High Sierra Topix

We'll see how safe YARTS will be this summer (this might be a 2022 hike, but hopefully not!) - a few years back I went from postpile to the base of bench canyon (low water in the san joaquin) over blue lake pass and wandered around that area a bit. Went up the Lyell fork to the giant packer camp, then dropped down the falls to the trail in the valley floor and out. I've been wanting to visit the rest of the upper Lyell fork & Hutchings creek since.

From what I've read here most of the passes in the area seem very loose. I don't mind talus - I crossed over the slide with a pack and enjoyed it, but I prefer to avoid steep and loose if it's consequential, and my partner has a little PTSD from a chute near the top of Dragon Pass.

Of Rogers, Old Bones, Elektra Peak or nearby notch, sticking with Blue Lake Pass and tagging on Foerster ridge, etc what is the most stable way over east to west?

Sounds like you want to generally use the sierra high route west from 1000 Island Lake and then cut over into the Lyell Fork Merced River. Another route from 1000 Island Lake is longer, and uses several trail sections, but has no difficult cross-country passes. That is to head north on the John Muir Trail over Donohue Pass and down to about the 10,400 foot elevation, then head cross-country over to the unnamed lakes on Maclure Creek at about 10,500 feet (good camping), then up easy granite ramps to the pass south of Amelia Earhart Peak. Then contour over mostly open grassy terrain to the pass southeast of Parsons Peak. The west side of this pass is initially very steep. In 1974, going east to west, I found a ravine that lead me down through the steep part diagonally, but going west to east in 2012, I couldn't find it and ended up clambering up some 6 foot high cliff sections near the top. Once past the steep top section, there is a long but stable talus slope down to a lake. Walk down meadows along the mapped Lewis Creek to just above Gallison Lake, and then head south over more meadows, past a smaller lake, to Bernice Lake. Pick up the trail from Bernice Lake down to Lewis Creek, then go down the Lewis Creek trail to the High Trail, which you take back up and east to the Lyell Fork Merced River.
-Phil

Thanks for the input, and sorry for the late response!

I've done Vogelsang to those lakes below McClure via Earhart pass twice (though dropping to Lyell Canyon) - love those granite ramps and it's a neat area, the hanging meadow SW of those lakes is worth a visit. I've bounced around the Gallison lakes basin in 2011 but haven't been back since... Your longer detour actually has me thinking it'd be a nice trip just starting from Tuolumne!

I figured I'd fill in some of the Marie / Davis / Twin Island lake area I haven't gotten around to visiting - there's a few dodgy passes and people seem to always be looking for a better one so I thought I'd ask in case someone has experience with multiple routes through that area. I'll read that area of Roper's guide and either stick with the HSR or just do it from Lyell creek (my partner hasn't done much in Yosemite and I wouldn't mind revisiting the area).

I don't mind difficult as long as it's not consequentially loose. Bootsliding down something is fun if I self-arrest in a foot or so, some looser talus like the western side of Blue Lake Pass is fine, but being battered by a hundred+ pounds of rook as a sandy chute gives out and you're left holding onto a rock with one hand not so much...

update: yeah looks like the only thing of consequence is the river crossing and north glacier pass, which seems pretty stable. http://highsierratopix.com/community/vi ... =31&t=8580 I guess I was overthinking things by reading a lot of other routes in the area that weren't very stable vs just assuming that roper got it right.

So I'm getting around to this tomorrow - cancelled my previous trip due to enough of it being high and exposed during heavy rain / lightning - I'll be doing my lamarck col > goddard > blackcap > ionian > ladder > dusy trip next window if weather and smoke permit. Starting from Rush Creek (it's what was left) and then exiting Happy Isles to catch YART back on a 6 night trip.

Rodgers & the east side of Clinch sound like they'd be vetoed (I like Clinch a bit more than glacier pass as it'd get me to more new terrain).

I'm leaning Electra peak for the views & novelty (should be clear by the time we get there), the other option would be Blue Lake Pass (have done it before, E is super easy, W a little loose but not that steep and it's short) & Forester Ridge.

It's probably a good year to be doing the wade of the twin island outlet heh

Here is a note to follow up the PM since this may be useful to others. I've crossed from the N Fork to the Lyell Fork two different ways (or visa versa) on one really memorable dayhike from Blue Lakes in 1994. That trip climbed Foerster first then dropped to the col to its east, descended to the Lyell Fork, then ascended the gorgeous Lyell fork, until peeling off eastward, ascending the WNW ridge of Electra, then descending SE and contouring back to our base camp at Blue Lakes. Electra's east side is easy (class 1 to low class 2). The summit area on the west is a bit steep. Try as I might I couldn't find a route that didn't have a little bit of class 3 and I was trying my best because I had two broken fingers on my left hand (broke them a day earlier at Harriet Lake) so my left hand was pretty useless. Although metamorphic rock, the talus as well as the 3rd class stuff on Electra is pretty solid. Foerster is granitic and I'd say the class 2 talus crossing of the saddle to its east is a bit easier than going over Electra but you end up missing some gorgeous scenery in the Lyell Fork above the intersection of this descent route. For getting into the Upper N Fork San Joaquin from the east, it is easier to use the notches NW of Mt Davis (crossed one of them in 1987 from Davis Lakes to climb Mt Rodgers) than N Glacier Pass because the west side of the passes NW of Davis is easier than the long, stepped, descent to the N Fork San Joaquin from N Glacier Pass. In addition if one wants to go over Electra one saves a ton of elevation loss going over the Ritter Range NW of Davis compared to N Glacier Pass. The downside is that those notches are best done from Davis Lakes instead of Thousand Island Lake, although if one wanted to camp at Thousand Island Lake one could always head over to Davis Lakes from there before using one of those passes. In addition, if one were to opt to head to the Lyell Fork via the pass E of Foerster, the elevation loss advantage of the passes NW of Davis would be negated.

I read that old TR of yours (it's sort of odd how much research I'm putting into this area given the relative shortness of the trip) and that's what pushed me more to Electra vs going over Blue again. The first time I came over Blue I dropped below the Ritter range (corral meadow, then was able to cross the San Joaquin into the base of Bench Canyon and just go up) so I've never been to Twin Island Lakes etc. I was thinking of dropping to them anyways and following the HSR a bit before cutting up to the SE corner of Electra in the unnamed drainage with the tarns just to sort of see more of the area.

I'll look into those notches - I've been to 1000i a handful of times (including a brief trip last summer carrying a packraft - tenkara fished from the islands to get some range haha) so it's not a top priority for this trip though of course it is an incredibly striking lake. I was looking to drop into that top basin of the North Fork San Joaquin but the east side of Clinch seems gnarly - having talus collapse above you going up etc is a bit on the consequentially loose side. Davis notches might be a good compromise.

https://www.summitpost.org/electra-peak/153227 has an interesting wrinkle:

"An alternative to Clinch Pass is provided by Pass 3540+, the next pass to the north. This is class 2-3, but avoids some of the tedious talus found on Clinch Pass. Either pass leads to the valley floor, from where it is an easy hike south to Lake 3060+, due east of the peak."

I enjoy stable class 3 as long as it isn't overly exposed - for example the last 150-200 feet of Matterhorn coming up from Spiller were preferrable to the 800ft or so of slogging up sand up to that point.

Hi Erutan,
I'm not sure what your top priority is on this loop, but if it's to get into the Lyell Fork of the Merced as quickly as possible (from the Rush trailhead), it seems to me that heading for Marie and Rodgers pass is the most straightforward. You can carve out a lot of the crappy descent (or ascent) of Rodgers' west side by following the path I drew on the photo added to Rogue's description of Rodgers in the XC passes section. Or, if you do swing around to Bench canyon and Blue Lake to do Blue Lake pass, I've gone up/down that ridge on the eastern flank of peak 11210 which is at least 400 ft lower than cutting back toward Foerster and drops you gently into the Lyell Fork. That un-named long lake almost directly below Ansel Adams peak has a great camping area on its north shore that provides super views of the peak and the bats that emerge from a large overhang on its North face. That whole area is sublime. If all goes well, I'm going to be back there in about a week! Maybe we'll cross paths? Cameron

Hi Cameron,

I’m not super worried about speed - with 6 nights I figure the last a bit past Merced lake for an easy drop into the valley and 4 & 5 in the Lyell fork / Hutchins area, so that gives us three nights to get into Yosemite which seems more than enough. Could probably do it pretty easily 2 if we don't wander around to some lakes I haven't been to yet on the west side of the ritter range.

I’d like to see that upper San Joaquin basin area / Twin Island Lakes as well (that whole area is a big blank, the last one aside from most of SW SEKI and the eastern bit between taboose & sawmill), so I’m actually going for a less optimal way through just to sort of have seen it heh.

Rodgers pass sounds way too unstable for my partners liking even with your solid arm there cutting out of the worst of it - I’m sure we could do it if necessary, but there’s alternatives. She’s down for class 3 (and is actually a bit better than me on technical rock) but does not enjoy steep unstable talus at all (think panic attacks). Going down Junction was terrible, Grinnel/Hopkins ridge was fine, going up Ursula was fine - sort of a quirky thing as some would have that backwards (boot skiing down vs unknown class 3 and 2x). Loosish talus at less than ~30deg she doesn’t mind, and can find stable talus enjoyable. I’d do clinch otherwise as it sort of lines up with what I want to see terrain wise.

Upper bench & blue is a gorgeous area, but that swings me out south a bit more than I want. If we had 8 days or something I’d just do that, but I’d rather not be rushed in the Lyell fork area. I went up canyon as far as the huge old packer camp a short distance up from the upper trail along Merced canyon when I was there years ago, but didn’t have time to go further.

I’ll have the bog colored GG Crown 2, my partner is rocking a black and red Osprey Exos.

Carl

At the moment I'm thinking of something like this (obviously dependent on what terrain is actually there, might go over sluggo instead of dropping all the way down depending on what catches my eye etc). @giantbrookie does this route to the NW of Davis look about right? The solid ledgey stuff from catherine to twin island doesn't really bother me based on roper's description + trip reports Ive read, I'm good at routefinding at or through class 3, but it does drop me a bit further downcanyon than I'd want.

I think at this point it’ll be between:

1) going over north glacier pass, day hiking the upper part of the SJ basin, then going over Electra and spending 3 nights in the Lyell/Hutchings area (first night 1000i, second night ~twin island). My partner is fine reading roper and looking at pics of the following TR: https://jimmyjamhikingclub.com/2018/09/ ... cier-pass/ (the JJ club report on Clinch is worth reading too).

2) Going higher to Waugh from the TH, wandering up to lost lakes etc which I haven’t been to, then heading over the Davis notch into the SJ basin to Elecra and spending 2 nights in the Lyell/Hutchings area. The terrain seems more garbagey further north in the basin, I assume this will be better.

Sara’s take on Rodgers “that’s a waterfall of talus!” And Clinch “pick which pile of garbage to die on!”. North Glacier “the talus looks like it goes on forever but the ledges look fun”.

The basin north of Twin Island Lakes is well worth spending a little time in. This site has some information about crossing at Electra that you might find of interest: https://www.climber.org/TripReports/2002/998.html