28-30 Jul 25 - Trip/Conditions Report: Middle Palisade

When you get 3 days off in a row (from 28-30 July), you need to take advantage of that! In our case, the owners of Eastside Sports decided it was time for another High Sierra adventure. Here's what they got up to over at Middle Palisade.

Note: Please note that past Brainerd Lake, this is not a hike! Scrambling, off-trail travel and high altitude require preparation, experience, knowledge, the right tools and thorough acclimatization. Don't become a statistic in the books of Inyo County Search & Rescue!

Trip/Conditions Report: 

Current As Of: 30 July 2025*

Activity During Report: On and off-trail travel & 3rd class scrambling at high altitude

Trip/Conditions:

We took it easy on July 28 with a late start since we knew we'd only have a short hike. The parking lot at Glacier Lodge was surprisingly empty—where were all the tourists?

From Glacier Lodge, we hiked up the trail into the South Fork of Big Pine Creek. The trail first meanders through a beautiful field of flowers (see below!). Even if you are not a big hiker, we highly recommend going just on the first mile of the South Fork to enjoy the wildflowers!

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Wildflowers on the first mile of the South Fork of Big Pine Creek. Norman Clyde Peak off in the distance

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At the creek crossing, there is a slightly sketchy way across some tree branches, or you can simply opt to ford the water and get your feet wet. Right afterward comes the hardest part of the trail: the switchbacks. It gets pretty hot here in the afternoon - luckily, we'd soaked our sun hoodies in the cold water back at the creek crossing. 

Once the trail gets a little more level (you'll always be going uphill to some degree), it enters the forest, and the temperatures cool down a little. Right after the switchbacks, the trail passes by a hidden swamp, so there are lots of aggressive mosquitoes. Further uphill, you never get fully rid of them, but they become manageable.

We set up camp at Brainerd Lake, which had surprisingly warm water.

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Camp at Brainerd Lake

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On the morning of day 2, we left our tent and camping gear behind, packed our little Mountain Hardwear UL 20 day packs, and set off for Middle Palisade. This was going to be a hard one. We had about 2 miles to go to the summit, but with an elevation gain of about 3,500 feet.

After Brainerd Lake, it's all off-trail travel. There are a few social trails and cairns here and there, but you have to pay attention to your feet and make sure you navigate the right way at all times. Throughout the day, we noticed a few cairns here and there that were leading the wrong way - don't trust them blindly! Always use your judgment, too.

We quickly ascended the hill to Finger Lake, a very slim but long lake with crystal clear water. Up here are also a bunch of camp sites.

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The ever idyllic Finger Lake

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From there, we crossed another talus field to gain a ridge above Finger Lake. About halfway up the ridge, it starts to turn towards the right (West), and the route leaves the ridge to traverse the left (Eastern) slope towards the talus bench below the middle Palisade Glacier. 

After another creek crossing, we ascended the talus field and crossed it below the glacier. Most of the talus here is about 1-2 feet in diameter, so there are no gaping holes, but lots of wobbly rocks that need to get traversed.

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The talus field below the glacier. The summit is the bump in the middle of the ridge

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Once we reached the moraine in the middle between the Northern and Southern half of the glacier, we went straight up and to the base of Middle Palisade's North Face.

Here are several options as described in Secor's book as well as various pieces of online literature. We opted to skip the Secor version, and instead went up the gully with the very loose red and white rocks.

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Ascending the steep gully of the Northeast Face of Middle Palisade

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Here, we climbed one by one, to avoid rockfall dangers. After just a few minutes, we emerged in the main gully, which is very steep, but has great holds throughout. It probably averages 45 degrees.

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It's a steep 3rd class gully, that's for sure!

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This is the most tedious part: climbing over a thousand vertical feet up the gully. It seems endless, but suddenly we reached the summit ridge. Here is a cairn pointing to the right - it's wrong! At least for those planning to summit Middle Palisade and not traversing over to Normal Clyde Peak.

The last blocks up to the summit were ... interesting. They look like solid climbing routes, until we went around the back side and found a 4th class way up through a chimney.

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The summit register from 1936, also the Patagonia hoody that survives just about everything

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The summit register is very impressive: it's mounted onto the granite and the case dates back to 1936! Inside, we found several small notebooks starting with entries in the early 90s. It was an incredibly clear and warm day. Even at 14,012 feet elevation (4,271 meters), there was no breeze and we just wore our sun hoodies. All layers remained in the packs.

After a quick lunch break, we made our way back down. Descending in the gully, we gingerly down climbed and slid on our butts from ledge to ledge, until we finally reached the glacier moraine again.

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The traverse between Middle Palisade and Norman Clyde Peak

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At this point, special kudos go out to the Patagonia Cap Cool Hoodie and Mountain Hardwear UL 20 backpack. Neither one got even a little scratch (can't say the same about the skin of elbows and shins) throughout the whole ordeal. They're officially Sierra granite approved!

We reached our camp at Brainerd Lake 9 hours after setting out.

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