Mount Goddard (13,568 ft) 9/11/05 Bob Burd Jeff Dhungana Rick Kent Mathew Holliman (Mount McGee) Posted on www.mt-whitney.info: While the vast majority of the population prefer to avoid even the smallest amount of torture there exists an insane and select few who thrive on it. They call themselves dayhikers. On Sunday (9/11/05) I joined Bob Burd, Matthew Holliman, and Jeff Dhungana for what would be a long and strenuous day. For three of us the destination was Mount Goddard. For one, Matthew, the goal was even greater: Mount McGee. These peaks lie fairly deep in the Sierras and as such they aren't typically dayhike destinations. Goddard would probably not have been a peak I would have chosen to do except for two Bob's: Bob Burd and Bob Rockwell. Bob Rockwell had brought up the subject of Mount Goddard earlier this year and it peaked my interest. I believe Bob R said it took him 7 tries before he successfully completed it as a dayhike. Thus, I had no expectation that it would be easy. Had it not been for an invite from Bob Burd I probably would not have gotten around to it. Burd's invite provided just that extra little nudge I needed. Burd and Holliman are renowned for their dayhikes and to join them would help provide the momentum I needed. The initial plan was to hike in over Haeckel Col. This would be the shortest way to reach our destination (~28 mi RT) but would involve a fair amount of cross-country travel. At the last minute plans were changed so that we would go in over Lamarck Col which was more familiar. Considering how much time we would be hiking in the dark this was probably a good call. Thus, we started out from the North Lake hiker parking lot at 2:07am. The pace up to Lamarck Col was aggressive and sustained. We reached the col in 2 hrs 28 mins. Beyond Larmarck Col Matthew soon left us behind. We would later catch up with each other just before he headed off for his nearby destintation (Mount McGee). Hiking in the dark for hours it finally began to get light while we were in Darwin Canyon. Not long thereafter we found ourselves heading south on the John Muir Trail through the Evolution Basin. Our destination was still quite some distance away. By 8:10am we reached Wanda Lake and refilled our water bottles. Matthew rejoined us briefly before heading off to Mount McGee (another 4 hours away). In less than an hour we arrived at a point NE of the peak in a basin south of Davis Lake. Before us lay a ridge that would lead us up to Goddard's east ridge. According to Secor this route is class 2 but we were doing sustained class 3 right from the start. Turns out that the class 2 route is more to the west of the ridge. The climbing on the ridge was actually quite fun (to our surprise). At one point we even did a rather spicy exposed class 4 move. Eventually we moved to the east side of the ridge and headed up a fairly obvious groove which placed us on Goddard's east ridge. Finally we were within reach of the summit. By 11:04am Bob, Jeff, and I had reached the summit while Matthew was heading up Mount McGee. Jeff and Bob reached the summit first (20 minutes ahead of me). Total time to the summit from the North Lake parking lot was less than 9 hours. After a short time regaining our strength and absorbing the views we began our long hike back out. We had already hiked nearly 17 miles to reach this point and now we had to return the same way we hiked in. Having not successfully acclimated the day before I was pretty drained just getting to the summit and needed a little slower pace on the way out. Thus, past Wanda Lake, Bob and Jeff continued back at a brisk pace while I began to slow up to my more typical pace. Not surprisingly, getting all the way back up and over Lamarck Col was the toughest part of the day. I got up and over the col about 40 minutes before total darkness and returned to the trailhead at 9:55pm. Bob and Jeff had beaten me by 2 hours. Matthew (whose destination had been significantly more difficult) was a mere 30 minutes behind me. A long day to be sure, and definitely a worthy challenge. Total stats were: 33.5 miles RT 9500+ ft gain Log 02:07am - Left North Lake hiker parking lot 04:35am - Reached Lamarck Col (time unknown) 08:10am - Reached Wanda Lake 11:04am - Reached summit of Mt Goddard 11:29am - Left summit 12:50pm - Dropped back into southern end of Davis Lake basin 01:29pm - Wanda Lake (dropped behind Bob & Jeff from here on out) 03:25pm - Left JMT headed back up to Darwin Canyon 05:15pm - Reached base of Lamarck Col 06:37pm - Reached Lamarck Col 09:55pm - Returned to parking lot Time from TH to summit: 8 hrs 57 mins Time on summit: 25 mins Time from summit back to TH: 10 hrs 26 mins Total Time: 19 hrs 48 mins Data Distance (GPS): 33.41 mi RT Elev Gain North Lake TH: 9258 Lamarck Col: Delorme 12875 (Secor says 12960; 12880) - lets use 12900 Goddard: 13568 Low pt below Darwin bench: 10675 Gain to Lamarck Col: 3642 Gain to Goddard (from low of 10675): 2893 Gain back to Lamarck Col: 2225 Gain from S end of Davis Lake basin to Wanda Lake: 365 Unknown: small gains along Evolution Basin Total Gain: 3642 + 2893 + 2225 + 365 x 2 = 9490