High Sierra Topix

Who has done this? The waterfall and cliffs at the end look daunting (in photos). Can anyone give me some "in a Nutshell" directions. pat h.

Hey, pat! Its been some years, but I'll take a crack at it. My son and I climbed Mono Rock to bag his first peak as a pre-teen. We ascended the ridge fairly easily angling to the southwest from the outlet of 4th Recess Lake (a beautiful place, no?). As I recall, it looked fairly feasible even with my young son along to follow along the east slope near the top of the ridge to gain entrance to the first small hanging valley above 4th Recess Lake. Keeping to the right of the stream, it seemed like one could access Snow Lakes around the nose of the next ridge below those lakes. I remember looking at that and considering whether to try it a little cross country day jaunt, but didn't explore it then. Looking at my JM Wildernesss map, North section, the route appears to follow up the coutours just to the left of "15" in the Section 15 between Snow and 4th Recess Lakes. Alternatively, staying high on the ridge extending south from Mono Rock seems to lead to a spot above the northern most shore of lower Snow Lake, from whence you could angle a descent to the lower lake in the basin. Don't know if that stretch might to too cliff-y to negotiate, tho.
Hope this helps. Someone else may know, or has successfully found a better route. Good luck, and happy scrambling!

I did that jaunt about 5 years ago -- it was fun and beautiful. I think we took the first route that Timberline suggests (staying to the right of the outlet stream). What I remember is that the hardest part of the hike was getting out from 4th Recess to the first hanging valley. There's a lot of loose dirt on the ridge to the west of 4th Recess, although it really isn't bad. The hike was pretty straightforward after that.

Thanks guys!! pat h