August 17, 2002

Thunderbolt was scheduled to be peak number 1 of 6 today. Also on the agenda were Starlight, North Palisade, Polemonium Peak, Mt. Sill, and Middle Palisade. Scotty and I spent the night at a pumping station above Big Pine Creek, and woke before first light to pack up and hit the trail. We headed up the North Fork of Big Pine Creek, and once past Third Lake, turned up the lateral moraine on the northwest side of the Palisade Glacier. There was a section of ice that was covered by rubble all the way to the base of the rock, and we followed this to gain the very loose rock to the right of the Right Underhill Couloir. We climbed into the couloir and soon gained the notch between Thunderbolt and Starlight. We went up the class 3 slabs and couldn't find the chimney recommended by Secor, so we soloed a 5.5-5.6ish face for about 15-25 feet. Later, examining our photos, we decided the chimney was to the right of the face we ascended. A little more scrambling found us at the base of the summit block. The register was not on the top, and even though we didn't solo up there, we signed in. We tried to convince ourselves to try the moves (5.9 from this side, with a death landing if there is a miscue), but in the end we couldn't justify it. We headed for the notch, and the down climbing of the 5th class was more scary than the ascent. From the notch, we climbed toward Starlight. For Scotty's take on this peak, click here.