Mosquito flat to Cecile Lake-Shr started 8/28

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Original tentative itinerary was to start at mosquito flat and make it all the way to twin lakes on the SHR. We knew this was an iffy proposition given the potential steep snow and avalanche debris this year.

We had no issues up through mono pass where we both skirted a snowfield and walked through it depending on the slope. Hiked up to laurel lake the next day and decided to hold up there. No other parties joined us at the lake, but the mosquitoes sure did and head nets came in very handy.

The following day going up-and-over bighorn pass we had to go around a steep snowfield on some rocks to the left. It was an easy bypass and we soon came to the top of the pass. From Bighorn to Shout of relief Pass was a bit trickier involving quite a bit of route funding but in the end was no problem in terms of anything technical. We easily avoided the snow. Getting off of shout of relief pass proved to be the biggest challenge yet. There were some pretty significant snow fields and some too steep for us to handle. With some very careful route finding ( Too complicated to recall or explain) myself and one other person in our party managed to only have to descend through one very short, soft snowfield. We did so via a very non elegant seated glisade. The third person in our group went a slightly different way and had to do two seated glisades. From the bottom of shout of relief pass we continued on our way but got drawn to the right. And so ended up joining the trail ( I think it's called Mghee pass trail) earlier than we should have on the SHR route. This proved to be a very scenic section of our hike. However, we were also faced with the decision between fighting horrendous mosquitoes and stopping for a snack break. I chose the latter which also proved to be a snack break for the mosquitoes! The fish creek ford at the john muir trail/Tully hole made me a little uncomfortable between the depths and current however I did get through it. My partners who are several inches taller and heavier had no issues whatsoever. We then hiked up the JMT and camped at the small pond just before virginia lake. For some unknown reason, we had a couple hours of relatively few mosquitoes there, which was a delightful change from the rest of our afternoons and evenings.

The following day was mostly on trails and there were no snow issues. We hiked past virginia lake and made a very cold and early morning ford of some shallow water just past the lake. We continued past purple lake and then on to duck lake and duck pass. We left the trail there and headed over to deer pass and then down to deer lakes.

The following day was perhaps our most scenic of the whole trip. The forecast called for very high winds. And having never been on mammoth Crest, we decided to leave very early when the winds were forecast to be a little calmer. We started hiking around five or five thirty am. As we reached the crest, the sun came up and the light, as we hiked along the crest, was just gorgeous! The rest of the day and trip into red's meadow was uneventful.

We had a decision to make as the weather was changing. We could either wait out the coming storm at reds meadow or head up into the mountains and play it by ear. We ended up deciding to hike to superior lake and see what the storm brought. We had to hold up there for a day and a half waiting out significant rain, Hail and some flashes that seemed like lightning but never produced any thunder.

The storm cleared up overnight and we Headed out and made it up nancy's pass that morning. We chose not to follow Roper's route off Nancy's pass due to some online comments I had read. We headed down trending a little to the right and eventually made it to the Meadow. And then headed up to a saddle. That led us to minaret lakes and cecile lake. Cecil proved interesting as it had a steep snowfield that led into the lake. My partner found a way around it. And we hiked right next to and then above the snowfield in a very cool ( Literally and figuratively) and safe tunnel. After the tunnel it was an easy walk over to outlet of cecil lake. Unfortunately, when we looked down to iceberg lake, we found a snowfield along the lake that for us was impassible. It was hard to tell how high one needed to go to avoid the risk of falling through the snow into the lake. And the higher one went the steeper the snowfield got.(photo attached) We decided to turn around and abandon our trip at that point. Hoping to return next year and grateful for the hiking we were able to do this year!

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