Ron Van Horssen carefully downclimbs from a notch on the North Ridge route on Lone Pine Peak (12,944 ft).

The route is one of my favorite moderate rock routes in the Sierra, and I have repeated it many times. When desperate for some clean white granite, expansive vistas and a little mountain sorrel, I've driven up from Los Angeles, climbed the North Ridge, and returned home the same day, tired but satiated.