High Sierra Topix

Great report and pictures! Love those fall colors.

According to Secor, there is a class 2 pass from Blue Heaven Lake (above Mindnight Lake) to Darwin Canyon.

I love that area. Now you've got me thinking of heading up there this month.


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Thanks (as always) for the comprehensive TR and great pictures. Thanks also for the sage advice; it cannot be said too many times.

This thread and Rogue's up in Humphreys the following week pretty much reflect much of what I related about not liking to backpack at this time of year much less later in October.

Your young friend did not read like a topo user and probably learned a lesson about climbing down ridge line slopes without clearly knowing where one is. He was lucky as in many places glaciers have carved up granite bedrock with what starts out as class 2 or 3 but suddenly can become class 4 and 5 with no escape. Visitors with that same map-less mode are no doubt owners of sandy tracks that one sees going straight down the other side of passes where further down a concave slope gets nasty steep. I first went over Lamarck Col in late August of 1980 and have been over several times since. Maybe 3 decades ago looked down at Schober Lakes from that crest ridge. It very much looked doable class 3 for a long ways just as the map shows. Lots of steep large talus boulders to carefully monkey through. Of course Lamarck Col is infamous for sending the inexperienced who climb down into that wrong drainage simply because it is lower than the actual col. There are of course tracks everywhere in the sand across that whole ridge line area because climbers need to head that way to get to Darwin without climbing so far down in a hole.

lovely trip report and photos as always Wandering Daisy. i love your thoughtful and detailed writings.

reading of your encounter with the turned around fellow reminded me of an 'adventure' my buddy and his group had down what was probably the same 'pass' while trying to come up and over Lamarck Col from Darwin Basin en route to their North Lake exit.
one of their group slipped, fell in that talus field and my friend rushed ahead-popping back on trail at Dingleberry Lake- made it to the Sabrina Lake TH, hitched it back to North Lake to get the car and pick up the rest of the group at the Sabrina TH..a crazy tail for sure..

ive headed over Lamarck myself from the Lamarck Lakes, and must say i can see how you could do that. the most clear/cairned trail does indeed seem to lead more to the left of the actual Col and i can see how you could start a descent in that direction(however it really just takes a quick visual comparison to terrain below and your map to tell you're going bad..) and plus, that Col is what-5 ft wide!? small target i suppose.

i myself rely on my eyes, my map and the wonderful resources found here. i always print out photo reference for any trouble/tricky spots from the many trip reports here and bring them with me. always nice to have a ground level picture to cross ref with your map. so thanks to all for that!

Wandering Daisy wrote:That whole "sense of adventure" thing is bogus. For me, being lost does not add to my sense of adventure; contrarily it can really ruin a good trip.

so, sorry for the rather long winded reply..but long story short-i firmly agree Wandering Daisy. thanks again for your TR.

Great report & pics, Wandering Daisy. Totally green with envy......

Starting a hike from Sabrina Basin is on my short list; thanks for helping to keep it there!

That was truley a great trip - my kind of trip. I've never been to those lakes. I would have loved to have gone with you on this trip If I were 12 years younger than you instead of 12 years older. You're trip had everything I like about a trip except for the temperature, but you obviously had really good weather given the time of year. As per usual you wrote another excellent trip report.

Wandering Daisy wrote:According to Secor, there is a class 2 pass from Blue Heaven Lake (above Mindnight Lake) to Darwin Canyon.

I have been over that route (Darwin Col) from Darwin Canyon to Blue Heaven Lake. There are easy benches and some scrambling on the west side, and a steep and loose chute on the east side (similar to the east side of Frozen Lake Pass). We left plenty of room between each other on the way down.