High Sierra Topix

TITLE: Bighorn Pass

GENERAL OVERVIEW: This is a class 2 connector between the Grinnell Lake area and Rosy Finch-Bighorn-Mott Lakes basin

CLASS/DIFFICULTY: Class 2

LOCATION: John Muir Wilderness HST Map: HST Map

ELEVATION: 11,250 ft

USGS TOPO MAP (7.5'): Mt. Abbott

From the Grinnell side, the ridge that connects to Rosy Finch Lake has an obvious low-point in the saddle that becomes more evident the closer you get. It's a fairly long, but not terribly challenging ascent coming up from the Grinnell side, as much of your climb is in vegetation/grass until the last couple hundred feet of rock/gravel. If you're coming from the Rosy Finch side, much of the ridge line above Rosy Finch looks to be of fairly similar elevation, but as you ascend the hillside, you'll come across evidence of folks having aimed for the area around the red arrow in the first photo. Because this ridge is on the Sierra High Route, I'm a bit surprised there is not more documentation; also, I apologize, because the photos below are pretty sparse and I'll try to do a bit of rummaging for a few more views.

Ok, with the preceding post, I felt obliged to dig a bit more, and here are photos looking down into the Grinnell (East) side of this ridge with much less snow on the ground. Both from my recollections and these photos, it's mostly a mix of rock and vegetation that is only challenging if you get distracted by the gorgeous scenery on the way down (up). Otherwise, it's a pretty reasonable ascent/descent that will not eat your shorts:

I've been up and down Bighorn Pass. The pass was easy to spot from the north coming from Shout-of-Relief and over the hump far above Rosy Finch Lake. There's a use trail visible as you get closer to the pass. After reaching the top of the pass, we looked at a steep green gully for the descent but we couldn't be sure it wasn't impassable further down. Instead, we dropped to the right off the pass (north) and angled down over medium-sized talus. It wasn't too difficult. At the bottom, I looked back up the green slot and could see that it climbed all the way to the pass with no issues.
The next time, going up from the Grinnell Lake side, we found a use path at the bottom of the grassy gully that zig zags up. It's steep but not difficult. It's mostly grass with stable rocks.