TR: Bishop Pass, Muir Pass, Lamarck Col 7/1/23-7/4/23

[thensepia]

Hi all, first time posting here but this forum has been invaluable to me in the past and I thought I should return the favor. I went up Bishop Pass from South Lake, over Muir, and out Lamarck Col to North Lake this weekend 7/1-7/4. I had hiked the Sierra last year in early May snow on the PCT and missed the solitude and I thought, how bad could it be in July snow? (Much worse.)

Bishop Pass trail is almost all snow-covered from the trailhead up. I saw one person going up the pass ahead of me (and would see his tracks over Muir the next day, and couldn't tell if he also went over Lamarck) and on the other side ran into one member of the only JMT group going through (sobo) right now, exiting with an injured ankle and not super happy about it. (That group later bailed over Taboose upon encountering the South Fork Kings crossing, which I can imagine is raging right now). Bootpack over Bishop is passable but not great, and presumably almost entirely from PCT hikers exiting. Dusy Basin is pretty much all snow and absolutely cooked me in the sun.

IMG_0548 copy.jpg

The broken bridge over the Dusy Branch upper crossing felt still reasonably sturdy when I kicked it, but with the waterfalls above and below would be deadly if it failed. I didn't want to chance the lower crossing anyways, so opted instead to scramble down a steep mix of rockfall, creekside bushes, and extremely smooth granite. Not super fun going down, though I imagine going up would be a little easier. The switchbacks down are pretty much melted out, which was my longest stretch of dry trail for the next few days.

IMG_0570 copy.jpg

Muir Pass was a disaster. I camped at Big Pete Meadow, where there are a couple dry but tilted spots right off trail (all the actually flat spots have 4ft snowdrifts on them still). Last year I remember camping about 3 miles further up on spots that were wet but snow-free; no chance of that this year. I got up at 4am—not nearly early enough—and instantly got lost in the dark. The entire valley northbound has been heavily avalanched, with downed trees everywhere all over each other, and the Middle Fork Kings is flooded, with the result being that I mixed up my stream crossings and accidentally navigated a full multi-branched crossing of the Middle Fork before realizing I was on the wrong side and now had to cross back before it turned into a torrent further up. Snow in the valley is probably still 10ft deep around the river due to avalanche pileup.

IMG_0579 copy.jpg

One brief glimpse of green on the ground in one of the meadows on the way up to Muir.

IMG_0581 copy.jpg

Having lost nearly an entire morning hour on the east-facing ascent to Muir, I ended up slogging through slushy suncups for hours in full sun. The ascent took me easily twice as long as it did last year. A helicopter flew over very low on my way up—I don't see any SAR reports from that day, so I'm not sure what it was, but it was a little embarrassing to be seen in such pitiful condition. I finally got to the hut at noon and decided to stay there until evening. Snow levels at the hut are slightly higher than last spring, and the snow is far, far more suncupped. 7/2/23 vs. 5/21/22 below.

IMG_0606 copy.jpg

IMG_0608.jpg

I left Muir hut at around 6pm and only made it somewhere between Wanda and Sapphire lakes by sunset, where I found a miraculously flat, though soaking wet patch of gravel on a rock outcropping and decided to just take it instead of trying to pound out a flat spot out of suncups in the dark. Saw and heard lots of small wet slides off the peaks near Muir on my way out.

Having only made something like 8 miles the previous day, I was now in an awkward position to get over west-facing Lamarck. I could hike through the night and try to make it out in 3 days, or just wait around and make it 4. I ended up getting up at 2:30 to finish the descent past Evolution Lake and was horrified to find that for the first mile or so the snow had not frozen overnight past a thin crust, holding for a fraction of a second on every step before inevitably collapsing. Luckily, I found frozen snow afterwards and was able to at least pick my way across the edges of suncups most of the way after that.

The Evolution Lake inlet crossing was covered over the steps (I remember them being dry last spring) and running pretty fast just around sunrise. The trail crossing looked like the least bad option, though getting down over the snowbanks (5ft high in places) was a little awkward.

IMG_0641 copy.jpg

Past the lake, there were on-and-off bits of uncovered trail up to the junction to Darwin's Bench. The use trail up was also partially snow-free, though it was easier to just climb straight up over the rocks than to figure out where it might be. I made decent time up to Darwin Canyon and was grateful to see that the north side of the canyon had mostly melted and slid to a stable-looking state. I ended up setting up camp above the first lake and spending the whole day reading, with the plan to do icy hardpack on the southwest-facing ascent the next morning in time to descend soft snow on the northeast side.

One nice thing about the snow is that the rocky ridges leading up to the col are mostly filled in by snow, allowing you to climb gradually up the side of the canyon. It's over a mix of snow and rock, which makes putting on and taking off traction annoying, but I found it more worthwhile than trying to trace a sketchy lakeside path. I was able to climb hard snow the whole way up the col, which was a relief after Muir.

IMG_0667 copy.jpg

The north side of Lamarck has seen some traffic, though it was hard to pick out tracks from up top through all the suncups. I managed a few nice glissades down, and the flat parts were often pleasantly snow-free.

IMG_0673 copy.jpg

The rest of the descent down to Lamarck Lakes is north-facing and still quite snowy. A few sections were a little sketchy, including the cliffside parts below. I don't know whose tracks those are on the snow, but I opted to scramble around those parts instead on very unstable gravel and scree.

IMG_0678 copy.jpg

Managed one last long glissade down to near Upper Lamarck Lake, and found good bootpack from dayhikers down to the trailhead after that. The North Lake campground and the road to it are still closed as of 7/4, for reasons unclear since the whole area is quite nice and dry. Hitched a ride back from North Lake trailhead to my car at South Lake and came down to 100F weather in Bishop. Glad to be out. I'm curious to see who braves the JMT this year, and I also feel quite sure in my belief now that early-season PCT is the way to go for those prepared—better to bet on snow in good condition no matter the snow year than to start late and roll the dice on either slush & suncups or wildfires in July and August.

[michaelzim]

thensepia... Great trip report! Look forward to many more like this too. It has 'special significance' for me as it is the route I was intending to take before switching to Piute Pass etc. (ref. my recent trip report) though I had intended to check out McGee Lakes too as that pass over from Evolution Basin is really easy.
I was keenly interested to look at your photos and read your descriptions as they pretty much matched what I suspected conditions to be even though I caught things just before the heat wave really plugged in. I came out on Friday, whereas you went in on Saturday, so indeed you got much "slushier" snow, etc. And yes, the suncups are pretty wild!
Those boot tracks on Lamarck Col trail must have been from other intrepid hikers as the ranger lady and her accomplice would have been long gone by then. From your tale I suspect they made it OK to the McClure station as would have had the better snow conditions.

Again, great report and photos. Thanks much! ~ Michaelzim

[jimmyjamhikes]

Great TR! Amazing that conditions are even more difficult than I was pessimistically expecting. I am taking a big group into Cottonwood Lakes / Miter Basin in a couple of weeks and I am eyeing every bit of intel I can get!

[Flamingo]

@thensepia -- thanks for sharing the TR. Great write up, and useful photos. Cheers!

[Bishop_Bob]

I can imagine how relieved you were to reach the dry bit after Lamarck lakes.

[Wandering Daisy]

You still did the route in amazing time; a good pace even for times when there is no snow. You must have had some really long days. Thanks for the report and wonderful informative photos.

[Jimr]

Great TR. Especially since I know the areas your traveled. What stood out to me most was the melt out around Muir Hut. A true heat sink.

[thegib]

The only thing that keeps me from feeling totally depressed for having missed this spring and early summer in the high Sierra this year is trip reports like this - thank you thensepia.

[giantbrookie]

Wow, that is some intense early season hiking! This illustrates beautifully what we're up against this year. In fact this is why I'm chickening out and staying out of this higher elevation range for at least another month. It is remarkable to see some open water on the lakes in Darwin Canyon, however.

[thensepia]

Thanks all—I reread my post and it does sound like a bit of a struggle (which it was! Muir never disappoints) but it was also, as always, stunning up there in the quiet and I'm very glad I went. Lamark in particular was lovely, I'd never been up there, and a comparatively fun & pleasant level of snow with the sun on my side.