TR: Vidette/Gardiner Aug-Sept 2021 [Part I]
Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 8:51 pm
Each summer since 2007 my sisters, my daughter (‘Trekker9’ in HST) and intermittently other family members make a 9-day (or more) backpack in the southern Sierra. My sisters and I went on Sierra trips with our dad when we were young, and we’re continuing to enjoy these incredible mountains. For the past 7 years our core group has been myself (now just short of 70), younger sisters Megan and Julia, daughter Trekker9 and her S.O. (‘Slabwalker’ in HST).
This year the logistics of our trip were somewhat involved. We extended our main trip to 10 days. In addition, Trekker9, Slabwalker and I started our hike 6 days earlier. We three timed our hike so as to meet a packer and Megan, Julia, niece Natalia and nephew Bryce on our 7th day. Natalia and Bryce were with us for two days; then they returned to the trailhead and the five of continued on.
We entered the mountains on 8/24/21, exit on 9/8/21. Generally our route was:
• Trekker9, Slabwalker & I start out of Onion Valley, over University Pass into Center Basin,
• Over the East Vidette divide into Vidette Lakes,
• Down to the JMT and around to Kearsarge Lakes,
• Meet Megan, Julia, Natalia & Bryce, and a packer with their packs and our food resupply,
• To Charlotte Lake (Natalia and Bryce leave us here),
• Over Gardiner Pass to Gardiner Basin,
• I exit over King Col and Special K Pass, meet the others in Sixty Lakes Basin,
• Return to Onion Valley via Glen and Kearsarge Passes.
Some general info about the trip:
WEATHER
We had sunshine and blue skies every one of our 16 days. A few wispy clouds on 3-4 days, but nothing in the least threatening weather-wise. Days were warm, sometimes hot even at our typical 10-11,000 ft elevations. Not a lot of wind either… some afternoon breezes, occasional brisk winds at sunset or sun-up, but not particularly cold.
SMOKE
Basically none. From the tops of passes and peaks Trekker9, Slabwalker and I could see smoke to the NW on our days 3, 4 and 5. It disappeared soon after and we only saw blue above.
AVAILABLE WATER
Because of the significant drought and warm weather, snowbanks were rare. We saw a little residual snow high on the north slopes of tall peaks – University Peak, Mt Stanford, Mt Clarence King. Not surprisingly there was good running water in the drainages downstream of these snowbanks. Major streams – in Center Basin, Vidette Lakes, Bubbs Creek, Gardiner Creek, Rae Lakes Basin – had running water, sometimes barely.
NATIONAL FOREST CLOSURES
On our Day 8 (August 31) we heard from other hikers that CA National Forests were closed as of the following day. The National Parks were not closed… however since the various eastside entry points – including Kearsarge Pass – all involve crossing US Forest Service lands, hikers were no longer allowed in. This didn’t affect us directly. JMT through-hikers were unable to get their planned re-supplies over Kearsarge, although the local NPS ranger was kindly offering food to get those hikers to their Mt Whitney destination. It did mean that over the last 3 days of our trip when we passed through areas that are normally heavily populated – Rae Lakes, Glen Pass, Kearsarge Lakes & Pass – we saw few people. For example, on our Day 16 hiking over Kearsarge Pass into Onion Valley we saw 4 people – 3 trail workers and a packer – rather than the usual 30-50 folks we would usually see on that route.
Day 1. Trekker9, Slabwalker and I drive directly from home to the Onion Valley trailhead. Our intention is to get up to Robinson Lake that night so as to reduce our climb to University Pass the following day. We start hiking at about 6pm, and reach Robinson Lake at dusk.
Day 2. We awake to see Robinson Lake in the daylight, and sunshine high on the walls of our canyon.
At Robinson we are at about 10,500’. University Pass is at 12,700. It’s a nice climb up benches and ridges to a valley above the lake. Robinson Lake - view toward University Pass Robinson Lake, smoke in Owens Valley
Then it’s a slog over talus fields of various sorts. First relatively flat talus across the ‘valley’, then more steep, finally climbing the scree-filled chute to the pass. Slabwalker gets to the pass at ~12:30, puts down his pack and heads to up University Peak (elevation 13,362’). Trekker9 arrives at the pass at 2:30, and I at 3:00. Slabwalker returns from the peak 10 minutes later. Great views of Center Basin and beyond from the pass. University Pass into upper Center Basin University Pass across Center Basin. Purple line is Day 4 route.
We start down the steep chute that is the west side of University Pass. It’s mostly scree – going up this would be a chore. Trekker9’s pack gets away and rolls down the chute, retrieved by Slabwalker. Farther down where a large rock fills the chute and necessitates a short downclimb, I toss my pack down and it also rolls aways before Slabwalker intercepts it. [Note: it seems to me that in the past – maybe back in the day of external pack frames – backpacks (sans humans) were flat-ish objects. Now they seem to relatively round, without flat sides and no real ‘corners’ on them. And so they seem to ‘roll’ when allowed, especially on v steep slopes such as University Pass.]
Down. It’s a 1700’ descent on scree & loose rock, reminiscent of Haeckel-Wallace Col. Stagger across the valley bottom floor and up to the rim of Golden Bear Lake. There we have an excellent campsite overlooking the lake. Wash up, good dinner, late and beautiful sunset. So far we haven’t seen a wisp of smoke or cloud in the sky.
Day 3. Awake to our gorgeous basin. Sunrise at Golden Bear Lake
There’s a little breeze but it gets warm quickly. It’s a planned layover day for us. Slabwalker muses about doing a Junction/Shepherd/Forester Pass Loop, or a climb of Mt Keith. In the end we all 3 take a late morning hike to the attractive lake south and 600’ above us. Lunch on the shores. Over lunch we discuss the following day’s hike over the divide to Vidette Lakes, and come to the conclusion that we’d be best positioned for that trek if we camped along the stream west of and below the JMT. We return to camp, pack up and hike down and around Center Peak, drop below the JMT and find a passable campsite on the west side of the creek. This late afternoon hike takes perhaps 90 minutes. The sun goes down early down in this canyon – it’s a relatively chilly night.
[Note: south of us on the rim of Center Basin is Junction Peak, elevation 13,888’. It was first ascended on 8/8/1899 by Edwin Copeland – my step great-grandfather.]
Day 4. Our goal today is cross the divide to our west and drop down into Vidette Lakes. We’ve been targeting a crossing point south of East Spur and north of Mt Stanford where the slopes (on the east side anyway) appear relatively benign. From University Pass and Center Basin we could see what appears to be a broad basin of granite benches leading towards this pass, and then a talus field on the ridgetop that is not terribly steep. The west side of the divide is an unknown. It’s a 2100’ climb to the top (to about 12,850) from our camp site, then a 2100’ drop to the upper Vidette Lake.
We’re up early and hiking by 8:15. The climb generally goes well. Getting out of the canyon bottom consists of walking up white granite benches between black rock talus piles. Starting up the Divide. Looking east across Center Basin to University Peak & Pass.
Then into the broad granite basin – easy walking as we ascend. Up to the ridge on the south side of the basin until the talus begins. Up the talus, across a broad sandy/rocky flat area, up another 300’ of talus and we’re on top. Lunch. We dub this crossing ‘No Reason Pass’, in recognition of the range of motivations that other hikers might have for ascending to this place. Nearing No Reason Pass, looking south to Mt Stanford
View west from No Reason Pass - Mt Brewer in the haze
The west side of the divide is mostly steep talus, interrupted by a couple of benches. Large blocks at the top, then more moderate sizes as we descend. A lower bench holds a small lake in wetter times. Descending west side of No Reason Pass - Vidette Lakes
800’ more to go down. There’s some cliffs below that seem descendable… I start down them thinking that I’m generally following Trekker9 & Slabwalker, then (poor late-day decision-making!) I downclimb a steep crack and then find myself cliffed out below and with a difficult climb back up. Eventually Slabwalker and Trekker9 come up below a short cliff, I lower my pack to them via rope and climb down ~20 feet. Exhausting and time-consuming. We descend further to a fine campsite near the lower end of the upper Vidette Lake.
[Note: we saw NO ducks, footprints or other human artifacts in our trek over No Reason Pass.]
To Be Continued --
This year the logistics of our trip were somewhat involved. We extended our main trip to 10 days. In addition, Trekker9, Slabwalker and I started our hike 6 days earlier. We three timed our hike so as to meet a packer and Megan, Julia, niece Natalia and nephew Bryce on our 7th day. Natalia and Bryce were with us for two days; then they returned to the trailhead and the five of continued on.
We entered the mountains on 8/24/21, exit on 9/8/21. Generally our route was:
• Trekker9, Slabwalker & I start out of Onion Valley, over University Pass into Center Basin,
• Over the East Vidette divide into Vidette Lakes,
• Down to the JMT and around to Kearsarge Lakes,
• Meet Megan, Julia, Natalia & Bryce, and a packer with their packs and our food resupply,
• To Charlotte Lake (Natalia and Bryce leave us here),
• Over Gardiner Pass to Gardiner Basin,
• I exit over King Col and Special K Pass, meet the others in Sixty Lakes Basin,
• Return to Onion Valley via Glen and Kearsarge Passes.
Some general info about the trip:
WEATHER
We had sunshine and blue skies every one of our 16 days. A few wispy clouds on 3-4 days, but nothing in the least threatening weather-wise. Days were warm, sometimes hot even at our typical 10-11,000 ft elevations. Not a lot of wind either… some afternoon breezes, occasional brisk winds at sunset or sun-up, but not particularly cold.
SMOKE
Basically none. From the tops of passes and peaks Trekker9, Slabwalker and I could see smoke to the NW on our days 3, 4 and 5. It disappeared soon after and we only saw blue above.
AVAILABLE WATER
Because of the significant drought and warm weather, snowbanks were rare. We saw a little residual snow high on the north slopes of tall peaks – University Peak, Mt Stanford, Mt Clarence King. Not surprisingly there was good running water in the drainages downstream of these snowbanks. Major streams – in Center Basin, Vidette Lakes, Bubbs Creek, Gardiner Creek, Rae Lakes Basin – had running water, sometimes barely.
NATIONAL FOREST CLOSURES
On our Day 8 (August 31) we heard from other hikers that CA National Forests were closed as of the following day. The National Parks were not closed… however since the various eastside entry points – including Kearsarge Pass – all involve crossing US Forest Service lands, hikers were no longer allowed in. This didn’t affect us directly. JMT through-hikers were unable to get their planned re-supplies over Kearsarge, although the local NPS ranger was kindly offering food to get those hikers to their Mt Whitney destination. It did mean that over the last 3 days of our trip when we passed through areas that are normally heavily populated – Rae Lakes, Glen Pass, Kearsarge Lakes & Pass – we saw few people. For example, on our Day 16 hiking over Kearsarge Pass into Onion Valley we saw 4 people – 3 trail workers and a packer – rather than the usual 30-50 folks we would usually see on that route.
Day 1. Trekker9, Slabwalker and I drive directly from home to the Onion Valley trailhead. Our intention is to get up to Robinson Lake that night so as to reduce our climb to University Pass the following day. We start hiking at about 6pm, and reach Robinson Lake at dusk.
Day 2. We awake to see Robinson Lake in the daylight, and sunshine high on the walls of our canyon.
At Robinson we are at about 10,500’. University Pass is at 12,700. It’s a nice climb up benches and ridges to a valley above the lake. Robinson Lake - view toward University Pass Robinson Lake, smoke in Owens Valley
Then it’s a slog over talus fields of various sorts. First relatively flat talus across the ‘valley’, then more steep, finally climbing the scree-filled chute to the pass. Slabwalker gets to the pass at ~12:30, puts down his pack and heads to up University Peak (elevation 13,362’). Trekker9 arrives at the pass at 2:30, and I at 3:00. Slabwalker returns from the peak 10 minutes later. Great views of Center Basin and beyond from the pass. University Pass into upper Center Basin University Pass across Center Basin. Purple line is Day 4 route.
We start down the steep chute that is the west side of University Pass. It’s mostly scree – going up this would be a chore. Trekker9’s pack gets away and rolls down the chute, retrieved by Slabwalker. Farther down where a large rock fills the chute and necessitates a short downclimb, I toss my pack down and it also rolls aways before Slabwalker intercepts it. [Note: it seems to me that in the past – maybe back in the day of external pack frames – backpacks (sans humans) were flat-ish objects. Now they seem to relatively round, without flat sides and no real ‘corners’ on them. And so they seem to ‘roll’ when allowed, especially on v steep slopes such as University Pass.]
Down. It’s a 1700’ descent on scree & loose rock, reminiscent of Haeckel-Wallace Col. Stagger across the valley bottom floor and up to the rim of Golden Bear Lake. There we have an excellent campsite overlooking the lake. Wash up, good dinner, late and beautiful sunset. So far we haven’t seen a wisp of smoke or cloud in the sky.
Day 3. Awake to our gorgeous basin. Sunrise at Golden Bear Lake
There’s a little breeze but it gets warm quickly. It’s a planned layover day for us. Slabwalker muses about doing a Junction/Shepherd/Forester Pass Loop, or a climb of Mt Keith. In the end we all 3 take a late morning hike to the attractive lake south and 600’ above us. Lunch on the shores. Over lunch we discuss the following day’s hike over the divide to Vidette Lakes, and come to the conclusion that we’d be best positioned for that trek if we camped along the stream west of and below the JMT. We return to camp, pack up and hike down and around Center Peak, drop below the JMT and find a passable campsite on the west side of the creek. This late afternoon hike takes perhaps 90 minutes. The sun goes down early down in this canyon – it’s a relatively chilly night.
[Note: south of us on the rim of Center Basin is Junction Peak, elevation 13,888’. It was first ascended on 8/8/1899 by Edwin Copeland – my step great-grandfather.]
Day 4. Our goal today is cross the divide to our west and drop down into Vidette Lakes. We’ve been targeting a crossing point south of East Spur and north of Mt Stanford where the slopes (on the east side anyway) appear relatively benign. From University Pass and Center Basin we could see what appears to be a broad basin of granite benches leading towards this pass, and then a talus field on the ridgetop that is not terribly steep. The west side of the divide is an unknown. It’s a 2100’ climb to the top (to about 12,850) from our camp site, then a 2100’ drop to the upper Vidette Lake.
We’re up early and hiking by 8:15. The climb generally goes well. Getting out of the canyon bottom consists of walking up white granite benches between black rock talus piles. Starting up the Divide. Looking east across Center Basin to University Peak & Pass.
Then into the broad granite basin – easy walking as we ascend. Up to the ridge on the south side of the basin until the talus begins. Up the talus, across a broad sandy/rocky flat area, up another 300’ of talus and we’re on top. Lunch. We dub this crossing ‘No Reason Pass’, in recognition of the range of motivations that other hikers might have for ascending to this place. Nearing No Reason Pass, looking south to Mt Stanford
View west from No Reason Pass - Mt Brewer in the haze
The west side of the divide is mostly steep talus, interrupted by a couple of benches. Large blocks at the top, then more moderate sizes as we descend. A lower bench holds a small lake in wetter times. Descending west side of No Reason Pass - Vidette Lakes
800’ more to go down. There’s some cliffs below that seem descendable… I start down them thinking that I’m generally following Trekker9 & Slabwalker, then (poor late-day decision-making!) I downclimb a steep crack and then find myself cliffed out below and with a difficult climb back up. Eventually Slabwalker and Trekker9 come up below a short cliff, I lower my pack to them via rope and climb down ~20 feet. Exhausting and time-consuming. We descend further to a fine campsite near the lower end of the upper Vidette Lake.
[Note: we saw NO ducks, footprints or other human artifacts in our trek over No Reason Pass.]
To Be Continued --