Cirque Crest/Pinchot loop TR

[lambertiana]

Hi everyone, longtime lurker here, I finally got around to signing up. This is my first TR on this board.

Last week I went on a loop out of Roads End, over the Cirque Crest, and then over Pinchot Pass to return to Roads End.
When we started, the smoke from the Sheep Fire was obvious at Roads End.
It got so smoky that by the time we got to lower tent meadow, we could not even see the other side of the canyon. But when we got up to Granite Basin, it was clear again. Long first day!
The second day we went to Horseshoe Lakes over Granite Pass.

Pics from the first two days.

[lambertiana]

The next day we went off trail over Gray, White, and Red passes. Here is where it got interesting. My hiking partner took a hard fall coming down from Red pass, and landed with his hand jammed between two rocks. The result was a compound dislocation of the distal joint on two of his fingers - the tips of the fingers bent all the way back, popping the joint out and splitting the skin on the underside of his fingers so that he could see the joints. Fortunately, he knew how to take care of it (18 years experience as an ER nurse), and he popped them back in. When we got down to Marion Lake, he dressed and wrapped them, and had no infection issues over the ensuing four days it took us to get back to Roads End. Anyway, here are a few pictures from that day. Marion Lake is a gem, and the South Fork Cartridge Creek drainage is also nice, especially since we had it to ourselves.

The next day we went up Lake Basin and over Cartridge Pass, and my friend's luck continued. On the upper part of Cartridge Pass, he tried going over a boulder, and it rolled into his leg, taking off a lot of skin. After descending from Cartridge Pass, our initial plan was to continue down the South Fork/Muro Blanco, but in his condition my friend was not looking forward to it. So we decided to go up to the JMT and exit over Pinchot Pass instead. Here are some pictures from those two days:

[lambertiana]

From Cartridge Pass, we had a nice view of Bench Lake before the smoke came up the canyon.
And going over Pinchot, the lighting was just right to highlight the blue color of Lake Marjorie:


After that we had an uneventful and pleasant trip, and descended Woods Creek to Roads End.

[maverick]

Nice, thanks for posting it.
Sorry about your friend, luckily he new what to do, otherwise the situation could
have been worse.
I see you got a shot of the Giant Hershey's Drop in Lakes Basin, at least that's
what it resembles, also the shot of Bench with the small lake under Cartridge Pass
included, and the Goddard shots are cool.

[copeg]

Welcome to the board, and thanks for posting the trip report! Great report and photos...dislocations sounds a bit nuts, but it sounds it didn't destroy the trip. Love the accompanying photos, especially those of Marion Lake area

[balzaccom]

Great stuff! Thanks for posting!

[TehipiteTom]

Excellent report and great pics, from a spectacular area. Thanks for posting it!

[Ozark Flip]

Welcome to HST! Those are some nice pics....thanks. I cannot wait for the wind to kick back up and clear out some smoke.