With DB down with an injured knee, I snuck off early one morning for a scramble up Picture Puzzle with Rick Kent. Picture Puzzle is a 13,000+ foot peak that lies in the Sierra Nevada near South Lake outside of Bishop, California. Reportedly, there was a short, class 3 route up the north face.
What we found was indeed a short, class 3 route up the easy north face, complicated minimally by a cluster of aesthetic gendarmes and whatnot just below the top. Scrambling just east of the crest around a point false summit, we dropped down to a notch and then made the final scramble to the top.
Although we'd already signed the register that ski mountaineers had left just below the false summit we'd climbed around, we signed the one on the main summit as well. Now, it was time to return to DB.
Rick was to continue on to Gendarme and Aperture Peaks, so I dropped directly down the chute draining west from the notch just north of the summit. It went without difficulty, soon depositing me on the trail. I hiked back to civilization and hit the road...
*Photos courtesy of Rick Kent
Picture Puzzle
