Puppet to Ramona to 11092

[tlsharb]

So this year's trip could be called "circling the Glacier Divide". Nine day loop from North Lake starting on 8/28. We plan on hitting the Humpheys basin for a few days and then working our way over to Darwin Basin, exiting over Lamarck col. Having never been in this area, I've got a couple questions:
1. Puppet to Ramona. What's the best way to get there. It looks like the saddle next to Pilot Knob would be the quickest way over, but I was wondering why that "pass" doesn't show up in the cross country pass info. Is there something about it that makes it undesirable? Should we go back over Puppet pass and then work our way to the Paiute trail? That looks about 1.5 miles longer.
2. Ramona to 11092. This looks like a 8-9 mile cross country trek with a moderate amount of elevation. Seems doable in a day, but I noticed someone on the board described such a hike as "herculean" (unless you have wings). Would a better plan be to do this in 2 days? We are fairly fit hikers, but getting older (65 this year).
Thanks for the responses ahead of time.
terry

[tomba]

Pilot Knob Pass:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9802#p73692
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8133&p=58978#p58978

Which way do you plan to go from Ramona Lake to Lake 11092 ft?

Lobe Pass: http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYX ... IDmnsukCQw - is fine (NE side steep).

Glacier Divide Pass: http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYX ... IDml8u4CQw - see viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8360&p=60837.

[tlsharb]

Incredibly helpful. Thanks.

[SSSdave]

I'd take the longer trail and add a day camping at lower Evolution Meadow.

This year any steep north facing slopes below ridge lines of Glacier Divide like the headwall on that very steep pass are likely to be snow covered all summer thus ice axe and crampons. And how long will the cornice at the top last?

[tlsharb]

Well Dave that leads to the next obvious question...how bad will Lamarck col be?

[druid]

Well Dave that leads to the next obvious question...how bad will Lamarck col be?

I hiked over Lamarck Col from the east on Sept 6, 2017, which was a roughly similar snow year. The snowfield on the east side had softened up nicely and was easy to manage with hiking poles and no other traction devices when we went across just before noon. There was no snow at all on the west side. Finding the col from the west is reportedly a bit tricky and we saw a couple of parties on the snowfield that had miscalculated the col location to varying degrees.

[windknot]

The Glacier Divide Pass in the report of mine that Tomba linked is easy but will take a while to get from Ramona to 11106. We did it in two days, building in plenty of time to fish both at the start and finish (lakes in between are unfortunately fishless). In fact, the traverse W of Ramona high above Piute Canyon was more challenging than the pass itself (easy to get into Class 3 or worse if you take the wrong route). Haven't taken Lobe Pass and didn't think it was a valid option when I too was searching for easy (Class 1-2) ways across the Glacier Divide. And like Dave said, there could be snow still on the north side of the pass which would make it even more challenging. I've heard Snow Tongue is tough (and especially in a high snow year).

It wouldn't be as fun, but taking the longer trailed route down Piute Canyon and up to Evolution Valley would probably be the most straight-forward (especially if you're budgeting two days for this anyway).

[robertseeburger]

I have done Puppet to Ramona in my past. (Actually it was Ramona to Puppet). I took the trail ..down to Hutchinson Meadow. I didn't even think about going over Pilot Knob. I recall it took only 4-5 hours in total to just go around via the trail. While it is more direct to go via Pilot Knob, and you could climb Pilot Knob, I would bet it takes longer.