High Sierra Topix

My girlfriend and I are planning a trip the week of Labor Day. We are comfortable with a hard class 2 pass - under normal conditions. I was considering heading into Humphreys basin via Piute Pass and either exploring the high country in the basin, or hopefully heading over Glacier divide to Darwin Bench and out via Lamark Col. I was hoping to get some advice about either crossing over Packsaddle Pass, or attempting the Glacier Divide traverse that CG talks about (Ramona, lake 10907, 11092, Darwin Bench). We have about 5 days available from the North Lake trail head. Does anyone have any recent information about Packsadde Pass? Or, should we avoid it and try the traverse? We can be pokey, is there enough time for the traverse? (we live at low elev) If neither is a good idea, our backup plan is to just explore Humphries basin. Any advise is appreciated!

Hi tnewton, welcome to the board. I was planning to do the same loop you mention, but ultimately I decided that this just wasn't the year for me to try one of the trans-Glacier Divide crossings. I'm sure they're doable, but the extra snow necessitates extra caution and I figure I can always do this trip in a year with less snow.

Regarding cgundersen's traverse, I think it should be doable in five days without putting in an extreme amount of effort. Something like day 1 to Goethe or Muriel, day 2 to Ramona or Lake 10907, day 3 to Lake 11092, day 4 to Darwin Bench or Darwin Canyon, and then day 5 over Lamarck Col. and out.

tnewton,
I'll second windknot's assessment. Ramona is easily reached in two days and unless the weather is horrible, the rest of the traversing is readily manageable. The only thing I'd do differently is we tried to get down to 10907 too early, while it's a snooze if you go to the East end of the lake.
cg

I will also agree with Windknot's assessment. I was going to do a very similar route 2 weeks ago but after going over Lamarck Col. and witnessing all the snow, decided not to cross Glacier Divide this year. We explored Emerald Basin instead then dropped down to the JMT and up and over Paiute Pass. I believe this was a good decision because as you can see there was still a lot of snow on the North side of Glacier Divide at Muriel Lake.

Hey, Thanks all for the prompt replies! It sounds like good advice, we'll try the traverse first and turn back and explore the basin if we need to. Your help is much appreciated.