Hike West Sheep Peak, Sheep Peak, North Peak Inyo National Forest, CA

Aug 25, 2024 — Back to the Sierra just a couple of weeks after my last trip because I can’t seem to get enough of lugging myself up mountains, Chris Kerth and I managed to coordinate a last-minute adventure to visit West Sheep Peak, Sheep Peak, and North Peak. He had a massive outing the day before in particularly terrible weather, a feat I greatly commended him for since I'd whimped out and instead spent most of my day in a coffee shop. I had no regrets about my choice. We met up at Saddlebag Lake, which served as our starting point for our outing. North Peak rests just north of Mount Conness, and has a gorgeous route with a social trail nearly to the top. The pair of Sheep Peaks are positioned farther west of North Peak and are much less user-friendly due to the absence of trails anywhere in that direction. The most reasonable way to reach them involved using the standard approach for North Peak. Chris had already summited North Peak, so we decided to head out to the Sheep Peaks first, working west to east, and snagging North Peak on our way back.

The previous day's weather had dusted the peaks with a thin layer of snow, but we were optimistically confident it would melt by the time we got up there. After crossing over the dam on the south side of Saddlebag Lake, we set off on a leisurely stroll around the lake’s west side. At a junction, we kept left to head around Greenstone Lake and toward the base of North Peak. The trail was well-defined, leading us through meadows dotted with granite boulders. We paralleled Lee Vining Creek until reaching a significant waterfall, and the trail became more of a cairned route as it made its way on switchbacks to the right of the cascade.

Above the waterfall the trail wrapped around the north side of the beautiful Conness Lakes, where losing the main trail was inevitable but, luckily, no big deal since route-finding wasn't tricky. We hiked over some talus to reach the uppermost lake, and on our descent, we even found what we’re pretty sure was a hint of a trail. The upper lake was where we would leave the lakes behind and start ascending steeply to the north. A series of social trails greeted us, all seemingly leading to North Peak Pass. While the slope is a bit sandy, there is not much in terms of scrambling.

I looked longingly toward North Peak when we reached the pass, but it would have to wait for later. We continued casually across the sandy slope, contouring toward the wide drainage north of Roosevelt lake, which we could see below. As the slope became bouldery and slower-going, we decided to head farther north, where descending through mostly sand with a few embedded rocks seemed the path of least resistance. This marked a significant descent of about 700 feet that we'd eventually have to regain, but future-us could deal with that.

At the base of the drainage, we continued our westward contour, staying well below the main Sheep Peak ridge crest. There are a couple of little cliffs we had to be mindful of as we made this traverse, and a couple of wide ramps assisted in keeping this section Class 2. We reached a  small tarn at the base of Sheep Peak, which is where the lines diverge on my attached map. Even though Sheep Peak was teasingly close, we were determined to bag the farther neighbor first, though this did require ascending partially up Sheep Peak. To reach West Sheep Peak, we opted for a steep, sandy gully on the southern shoulder of Sheep Peak, which was partially filled with snow. In hindsight, ascending farther north might have made more sense. You know, assuming we wanted to avoid unnecessary danger. But since the gully was mostly clear of snow, we shrugged and went for it anyway.

There was a Class 3 move, but otherwise the sandy chute was just a steep slog for a couple hundred feet. At the top of the shoulder, we finally reached easier terrain and dropped down to the saddle between the Sheep Peaks, where the boulder-hopping extravaganza began. I personally enjoy the obstacle course that boulder-hopping creates, a more mentally-engaging endeavor, but it does make the going much slower. The whole route up to West Sheep Peak was basically an ongoing boulder party, with a mix of Class 2/3 scrambling to keep things interesting. On our ascent we took the direct east ridge to reach the summit, a Class 3 undertaking with some light exposure, only to find there was an easy walk-around coming from the west instead.

We backtracked to the southern shoulder of Sheep Peak and headed north, the slope sandy and tame at first. We soon learned the crest was riddled with scarier obstacles, so we dropped east and hugged the messy slope covered in loose boulders. The farther we dropped, the easier the terrain became, but we tried to keep as much vertical progress as possible, which meant tossing in some Class 2/3 moves. Finding the best place to reascend the ridge was a bit of a puzzle, but as soon as we spotted a weakness, we went for it. This landed us a short walk along the ridge crest to gain the final Class 2+ blocks to the Sheep Peak.

All that was left was to reascend the lost vertical on our way back up to North Peak, a slog up a progressively steepening slope. As we ascended the west ridge of North Peak, the terrain became more bouldery, and the high point teased us from the far east side of the ridgeline. Mount Conness' face was an incredible sight just ahead of us, as were the many blue blotches below within the Twenty Lakes Basin. We dropped back to North Peak Pass and headed back.