Base Camp

Mount Williamson

Mount Williamson's Bairs Creek Cirque

What are we to make of Mount Williamson?

This massive Massif is a study in size, complexity, and character.

While Williamson's extraordinary north face seems to belong to another range entirely, merely ambitious ski mountaineers will want to direct their attention to the Bairs Creek Cirque.

Mount Williamson's Bairs Creek Cirque ranks easily among the best descents in the Sierra Nevada, but don't go rushing out to try it.

All of Williamson's treasures are well-guarded by an approach savage enough to turn back even the most hardened ski mountaineers.

You'll begin your adventure near 6000' in elevation. Doing the math, to reach Williamson's 14,375-foot summit, you'll have to climb...well, maybe it's best to focus on the scenery.

The mountain's proximity to Highway 395 (unlike Whitney, it juts out from the Sierra's spine, in order to display itself more spectacularly) ensures that you can look, if not touch, however. And be sure to look long and hard at that north face, and its many unreachable treasures—the stuff of ski extreme dreams, if not reality.

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