That night I camped at the Goodale campground just outside of Independence; got up at 4:15 a.m., and drove to the Morrison trailhead near Convict Lake. While preparing my gear for climbing Morrison, much to my shock and disappointment I realized that I had left my almost-new boots on the ground of the campground back in Independence! So, I was faced with a soul-searching and mind-wrenching decision, either go back to get my boots and miss the peak, or lose the boots and use the old, ratty, unraveling and bare-soled back-up boots still in the truck, and get the peak. I opted for the former and drove the 80 plus miles back to Independence and, luckily, picked up the boots right where I had left them. Going back was a controversial decision, at best. In doing so 1 had to bravely endure the verbal slings and arrows of various, assorted and sundry climbing friends who felt that picking up my boots was a "pretty lame excuse" for missing Morrison. (Hey Tina those suckers cost me a hundred and fifty bucks!) The narration continues now by Vic Henney who will describe the ascent of Morrison after all, I wasn't there, was I? Morrison: (by Vic Henney) We met at approximately 6:30 at the trailhead parking lot at Convict Lake. Tom Sumner took one look at the peak, got in his truck and headed south (mumbling something about having left his boots somewhere, and besides, it wasn't a desert peak anyway). We proceeded to drive over to the day use parking lot at the southeast end of Convict Lake. We began hiking at a few minutes after 7:00, angling up the slope on the south side of Convict Lake toward the upper end of Tobacco Flat. Here we met a 4WD road that comes in from Highway 395. We had driven this road a number of years previously. It's passable by 4WD but in light of the anticipated size of the group, we felt that it was just as easy to walk up the hill from Convict Lake. From our point of intersection with the road, the road continues for only about another 100 yards. From the end of the road a fair use trail can be followed most of the rest of the way to the summit. We did encounter several hunters near the road, but none once we were a few minutes above the road. We reached the tarn (which was dry) located at the base of the peak and began our ascent up a long slope, essentially following Bob Hartunian's 1991 write-up. The route went quite well and we were on the summit by 12:30. Of the 21 climbers that started, 19 reached the summit. In addition to ourselves, there were 6 other SPS list finishers on the summit: Vi Grasso, Tina Stough, Gene Mauk, George Toby, Roy Magnuson, and Ron Bartell. After appropriate celebration, we began our descent to Convict Lake. Mike Lorr's watch, lost on the ascent, was discovered on a bush near where we took a break on the way up. There are a couple of areas of loose rock that require some care, but the group did well and the descent was relatively uneventful other than the complaints of a few knees. Participants other than those noted above were: Igor and Suzanne Mamedalin, Christine Mitchell, Mans and Anna Valkass, J Holshuh, Sue Leverton, Kathy Price, Jim Adler, Ron Hudson, Mike Loft, Tom Bowman and Ron-Ron Young-Young. Thanks to all who assisted and gave advise on the route for a very successful climb. Let's Talk Party! (by Tom Sumner, again) Sierra Clubbers, DPS'ers, SPS'ers, HPS'ers showed up from all over the state to the South Crowley Lake

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