Lone Pine Peak, Direct South Face. On March 13, Alois Smrz and I took advantage of the winter snow pack to ski (rather than to bushwhack) the manzanita-choked north fork of Tuttle Creek to the 9200-foot start of the route. After caching our skis, we post-holed the initial gully and climbed the first few pitches to sandy ledges for our bivouac. Thankfully, midnight snow flurries were brief and light. The remaining dozen pitches, with two sections of snow climbing, were completed by early afternoon (V, 5.7, Al). We descended eastward, leaving ski retrieval for another day. This was probably the first winter ascent. In September of 1992, at dusk during a familiarization ascent, we were unable to recognize the rightward tension traverse into the loose gully not far from the top. Instead, we went straight up a nice 5.8 hand-crack up to a small bivouac ledge. The next morning, a few easy pitches up to a notch and then right let us finish the route entirely free (V, 5.8).

Peter G. Green, AAC and Caltech Alpine Club