Advice On A Few Cross-Country Routes/Passes

[OliverB]

Greetings all,

I have a solo excursion planned for mid-July southbound out of Mammoth Lakes and just wanted to see if anyone had any general advice or insights. As for myself, former low-key climber but mostly explorer. The High Sierra is the best place on earth. I haven't been out there for a while and really looking forward to this.

The plan is to head out to the Bloody Mountain area and over Ram or Bunny Pass, down past Purple Lake and up Minnow Creek to the lakes north of Graveyard Peak. Very straightforward. After crossing Graveyard Pass or Silver Fox and passing the Graveyard Lakes, I plan to traverse across the ridge above Vermilion Lake and down to Silver Pass Creek. I am curious if anyone has done this. From there, down to the Mono Pass Trail, up to the Second Recess and over Hilgard Pass.

There is a bit of steep terrain, some bluffs, in the upper part of the canyon below Hilgard Pass that I am wondering about.

From Lake Italy, the route continues to Beartrap Lake and over Ursula Pass.

Any general insight anyone might have on the next stretch would be much appreciated: from Ursula Pass over to Seven Gables Lakes, then over Seven Gables Pass to Three Island Lake, and finally over Senger Pass ("Peak 11840" Pass on the HST map) and down Senger Creek.

After stopping by MTR, I plan to go up Goddard Canyon to the Davis Lakes - with a possible ascent of Mt. McGee via the south chute - and down Goddard Creek, with a possible detour into the Ionian Basin. I have wanted to explore this whole area for years.

From my understanding, the part where the Goddard Creek canyon narrows below the meadow will be tricky to navigate, and I am aware of the nature of the route in general.

From Simpson Meadow the plan is to go up Cartridge Creek and over Cartridge Pass to the JMT.

Many thanks for reading and for any feedback. Have a safe and adventurous year.

[FlyingCow]

Sounds like an incredible trip

The only part I have done is Ram pass, which has one of the worst talus fields in the Sierras. Took me about 3 hours to go a mile, so I recommend Bunny in that area

Also I wonder about snow especially around Hilgard in late July

Safe Travels!

[Wandering Daisy]

search for trip reports by RoguePhotonic and Alpine Mike regarding Goddard area. They posted a lot about 5? years ago. And check out all the pass descriptions in the sub-forum on x-c passes. There's good information in these.

I have gone down Enchanted Gorge to the confluence and up Goddard Creek, but not down to Simpson Meadow. It was mid-Aug of a very high snowpack year. I did it as a day-hike from Chasm Lake with an unintended bivy (18 hours of hiking- bivy because I ran out of daylight due to a late start). There was hard steep snow in Enchanted Gorge. The lower part of Enchanted Gorge was very brushy. Wading across the creeks was not an option- they were roaring! I did belly-slide across a two snow bridges. I did not have traction devices and wished I did- but had an ice axe. I went up the east? (right hand) side of Goddard Creek well above the creek on talus. I think the other side would have been easier, but I could not cross. The hike up from lake at the head of Goddard Creek back down to Chasm Lake was rigorous but nothing unusual. Not sure I would do the route with a full backpack. I would recommend late season, when the creeks are down and when the underbrush is perhaps less bushy so you could easily cross creeks when needed. I think I belatedly, put in a HST trip report on this.

As for Davis Lake, I also passed Davis on this same trip. Lots of talus to get from the PCT down to Davis Lake. I went along the south shore (north shore is longer and probably easier- more used). My route involved steep snow- would not do it without an ice axe. From the Goddard side of the Davis Lakes, you can traverse a quite lovely high bench to Martha Lake. I have gone over both Reinstein Pass and Goddard Pass. If you mean to head down to Goddard Creek use Reinstein Pass. It had some snow on the Martha Lake side when I did it but was able to avoid most- only had trekking poles then.

The route on Bunny Pass is accurately and well described in our HST map and pass descriptions. Read all of those pass reports.