Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

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michaelzim
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Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by michaelzim »

Am looking for comments on Gould Pass which is just south of Dragon Peak = west of Onion Valley and the Kearsarge trailhead.

The east side access to Gould could be via Golden Trout Lake or the lakes just over the ridge to the north in that same valley west-north-west of the main Kearsarge Trailhead. Would be nice to know best route from those lakes options, and also what kind of a Class 2 pass it really is. Like any tricky parts with potential squirlyness c/o a heavy entry backpack, or hesitancy with air gaps that drop off into the void!
Time of year would be for early August.

Thanks! ~ Michaelzim
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Harlen
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Re: Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by Harlen »

I've looked up at the slope to the south east of Mt Gould, and it looked dead easy. The question is what the descent on the Rae Lakes side is like.
Looks like we have a lot of info in the Trip Reports seen just below in "similar topics."

Here's this from the BC Passes archive:
Class 2 pass. From Golden Trout Lake climb west ridge between Mount Gould and Dragon Peak. The west side of the pass is descended by means of a steep chute over loose rock to the lakes in the basin west of Dragon Peak. Boulder hop north to Dragon Lake to meet a use trail on its north shore that leads down to Rae Lakes.
Can someone build on this?
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maverick
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Re: Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by maverick »

Have you done a search using the search feature? search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keywords=Gould+Pass :)
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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

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Re: Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by TurboHike »

I've thought about it, looked into it, but decided not to do it. Here's a video of some nice talus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1_rktm73uA

I also found a pic on KathyW's website, taken from Dragon Peak, looking towards the lakes that are south of Dragon Lake:

https://kathywing.smugmug.com/Californi ... -r7bZcQL/A

To be honest, I cannot tell from her photo which chute on the left is the descent chute. The photo is cropped too much on the left.
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michaelzim
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Re: Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by michaelzim »

Thanks much @maverick and those great links @TurboHike

I did do a "Google search of HST" for this and did not pull up much so indeed looks like Gould is not a much used route by members. The main post with questions about conflicting routes from the Golden Trout Lake side are exactly the same questions I was wondering about. Likewise the west slope descent is still open to the guessing game.
Great photos showing talus city, but do make me wonder how folks with ingoing packs can plan to zoom over passes like this and then do a couple more by the end of that day!? Ahhhh...youth, or Sherpa genes!

Ta much ~ Zimichael
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Re: Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by erutan »

I looked at it and decided on Dragon instead (seemed like quite a slog going up from the east). Dragon has stable talus until you hit the cliffband where climbers break right to bag the peak. Didn't find a good route from there to the pass, but the drop down on the west was unconsequential... I guess I should add an entry in the passes section despite not being entirely sure on one segment.

It's worth noting that one of the trip reports here about Gould was actually about Dragon as I found out by looking at the mountain (I'd saved scrolling screenshots of the forum threads to my phone before heading out).
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michaelzim
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Re: Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by michaelzim »

@erutan Thanks for this, and indeed looks like there has been a bit of confusion with "Gould Pass" and "Dragon Pass". On the HS Topix Map with cross country passes checked, there is no "Dragon Pass" listed, just Gould Pass directly south of Dragon Peak over that saddle there. The only Dragon Pass on the map is shown as midway between Dragon Peak and Black Mountain to the north, and called "North Dragon Pass" = a class 3.

Hence I am presuming that what you are calling Dragon Pass is the same as Gould Pass, (north of Mt. Gould and south of Dragon Peak) but with two options of approach.
1. Being from Golden Trout Lake then cutting across the spur to the NW.
2. Going up directly west from the small valley and two no-name lakes just north over that spur from Golden Trout Lake proper.

From your description you apparently took route 2. = still Gould Pass on the HST map, and were not referring to "North Dragon Pass"?!

Thanks! ~ Michaelzim
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Harlen
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Re: Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by Harlen »

I've been happily reading all of the various Gould/Dragon Peak and Pass posts (till 3 AM? :confused:), and I reckon the best description, and photo doc is to be found in this post by seanr: http://highsierratopix.com/community/vi ... =1&t=12494 . * I hope it comes through for you Michael. I like his route (which he even did one way with his 6 year old daughter with no trouble) heading around the the south side of upper Golden Trout Lake, and heading toward Mount Gould. He mentions that one can traverse below the peak, and over to Gould Pass. I think I would do that, drop the pack on the path to G.Pass, and saunter up the NE ridge to the summit, then on to the pass. The key photo is the one captioned: "Looking back on the east ridge of Mt Gould from Gould Pass." You can see the nice talus slope well below the summit, that can be used to reach the pass. Note the great shot of his young daughter climbing up-- the photo with the helpful caption: "Start up this slope, but stay right if planning to traverse to Gould Pass or to summit Gould." This route of his think bypasses the tricky, and even dangerous ridge section between Gould and Dragon Pass, where Andy/bluewater, and others got off track, and into trouble.
The long talus slope down from Gould Pass looks pretty straightforward; the only other potential difficulty seems to lie in the final descent to Dragon Lake via a choice of chutes. I'm looking forward to it!


*Note that his Gould Pass escapades begin in the 4th image, after Cottonwood Lakes. It's a great short Trip Report, Thanks to seanr.
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michaelzim
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Re: Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by michaelzim »

Ian (Harlen)... The owls keeping you awake - or the future "peaks pull" once the warmer days return?!

Yep, I agree that the tricky part seems to be in the proximity of Dragon Peak and its spiky ridge. Or trying to get to that section if somehow get tangled up on the 'dividing' east-west ridge between Golden Trout Lake proper and the next valley section to the north with those two unnamed lakes.
However, there is still confusion, in my mind anyhow, about just which saddle is Gould Pass. The HST map says the one just south of Dragon Peak and yet this report c/o @seanr implies it is that big, obvious, gentle saddle just north of Mt. Gould - as per that photo and his comment: Looking back at the east slopes of Mt. Gould from Gould Pass. Golden Trout Lake is far downslope well beyond the bottom left edge of the image.
Those words sound like the photo is being taken from Gould Pass itself, and thus from a spot just north of the gentle saddle slope...Mmmmmmm.

The potentially confusing part (apart from the above) is that the topo shows two "sub peaks" north of Mt. Gould before the descending section which becomes the saddle ending up at Dragon Peak (and is the Gould Pass on HST map). If one continued over that gentle saddle just north of Mt. Gould one would end up down on the main trail on the west side of Kearsarge to Bullfrog Lake. So I guess the obvious route is to traverse north a bit, take the gap between the two sub-peaks and then slip and slide down to those three no name lakes on the west side. Ummmm...in theory anyhow.

I know that I can sure get confused at times with just what peak or bump I am looking at once the "big scale" of things happens in reality, and this terrain may be a potential candidate for that. Maybe not a good idea to try this in a cloud swathing fog! Hopefully August will be clear skies - and no smoke!

Ta much ~ Michaelzim
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michaelzim
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Re: Has anyone been over Gould Pass?

Post by michaelzim »

@Harlen P.S. and a paste!
Slope Shading - Gould.JPG
Way over-thinking this Gould Pass thing but it's helping pass the time waiting for spring. Plus getting me to discover tools I have never used before like this slope shading thing. Kinda cool, and do note the descent slope due west of Dragon Lake - but how to get there with older bones and all. Ha, ha.

Best ~ M.
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