TR-North Lake to McGee Creek

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SSSdave
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Re: TR-North Lake to McGee Creek

Post by SSSdave »

No wonder you had trouble beyond White Bear Lake. Your image shows the view from Brown Bear Lake up towards what is called Whitebear or sometime Brown Bear Pass, one of the trickiest class 2 passes in the range.

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.34042,-118.80044&z=15&t=T

Most groups going from EF Bear Creek Basin to Lake Italy use Dancing Bear Pass that drops down to Jumble Lake.

This picture shows the view south towards Dancing Bear Pass:

http://www.thewyants.com/hikes/sierra03/dscn0158b.jpg

I've camped at Brown Bear Lake on a couple backpacking trips and into the EF Bear Creek basin a few times. Whitebear Pass is not even listed on our HST passes sub forum and probably should remain so because most would get into class 3 terrain. Everything right below the pass is class 3 including the least steep choice a bit north because of a steep band between 11500 and 11700 that is not visible from the top. Of course a whole lot of people only really ever use visual sight to figure out their routes that in my opinion is a huge mistake and this pass is a prime example where a concave slope that looks ok from the top conceals the steepest sections below. One will also not find anything really usable about the route elsewhere on the web because DBP is also less total vertical uphill if one is continuing either over Italy or Gabbot passes. One does need to climb up from Whitebear Lake to reach DBP but that is less than one climbs from the Brown Bear Lake outlet to Lake Italy.

The first time I went over the pass, I had the advantage of looking up from Brown Bear Lake and could see the route I had drawn from topo studies before my trip. The trick if going north is to at pass level first traverse north all the way to what shows on the topo as an intermittent stream. The traverse is actually on an easy ramp. One crosses that stream and then descends directly all the way down. Looking at the topo lines one can see though steep, it is significantly less so than anywhere else.

Likewise a careful topo map study of Carol Col even without any other advice clearly shows the route below that rlown discusses is less steep.

Also note HST has a page for Carol Col:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=7686
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JWreno
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Re: TR-North Lake to McGee Creek

Post by JWreno »

We actually felt comfortable sticking to the grassy area going down White Bear pass. It was the wrong route on Carol Col that was difficult. I won't pretend to be an expert in traversing wild passes so I will defer to others and not try to give advice for future travelers in the area.

I figured class 3 comes with the turf of following the SHR. I just prefer to reduce the exposure if I slip or lose my grip.

I will sum up my trip experience the more you know about your route the better your choices.
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maverick
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Re: TR-North Lake to McGee Creek

Post by maverick »

Don't be hard on yourself JW, chalk it up as a learning experience, if everything goes smoothly all the time where would the adventure part be in the whole thing. Once you have gained sufficient crosscountry experience/techniques and worked thru many route finding challenges, you will get to a point will you will have the confidence to let go of guidebooks or on-line descriptions of routes, and then you truly become free to roam the wilderness on your terms and not someones else's. :nod:
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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.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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Re: TR-North Lake to McGee Creek

Post by rayfound »

Don't be hard on yourself JW, chalk it up as a learning experience, if everything goes smoothly all the time where would the adventure part be in the whole thing.
Agreed - no one got hurt, everyone made it down fine.

1st hand experience with star col is that it is pretty rough coming down the north side (towards star).
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Re: TR-North Lake to McGee Creek

Post by giantbrookie »

JWreno wrote:We actually felt comfortable sticking to the grassy area going down White Bear pass.
I think the way you went is pretty much the route described by Dave, which is to say that from the pass one traverses at or nearly level before descending the grassy spots. Last year when I went over, I had the advantage of ascending so I could see the breaks in slope and it was no problem following the greenery and then cutting over (ie ascended the way you came down). Sounds like you hit the optimal route descending White Bear which isn't so easy to do descending instead of ascending.

On the route I followed last year, White Bear was the mellowest of the four main passes we crossed (all class 2) during the trip, and it was the third pass of that particular day (Peppermint, shoulder N of Bear Creek Spire, White Bear).
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: TR-North Lake to McGee Creek

Post by rlown »

rayfound wrote: 1st hand experience with star col is that it is pretty rough coming down the north side (towards star).
Did Star col as a change going down once. Agree it's not for the faint of heart. There are cairns.. and then they stop at a cliff. Fun.

Had to drop pack down on rope a couple times and lots of air at Star.

Not to take away from your trip JWreno. You did a good job. So many boot prints to follow. So many choices to make for you and yours.
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Re: TR-North Lake to McGee Creek

Post by cantare »

Heh, wish I'd seen all this lively discussion of Carol Col before my own trip last week. Count me as one more who missed the "wall" and headed straight down the big talus at center, then wondered why "Class 2" seemed so much more difficult than I remembered. I did see a couple who were doing a SHR section waltz right down the same stuff with full packs & trekking poles.

Star Col (right above Star Lake, I assume) looked like fun but I passed it up for Steelhead, also an adventure...probably picked the wrong line there too, more huge Class 3ish talus.

Friday 26th was an awful day for smoke in that whole area...
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