TR: Onion Valley>Gardiner Pass>Sixty Lakes Col Aug 2016

[roland]

Hello Everyone,

I thought I'd heed maverick's advice and post a belated trip report. Forgive the prose, I had written it a while ago for personal posterity and did a cut and paste. I attached some photos (sorry they are in reverse order)...I hope they go through and why the 2MB limit?

After a year of planning E and I began our four day trip in SEKI spanning Aug 27-30 2016 The route took us in a clockwise loop from Onion Valley campground to Charlotte Lake, cross country over Gardiner pass, into the seldom visited lakes of Gardiner basin, over Sixty Lakes Col into Sixty Lakes basin, connecting with the JMT, south over Glen Pass, out again over Kearsage Pass, and back to the trailhead.

I loaded the food and gear into the Yukon at 4 am and headed to LAX to pick up E. We made great time to Independence, got some Subways for dinner and scurried to Onion Valley trailhead. At the TH we loaded E’s suite of three packs in innumerable configurations before deciding in favor of the bombproof Deuter instead of the svelte, but ultimately inadequate MLD. I was rockin' the Mammut Lithium 25. Our plan to sleep in the back of the truck on a queen size air mattress was met with mixed success. With our noses touching the ceiling and our bodies sloshing we were not afforded the peaceful repose anticipated by our invention. We made a hasty breakfast of sweet roles and bagels, packed up the packs (J 21.5, E 24.5 lbs skin out weight) and began our onslaught of Gardiner and Sixty Lakes basin in the Kings Canyon National Forest. Our well intentioned but inconsistent “training” saw us make speedy progress over Kearsage pass which tops out at 11,700 feet. On the trail and with a snide chuckle we passed several hikers loaded like beasts of burden.

We inhaled the 8.7 miles to our first nights camp at Charlotte Lake averaging 2.5 mph. We were met by a ranger who asked us for our permit which luckily we condescended to get. The ranger who issued our permit had no idea where Gardiner basin was nor could he offer us a shred of trail beta (thank god for hst!), yet another splendid example of our tax dollars at work. In any case, the trail ranger mentioned that three other experience hikers had attempted our route over class 2 Gardiner pass but had failed and one got extensively stung by bees. This piqued our attention but we remained undeterred. After a delicious dinner of chicken and bean burritos we awoke for the day’s objective of Gardiner Pass.

We used a mix of our preprogrammed gps route (the notorious Garmin purple line) and the use trail to get us to the base of the pass. The trail was sporadic but we interpolated it just fine. The pass was achieved by walking straight up a mountainside. On the top at every turn a sea of cliffs discouraged our descent. We found a notch at the exact gps coordinates of the pass which led to a 20 foot chute that we were able to scramble down. When I looked up I saw the metal box that people on this forum had mentioned. I downclimbed on hands and feet but E stayed upright and used his poles. We made camp at a small alpine lake immediately below the pass. It was slightly scary but there was no exposure and hence no real danger. From the base of the alternate side it seemed like there was a better route down to the NW. E and I had a refreshing swim in the lake. Incidentally, we thought we were at lake 2906 which turned out to be a half mile down the way…we never checked the gps.

On day three we were scheduled to make it over “the Col,” but we were deterred by a day of bush whacking through dense chaparral as we zigzagged across a narrow canyon leading to the terminal lakes in Gardiner basin. Finally, we made it to the base of the Col and camped at a desolate lake formation. We also enjoyed another swim where we canon balled off a rock diving board into the frigid deep waters of the largest lake. We had Mountain House chili mac for dinner which was pretty good esp with crushed Ritz crackers.

Day four’s object was the eponymous Sixty Lakes Col. Notably, a col is topologically different from a pass which is distinguished by a saddle point, whereas a col is merely a notch in the top of a mountain. The slog up the face was uneventful and not even that tiring due to our light packs and extreme hydration. We poked our way through the notch at the top using a mix of light duty three point scrambling and bolder hopping. The descent forced us to navigate around and over a series of enormous granite slaps which terraced the east face. The descent was time consuming and tedious but not difficult. We made our way into the heart of sixty lakes basin and toward the nexus of lakes which connect the more popular regions of the backcountry to its inaccessible recesses. At "Long Lake" (lake 3304) there is a section on the NW side where you have to hike up a bit and cross a ledge...to us it looked like a dead end prior to reconnoitering the ledge. Incidentally, after Charlotte we had not seen a single person. After four days on the trail we were ready for home. We booked it the remaining 14.7 miles, over two passes, including 4000 ft of total gain, 5000 ft of elevation loss, back finally to the trailhead. Incidentally, we saw the same ranger once again on the apex of Glenn Pass and she extolled our achievements at length! Given our meager conditioning this was an exhausting slog and a super human feat for us…we were even running for a stretch. We made it back to the TH at 9:30 PM using our headlamps as a last recourse over the remaining 2 miles. We supped at In n Out though our bodies were still in shock from the abuse and probably did not enjoy the fine fare as much as we should have.


-roland

[julie]

Thanks so much for your great TR! My friend and I hiked that route with a friend in August 2015. That bushwhacking in Gardiner Basin was at times somewhat quite precarious for us...couldn't see where we were stepping at times.We kept thinking there must be an easier way without so much shrubbery. I was really concerned my friend would put a foot through a rotten log and twist an ankle or worse. We also had a bit of a sketchy time on the east side of Sixty Lakes Col down to safe ground at Long Lake. The west side of 60 Lakes Col was no issue. Sure is absolutely gorgeous at those Gardiner Lakes. Ahhhhh

[cgundersen]

Hi Roland,
I was out on a long trip and am catching up on posts and really enjoyed your report. My only recommendation is that the next time you're in Gardiner Basin in late August, and if you like mushrooms, the place is brimming with porcini (boletus), and if the chili mac was good without 'shrooms, it's great with 'em! Obviously, they're not as hard to catch as fish! And, for that route, you might consider upgrading to HST level 4, no?
Cameron

[maverick]

Cool first TR and pictures Roland, thanks, only request I would have, is to see some photos of the lakes, which to me are the highlights of that section of the SEKI, especially the ones in GB.