High Sierra Topix

Wandering Daisy wrote:Sorry, I did not take a camera on this trip. Here is the map.

Someday someone will post some pictures. *sigh* Thanks for the map. I have read about the northern route before, and the eastern route is just about what I figured as the logical way. Good camp suggestion on the east route: I would not have thought of that or known it was there. Nice.

Ladder Lake has always interested me so I was most pleased to find this thread. Here's a photo of Ladder Lake's outlet stream cascading into LeConte Canyon.

Doyle, I thought I could see parts of a trail to the right of the cascade--doesn't show well in photo--but I studied the scene for a long time and wondered, if that was a trail, where it might have taken off from the JMT. Do you have a map showing the trails location?

Anyhow, not too far South from the LeConte Ranger Cabin, you can look up into the hanging valley and see the cascade just below Ladder Lake. That was into the sun, so I didn't take a photo.

Thank you, Wandering Daisy, for your map. I ran across a trip account about crossing Echo Col that has photos showing part of your route and boy did that look like a taylus slog. Your knees must be holding up better than mine.

Eiprahs

I have combed through my photos from the loop trip and found one that might show the Ladder Lake area. I've photoshopped it and added labels that reflect my guesses as to the approximate location of landscape features. I could be wrong though...people should feel free to chime in and correct me. Note that the photos from earlier in my trip report that Doyle thought might be the cascades coming out of Ladder Lake turned out to be similar cascades coming out of the Hester Lake area, which is immediately West of the trail up to lower Dusy Basin. To get a shot of Ladder Lake you have to look sharply SW, diagonally across the canyon.

By taking the southernmost part of my skyline shot and blowing it up, it turns out that I can just see the glint off the water of Ladder Lake. I've highlighted it in the englargement below in bright blue and labeled it in red.

Don't be confused by the shadowed slope in the bottom left of the enlargement--that is on the East side of LeConte Canyon and partly blocks the view of the outlet area of Ladder Lake. The photo makes more sense when you realize I am well to the NE of Ladder lake and shooting at a fairly sharp angle to the canyon.

Someday someone will post some pictures. *sigh* Thanks for the map.

As long as I survive my hike as planned this summer I will bring back detailed photos and descriptions.

Kpeter, I think your first picture has the correct location of Ladder Lake. The blowup lake location is more like WD's camp spot (see map). You can see water cascading down from Ladder Lakes outlet. I wish Ladder was that easy to get to!

Found this picture of Ladder Lake:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2923 ... 4913MKgxLs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Back in the least visited lake thread Maverick posted a great shot of Ladder Lake but the link now says content protected by owner.

Thanks Doyle, I think you are right, but now I am mystified as to what that substantial pool of water could be. A closer look finds the outlet falls from Ladder Lake, though, so this pretty well settles the matter. Here is another try at labeling things.

kpeter, I think you have it right now. As for the pool of water, I bet WD could answer that question having camped near there (see map in this thread) and one of the few I know who has been there. Hester Lake is beginning to look good to me too.

I am not sure what you labeled as water is water. I do recall a few swampy areas/meadows down there and in a high snow year like last year, it well could be a shallow melt pond. Also, given the runoff last summer, it is possible that some debris was trapped and dammed up some water. Ladder lake is definitely the higher bench.

DoyleWDonehoo wrote:Kpeter, I think your first picture has the correct location of Ladder Lake. The blowup lake location is more like WD's camp spot (see map). You can see water cascading down from Ladder Lakes outlet. I wish Ladder was that easy to get to!

Found this picture of Ladder Lake:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2923 ... 4913MKgxLs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doyle, I finally figured out how to access the whole 22 picture set that you referenced with this link. There is a link to the album under the picture. It looks like the folks who took those pictures pretty much followed WD's route.

Using WD's wonderful map and description, and illustrating a few points along the way with those photographs, can give a pretty good idea of what is involved and what some of the visual rewards might be. Hester lake and the talus slog
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2816 ... 4913UjghmS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
does not seem like my cup of tea, but Ladder Lake certainly looks pretty.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2331 ... 4913tqJMat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The photographs show the backpackers lowering packs down a ledge on the climb down.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2807 ... 4913kueLtA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It would certainly be slow going.

WD: I keep blowing up my picture in my photo editor (much clearer than what I can upload) and staring at the area where I think I see water. It is right at the edge of the morning shadow, so perhaps the optics are playing tricks on my eyes. But at extreme close range it certainly looks like water.

Here is a better shot of the area that does seem to have been taken with a telephoto from out of the album that Doyle linked, although it doesn't really solve any mysteries:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2258 ... 4913NxhCFQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;