Valor Pass

[MichaelRPetrick]

GENERAL OVERVIEW: From Blackcap Basin head towards to Ambition Lake and climb steep slabs to reach hold Valor Lake. Steep talus leads to a broad flat saddle. Descend by first going east and then north towards Martha Lake.

CLASS/DIFFICULTY: Class 2/3

LOCATION: Straddling the LeConte Divide on the border between Sierra National Forest and Kings Canyon National Park HST Map

ELEVATION: 11,600

USGS TOPO MAP (7.5'): Mt. Goddard

ROUTE DESCRIPTION: This description is written heading East to West:

From Martha Lake, head upwards towards the far-right flanks of Mt. Reinstein, and then slowly turn right/north, staying towards center of the low basin draining from the pass. The pass has no obvious low point from below. A member of our party went too far right and ended up unnecessarily on Class 3 terrain. The rock here is broken up, though not terribly talus-y, and is quite solid.

The descent into Blackcap Basin was great fun. We stuck to the north/right side of the creek that feeds Valor Lake. Circling Valor Lake on the north, we kept north of the outlet creek and followed a long series of nearly unbroken steep slabs/dikes to rapidly reach the inlet of Ambition Lake. If it was wet, this slab descent would be considerably less pleasant. A more circuitous or difficult route would be a better bet.

We encountered almost no talus on the west side of the pass, despite Secor's mentioning it. I'm not sure how easy the slab line would be to find from below, but my pictures attempt to point it out.

PHOTOS: Apologies for the poor photos. Light was bad due to monsoonal thunderstorms, so we were not in a photo-taking mood when going over the pass.

Looking back towards Martha Lake from the pass. If descending from the vantage point, bear right before arcing back left/north towards Martha Lake. The close rock in the left foreground is the steeper stuff you'll want to avoid in order to keep things Class 2.

The view West from the pass looking toward Blackcap Basin, with Ambition Lake in the distance. Valor Lake is so near, that it is not visible until you begin descending towards it.

Further down, Valor Lake has come into view. Our route was very nearly in line with the small lake partially visible in the distance.

If it's dry and your boots have good grip, aim to descend towards either of these two slabs running into the Valor Lake - once it comes into view. Or use these as a starting point to ascend, if heading the other direction.

Another wider view of Valor Lake and the end of the first set of slabs that made descending this route a breeze.

The pass from the outlet of Valor Lake. Yes, it was July 4th.

[MichaelRPetrick]

Having just done this pass again last week with a friend who has a VERY keen sense for the edge between Class 2 and Class 3, I will update my rating of the East side of this pass:

Primarily Class 2, but a few Class 3 moves and ledges/short gullies are pretty much unavoidable, though the Class 3 isn't terribly difficult and is thankfully unexposed.

I tried really hard for more than an hour on several ledge systems leading out of both the main gullies coming out of the gentler talus in order to find an all Class 2 route. I couldn't do it and ultimately had to talk my friend up about two sections of 10-15 feet of Class 3.

(I learned about myself: that I don't really notice when Class 2 transitions to Class 3 if there's no exposure on the Class 3 moves.)

[windknot]

Thanks for this update. I confess that I'm not great at distinguishing between Class 2 and Class 3 with no or limited exposure, either.

What also sometimes lends to the confusion on ratings is that for many passes if one does not pick the right route, or misses a key starting place or ending place, then what accurately is a pass with one route that is all Class 2 can easily turn into a Class 3 (or worse) pass.

[erutan]

I'll chime in with some clarification on the class 3 and a few of my own observations.

East Side:

The lower part of the class is trivial slab and grassy ramps.

As we got closer we broke out the monocular to unpack/unflatten the ridge ahead of us. We noticed a slabby area that looked a bit easier than the rest of the cliff band, as well as a sandy chute (that we'd passed by the time I took the photo below). The chute is clearly visible from below and is sandwiched between orange rock. I imagine this would be better if the rock was slick, perhaps to descend vs ascend. Or just personal preference.

east side class 3 options - slabby area in green, hidden sandy chute from this angle in dotted orange

The only cairns I let live on this trip were on this pass. This one marks the bottom of the route we took (stumbled across it after we had eyeballed it as promising). We wiggled left, up, right, up, etc. There were two subtler cairns helping guide this along with the larger ones marking the top and bottom - not entirely necessary but the light touch as well as this being a sort of legitimate choke point stayed my hand.

the bottom of our class 3 up

light touches on some of the wiggles

some straightforward easy 3 - we went up with a weeks food in our packs with no problem

looking up at the crux (it's not that bad) past the previous scramble

this marks the top of our class 3 section - the climb up was between the two boulders in the lower left. all easy chunky 3, no exposure, not much more than 10ft at a time.

The second option that we stumbled on from above is the sandy chute after wandering the ridge a bit for kicks. It looks better than it did from the bottom. There is still some class 3 on this route, the bit in the chute looked like it might be awkward, but one could try cutting out of it early. From the west there's a nice grassy ramp that comes up from a little camp spot above a tiny pond that leads here. It was a bit excessively cairned so we cleaned it up a bit, but still left a few. I imagine this is the more popular route up?

everyone loves a good slog

West Side:

We took a more direct route down than Michael - a dropping NW traverse down to the little (dry when we were there) pond in the inlet creek (the first major gully in contour lines NW of the pass that sandwiches the high ponds). After crossing the creek we gained the ridge and went down. There was -some- talus here, but brief patches of what I'd call broken slab more than your typical talus field. We ended up around the same two granite fins that extend down into the lake.

There's a lot of ways you can do the west side - feel free to CYOA.