Basic Alpine Climb - Huckleberry Mountain/East Face

Left the trailhead at 7 am
Kendall Catwalk at 9 am
Summit at 11:45 am.
Off the summit at 12:15 pm
Back at the cars at 5:30 pm.  
(10.5 hours car-to-car)

This part of the PCT from the Kendall Catwalk to Joe lake is gorgeous, and the scramble up Huckleberry a fitting crown to the day.  We followed Beckey's description for the way up, which was accurate. This included departing the PCT at about 5200', as in his photo overlay.

Much of the scramble is on loose rock, but felt secure in most places. The final section (from the notch) is a spectacular 100' of exposed 4th class scrambling on solid, blocky rock with great, juggy handholds. The final traverse left just before gaining the summit is reminiscent of a wider and easier version of the catwalk on the Tooth, but here it has perhaps even more exposure and the thrill of being unroped adds to the experience.

We rappelled the summit using a 60 m, 6 mm rap line, which was perfect - only one rappel needed. Along the way we did find two other questionable old rap stations however, both of which were full of innumerable old, crinkly, bleached slings, which we cleared. About 200' of tat. Gross. Let's keep the mountains clean!

For the descent, from the base of the rock, we headed due east across the heather / huckleberry bowl, then over and down, continuing due east, until we intersected the PCT again at about 5600'. This was a longer descent, but was very pleasant and seemed like it would be more enjoyable than stepping gingerly down the way we came up, which was loose rock and scree.