb came near the summit, where some low-life took a dump right on the ramp leading to the summit. Talk about lack of class! We snapped our requisite photos, signed in, and headed down. We summited at 11 am, for an ascent time of 4:45. We arrived back at the car at 2:30 for a descent time of 3.5 hours. To view Scotty's perspective on this peak, click here.