High Sierra Topix

If this has already been posted somewhere I'm sorry, I promise I already looked really hard!

My wife and I are planning to summit Goddard next week and will enter at North Lake (preferred) or Lake Sabrina (backup, depending on walk in permit luck) and end at Florence Lake.

Has anyone here been over Haeckel-Wallace Col? Trying to decide what route to take if we end up having to start at Lake Sabrina.

Here's an excerpt from the Secor book:

Which is the "best" route across the Sierra crest between Sabrina Basin and the John Muir Trail north of Muir Pass? Wallace Col has loose rock on both east and west sides. Heackel-Wallace Col has many benches and steps on the eastern approach with some class 2 talus, but it has a long, tedious scree chute on its southwest side. Haeckel Col also has a scree chute on its southwest side with class 3 on its northeast side.
Most cross-country ramblers consider Heackel-Wallace Col the best route.

About us: Both comfortable up to 5th and with cross-country navigation. But, we'll have packs for a week so I'd like to avoid rock climbing or extra sketchy scree avalanches this time

Thanks in advance!

If you just want to cross from one side to the other, then I would suggest Echo Col. Just above Echo Lake there is a small glacier or snow field, and at the top of that there is a notch. That is on the east side. If you are coming from the west side, the notch is harder to find.

Thanks bobby. Is that an easier route with full packs? Looks a little more out of the way when heading to Goddard and is listed as class 3 but I'll take someone's experience over a guidebook any day.

Easier than what? I don't know. I'm not much of a rock climber, and I made it over. Once many years ago we went over west to east, and then later we went over east to west. As I recall, the west side has a lot more rock, and it is more difficult to pick your route through it. I remember having to lift packs up and down over the big steps. I recall the Echo Lake side as being relatively easier and not so complicated.

Echo col has exposure, H-W col does not. H-W has considerably more loose talus. The ratings for the two (class 3 and 2 respectively) are appropriate. Echo col you really need to cross at the right point, not 20' away. H-W is equally messy all along the ridge.

I know that technical difficulty is not remotely an issue for you, but when I consider how quickly one can get from point A to B, I think the most efficient way to get to a base camp to summit Goddard from would be via Lamarck Col out of North Lake. For me, this statement is given in hindsight, because I climbed Goddard out of Sabrina via Haeckel Col (in 1977). I was coming off my first knee injury and wasn't getting around too well. The class 3 going over Haeckel (on both west and east sides) was only part of the issue slowing me down. The approach on both sides has tedious passages and I think that will be true of any of the Sabrina alternatives. As for Lamarck Col, if the best route is taken the only part I'd consider tedious is the short boulder hopping stretch along the shore of Darwin Cyn L. no. 3.

Thanks for the input so far. Lamarck is definitely choice #1, but if we end up having to start from Sabrina then Echo and Haeckel-Wallace seem to be the best choices. Still haven't found much info about the SW side of Haeckel-Wallace Col.

From what I've read Haeckel Col and Wallace Col are out of the running.

Wish I could help. I've been to the top of the col from the NE side, but could not ascertain what the SW side down looked like.

Ya, seems like thats a popular thing to do when peak bagging, I can find stuff online about the NE side but no pics or reports of the descent.

Thanks again everyone

All depends on you preferences, with a full pack, Lamarck would be the preferred of the 4. If coming in from Sabrina, it would be Echo or Haeckel. I don't mind steep scree, skiing down it, but Wallace is very steep, and with a full pack, it makes a mishap much more dangerous.