Alpine Scramble - Mount Mastiff

None of us in  the group have been to the area before.  All participants were students. So I had students lead the trip. We took an extra hour  on the way  up and worked on navigation. Nice snow slopes near the summit if you wanted to practice snow skills. The snow was perfect for boot glissading with the overcast weather we had. Mosquitoes were out, but were not bad if you keep moving. Road a little rough for low  clearance cars.

Route info: Around point 6125' we came across two  gendarmes on the ridge. We proceeded to get our  helmets and ice axes out. We descended climber right (eastside of ridge) traversed the .25 mile to get around them on  mostly rock and dirt with a few very small snow patches. All class 2-3 terrain. We stayed just under the crest most of the way. Many choices at this time of year. Earlier in the season trip you  would have to down climb about 200' to get to better terrain. After we bypassed the gendarmes we regained the ridge from here to the summit we were on snow  rest of the way.  The summit is bare ground and flat. The summit register is on the south side to flat summit area (not at the highest point).  Because of clouds and misty rain we retraced our approached route for the most part.

Options: Could not see the NE ridge of Mount Mastiff that is above Lost Lake, so we didn't take that ridge back. We could of taken the NE spur ridge at 5800' above Merrit lake and easily hiked down to Merrit  Lake (all of Merritt Lake north bowl was clear of snow until the Lake).

Timeline: Brickyard Park and Ride @ 6AM, Hiking @ 8:14, Summit around 1:10  (extra hour to reach summit for navigation practice),and back at the cars before 5 P.M.

Stats: 9+miles, 3500+ gain, and about  8hrs 45min.

Gear used: Ice ax and helmet