TR: Yosemite Edge Piece (July 7-9, 2023)
Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2024 1:51 pm
Last summer I finally made it to the northwestern edge of Yosemite, an HST favorite that might share more of its personality with Emigrant Wilderness than Yosemite.
Due to the the wild snow year of 2023, water access was not an issue on the Kibbie Ridge section, and the snow was still slowly receding from the higher elevations. We also got very, very lucky that even in mid July, the mosquitos had not taken over. Additionally, there was a controlled burn at Cherry Reservoir, which thankfully stayed mostly away from our travels.
All in all it was a great weekend, though I feel like we saw a great deal of the area and I may not need to go back for a few years.
The full report is here: https://badmountain.org/yosemite-edge-piece
And bits of it are below
As we approached Styx Pass, the views opened up onto miles and miles of granite.
We tried to cross at the north end of Boundary Lake, but were eventually forced to wade its margin. The water was surprisingly warm.
Boundary Lake is pretty.
We climbed the western shoulder of the peak in front of Bartlett (x8219 on the topo). In retrospect, it actually has a nicer view than Bartlett, looking out over the gorgeous chain of lakes we’d be wandering tomorrow.
We contoured around the backside of Bartlett on good if sometimes steep slabs, and then back up to the peak.
We dropped off the east side of Bartlett and started to encounter more and more snow. It was mushy and a bit slippery in the hot afternoon, but we pushed on without issue.
Eventually we popped out above the southern end of the upper Inferno Lake. The terrain had been surprisingly difficult, and we were getting tired. The lake is rimmed by cliffs and already screened in shadow. We weren’t sure how good the camping would be down there, so we set up shop on the slabs above.
We took a sunset walk up to a nice spot and gazed for miles into Emigrant.
It was warm overnight – likely in the 50s. The sun woke us hot and sticky in our tents at 7 AM.
We got ourselves up a ridge and scoped out Nance Peak. The group briefly split into two here, on ideological lines. The "let's climb" team (wrong) went up, and we (right) went down. There was a lot of snow and unfortunately my friend postholed himself straight into a rock that dinged up his calf pretty badly. It... didn't look great. He took stock for a few minutes and was thankfully not much worse for the wear.
We met back up with the full group near the base of the climb to Nance Peak, and off we went up steep but easy forest. The top of Nance Peak is extraordinary: broad and expansive with a shocking amount of air dropping straight off of its southeast side, 2200 feet down to Edith Lake. It’s impossible to show the scale, but this lake is practically half a mile below us.
Some people who are not me sat right on the edge.
Eventually we dropped back down the way we came, and on to Spotted Fawn Lake (in the center of this photo). The going was both easy and sort of annoying in a boulder/brush kind of way.
We worked our way around the west side of the lake, which is so brushy that we waded the entire way. At one point the water was deep enough to lick the bottom of our packs.
We followed the slabs up toward Little Bear Lake.
We wandered down Little Bear's outlet stream, which was magical.
We bottomed out at Bartlett Creek, and were immediately thrust into one of the more deranged terrains (non-talus category) that I’ve encountered in the Sierra. While it looks benign on the map, this group of small lakes are full of mini cliffs, and multitudinous lake arms that must be negotiated. We wandered, seemingly in circles, for a while before finally pausing at a small pond to regroup.
Many Island Lake is the closest one to Kibbie Ridge, and looks to receive a lot of attention, but we had it to ourselves this night.
More glorious slabs.
Morning.
We climbed up a little dome and had amazing views across much of what we had traveled.
From there it was mostly a speed walk back through the forest. The brush was still brushy, but subjectively didn’t seem as bad on the way back. We made it back to the car by a little after noon, and were back to the world shortly.
Due to the the wild snow year of 2023, water access was not an issue on the Kibbie Ridge section, and the snow was still slowly receding from the higher elevations. We also got very, very lucky that even in mid July, the mosquitos had not taken over. Additionally, there was a controlled burn at Cherry Reservoir, which thankfully stayed mostly away from our travels.
All in all it was a great weekend, though I feel like we saw a great deal of the area and I may not need to go back for a few years.
The full report is here: https://badmountain.org/yosemite-edge-piece
And bits of it are below
As we approached Styx Pass, the views opened up onto miles and miles of granite.
We tried to cross at the north end of Boundary Lake, but were eventually forced to wade its margin. The water was surprisingly warm.
Boundary Lake is pretty.
We climbed the western shoulder of the peak in front of Bartlett (x8219 on the topo). In retrospect, it actually has a nicer view than Bartlett, looking out over the gorgeous chain of lakes we’d be wandering tomorrow.
We contoured around the backside of Bartlett on good if sometimes steep slabs, and then back up to the peak.
We dropped off the east side of Bartlett and started to encounter more and more snow. It was mushy and a bit slippery in the hot afternoon, but we pushed on without issue.
Eventually we popped out above the southern end of the upper Inferno Lake. The terrain had been surprisingly difficult, and we were getting tired. The lake is rimmed by cliffs and already screened in shadow. We weren’t sure how good the camping would be down there, so we set up shop on the slabs above.
We took a sunset walk up to a nice spot and gazed for miles into Emigrant.
It was warm overnight – likely in the 50s. The sun woke us hot and sticky in our tents at 7 AM.
We got ourselves up a ridge and scoped out Nance Peak. The group briefly split into two here, on ideological lines. The "let's climb" team (wrong) went up, and we (right) went down. There was a lot of snow and unfortunately my friend postholed himself straight into a rock that dinged up his calf pretty badly. It... didn't look great. He took stock for a few minutes and was thankfully not much worse for the wear.
We met back up with the full group near the base of the climb to Nance Peak, and off we went up steep but easy forest. The top of Nance Peak is extraordinary: broad and expansive with a shocking amount of air dropping straight off of its southeast side, 2200 feet down to Edith Lake. It’s impossible to show the scale, but this lake is practically half a mile below us.
Some people who are not me sat right on the edge.
Eventually we dropped back down the way we came, and on to Spotted Fawn Lake (in the center of this photo). The going was both easy and sort of annoying in a boulder/brush kind of way.
We worked our way around the west side of the lake, which is so brushy that we waded the entire way. At one point the water was deep enough to lick the bottom of our packs.
We followed the slabs up toward Little Bear Lake.
We wandered down Little Bear's outlet stream, which was magical.
We bottomed out at Bartlett Creek, and were immediately thrust into one of the more deranged terrains (non-talus category) that I’ve encountered in the Sierra. While it looks benign on the map, this group of small lakes are full of mini cliffs, and multitudinous lake arms that must be negotiated. We wandered, seemingly in circles, for a while before finally pausing at a small pond to regroup.
Many Island Lake is the closest one to Kibbie Ridge, and looks to receive a lot of attention, but we had it to ourselves this night.
More glorious slabs.
Morning.
We climbed up a little dome and had amazing views across much of what we had traveled.
From there it was mostly a speed walk back through the forest. The brush was still brushy, but subjectively didn’t seem as bad on the way back. We made it back to the car by a little after noon, and were back to the world shortly.
