Rocktype UNKNOWN
Altitude 4247m a.s.l
Faces N

Jonathan Lagoe reaching the Thunderbolt Summit Block © Andy Hyslop Rock + Run

Summit of this hill

This summit is listed in Fred Beckey's 100 Favourite North American Climbs hill lists.

This summit has been climbed in no logbooks.

Hill features

The last fourteener in the Sierra to be climbed in 1931, Thunderbolt Peak is the next peak northwest of North Palisade, and the northernmost fourteen thousander in the Sierra Nevada. It's summit monolith is the crux of the climb - a 5.9 move over and onto a slab. It's safer if the monolith is draped with a rope first. As such it's one of the hardest summits in the Sierra to get to. 

The mountain got its name from the circumstances of the first ascent. A bolt of lightning hit the summit monolith just as Jules Eichorn was coming down from it. In an interview in 1989, when he was asked how close the thunder fell, he said "...just past my right ear". 

Route Cards

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Summits, Scrambles, and Easy Climbs on this hill

Name Grade Stars Type Logs Partner Ascents
These routes you have climbed clean.
These routes you have climbed by seconding or top-roping.
These routes you have Dogged.
These routes you Did not Finish.
Routes are waiting to be checked by a crag moderator, and may not be accurate. Routes can't be verified by a crag moderator, and they need more information to confirm it. Routes are no longer climbable.

Volunteer to moderate Thunderbolt Peak
We rely on volunteers to moderate their local hills. You would check updates and approve scrambles/summits added to the database. It's a very easy job, and all you need is a guidebook and an hour or two each month. read more

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