Correction to Secor
University Peak
by John Wakabayashi
In September 1976, my father, Joe Wakabayashi, and
I climbed a route on University Peak from Bench Lake that is class 2
except for some low 3rd class near the summit. I believe this may be
the fastest route for dayhikers wanting to bag this peak. It lacks some
of the tedious and time consuming boulder hopping associated with the
route over University Pass and it is technically much easier than the
listed "North Face" route. The route is as follows: From Bench Lake go
south and ascend a broad scree and talus chute to a gap in (or a
shoulder on) the northwest ridge. This chute reaches the ridgecrest
above the point where the ridge of the Kearsarge Pinnacles and the
Sierran crest meet. One can then follow the northwest ridge, staying
south and below the ridgetop cliffs to minimize the difficulties. As
one nears the summit, it may be possible to circle all the way around to
the southeastern flank of the summit rocks to keep difficulties at
strictly 2nd class. When we climbed the summit rocks we ended up doing
the final approach approximately from the south and we encountered a few
low 3rd class moves on very large talus and slabs.
The information provided in these pages is provided by
interested volunteers and has not been field checked.
R.J. Secor, The Mountaineers, the Sierra Club and climber.org
are in no way responsible for the accuracy of any route
advice on this web site.
Safe climbers must be able to understand the terrain
and topography of the area they travel in, and they
must make wise route finding choices based their own
knowledge, experience and observations.