October 2001 

 

Note:  clicking on any photograph will present a full screen version.
	Whorl at Sunrise.  I woke to a crystal clear morning, the skies broken only by the incessant airplanes and their contrails.  Here, the east face of Whorl Mountain catches the first rays of light.  To get to the base of Whorl, descend slightly to the south, gaining the prominent bench that you can see here leading below the peak.
	Horse Creek Pass.  A look back up at the more gentle south side of Horse Creek Pass from my camp just below the pass.
	Whorl Mountain.  Seen from the bench below, Whorl Mountain looks like a sheer vertical wall of granite.
	Top of the Bench.  After passing another small tarn at around 10,440'+, you begin inclining upwards, traversing below the middle peak of Whorl.  Here I am resting at the end of the "causeway", where the slope starts to increase.
	View down to Yosemite.  As you climb up towards the chutes leading up to Whorl's summit, magnificent views down Spiller Creek open up, revealing the peaks of the Cathedral Range and, behind it, the Clark Range.
	Chockstone Chute.   There are three prominent chutes leading up towards the ridge of Whorl between the middle and south peaks.  Secor's book says to climb the southernmost chute, then traverse back across the middle chute, to the northernmost chute, which leads up to a chockstone guarding the summit ridge.  Looking from below, this is the "chockstone chute".  It is easily recognizable from below by looking for the obvious phallic-shaped rock near the top (seen here pointing to the left).
Which chute to ascend?   If you intend to follow the 2nd/3rd class route described in Secor, you want to aim for the right chute.  Since the mountain is so steep, this can be tricky from below.  If you traverse past the point which is below the obvious orange rock up above, you will get the view below.  At the right are three leaning spires, the shapes of which remind me of the "three brothers" in Yosemite Valley.  Immediately to the left is the "chockstone chute", then a pinnacle separating it from the middle chute.  The chute recommended by Secor lies just to the left of a granite dome with a single dead bush growing out of it.  The first photo below shows all three chutes from just below the middle chute.  The second photo looks up towards the "right" chute from immediately beneath it (the chute is under the "x" formed by the plane contrails).

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