R03/R01/R04 TR: HST meetup 2016

[Gazelle]

Day 6 7 miles 3629up 3950 down Lake 10541 to meetup location
Worked around huge boulders on the south side of lake to below pass then up a rocky steep scree slope that was not as bad as I expected, along the ridge to Florence did go up the peaklet before just because it was there dropped the pack and up the last little bit to Florence where I could view most of my route for the rest of the day down the south slope to where I hoped I could drop into Hutchings basin this became quite exciting in spots but worked out.

cool cats head rock on way to Florence

florence peak from peaklet before

Sluggo pass and Hutchings basin

the way down to hutchings

Hutchings creek area is fantastic! Worked over to Sluggo pass

sluggo pass

view up hutchings

florence

think I picked a good way up, then went up peak 12113 which has a class ¾ summit block. Down Sluggo pass into the lyell fork and meetup spot, found a great camp spot by the meetup lake.

Lyell fork

camp

Ansel Adams from camp

cont...

[Gazelle]

Day 7 9 miles 4109 up 4109 down meetup spot to meetup spot
Day hiked up into lyell fork to lake 10949 up to Electra peak a little class 3 but fun.

Electra to Rodgers peak

Banner/Ritter/ Davis

Onto Rodgers peak past lake 11815 via south east ridge nothing to difficult. Went down the North face route class 2 loose glad I found it not much information on it. At the bottom I went straight North instead of following the chute yep mistake got a little hairy.

Rodgers North face route follow chute

Traversed around to above upper marie lake

upper marie

and over Rodger pass, found a pretty good way down but very loose and glad I did not have a backpack on!

rodgers pass

Down to Lake 11311 then worked down ledges grassy slope of the beautiful lyell fork back to camp. Had note on tent so at least knew someone was around then met up with Maverick etc, below camp.

yep meetup

Everyone hung out for a while before everyone left me for the lower camp so yes had a beautiful lake all to myself again!

cont...

[Gazelle]

Day 8 8.1 miles 3915 up 4416 down meetup lake to upper twin lakes
Packed up and headed toward Ansel Adams and Foerster was going to go over Foerster pass but the pass east of forester peak looked better so got near the saddle left pack and workrd over to Mount Ansel Adams took the South face route up to the saddle then class 3 to the summit great peak really fun!

Tarn below Ansel Adams.. in cirque between Ansel and foerster

Ansel Adams

Foerster from Ansel Adams

Then back the way I came up to the saddle up Foerster,

From Saddle/pass down to meetup lake and Ansel Adams

Cool Yosemite boundary marker note the date!! on foerster

back to pack and down to Blue lakes

blue lakes

took a bad gully and had to back track some but ended up at the lakes instead of below them which although longer was much more scenic! Down bench canyon up to the beautiful lake

Beautiful lake

before twin island lakes recommend people camp here gorgeous! Like a big dummy went over the ridge and down instead of around NOT the way to go!!! got to upper twin lakes and waded quite shallow then felt crappy so camped there.

lower twin lake

SHR route to lake catherine

upper twin lakes

cont...

[Gazelle]

Day 9 18.1 miles 4484 up 5274 down UTL to minaret summit
Went above twin lakes to see route up to Lake Catherine ended up going more north and not through the trees up and over some small ridges to Rockyroads waterfall, went all the way to the falls where I realized I was to go more to the left sooner as there are some nice cliffs one would have to climb,

the route but I did not take it went more to the left

Waterfalls

From below waterfall

from there it was as easy going for boulders etc to lake Catherine, over North Glacier pass to TI Lake where I got on the Pacific crest trail, then I passed the turn off to agnew pass and didn’t want to go back so I just cross countried up to the ridge that contains San Joaquin mountain and two teats, along ridge to minaret summit where I was going to catch the bus but the lady said it may be awhile and it may be full, I guess an extra mile or so was not to bad but the people in the car behind me stopped and gave me a ride.

San Joaquin and two teats in the distance

Because everyone posts this picture

From San Joaquin

Two Teats

A fantastic peak bagging, almost all off trail trip, cant wait for next years meetup.... plan on a 11 day 30 plus peak adventure!

Thanks for reading Kristine

[notis]

These are so beautiful and seem truly wild. Thank you for sharing.

[maverick]

Thank you for the wonderful TR and pictures Gazelle, well worth the wait.

[Gazelle]

Thanks I really enjoy going to the meetups just another reason to go backpacking and so far we have met up at great spots!!!

[giantbrookie]

Beautiful report and photos. That is a very nice route you did with a great combination of highlights.

[Harlen]

Hey Gazelle, Congratulations on yet another adventurous trip-- Climbing, climbing, climbing!

Thanks so much for posting this. Your photos really are helping us plan our upcoming summer trip into that area; for instance, your fine photo from the plateau south of Mt. Davis has us rearranging our third day hike to reach the same vantage point. We only wish that we could follow you into the amazing high basin of Hutchings Creek, but we'll have our dogs with us.
One question for either you or cgunderson, or ? ... what do you think about the relative difficulty between Rodger's, Marie, and Clinch Passes? I've been over Clinch (easy with kids), and alone over a scary variation of Rodgers Pass (difficult), but never Marie Pass, or the real Rodgers. You and Cameron both mention difficulty re. Rodgers:

Traversed around to above upper Marie Lake and over Rodger pass, found a pretty good way down but very loose and glad I did not have a backpack on!
Gazelle

.... Are you aiming to head back into the Lyell Fork area again and come out Rogers Pass or loop back around Iron Mountain? If it's Rogers, I've gone that way from Marie a couple times and it's a challenging route, possibly made more interesting if there's as much snow as I'd guess there will be.

cgunderson

What do you reckon? We're going with friends who joined us on the High Route passes "Bighorn" and "Shout of Relief" Passes with no trouble, but I wonder if these others have more objective danger? [Note- we'll have rope and rappeling gear]

Thanks again for sharing another of your great trips Gazelle, the Harlens.

[Gazelle]

Harlen,
What are you considering Marie pass? Rodgers pass is not that bad if you take your time and spread out, you could go over towards the more stable rocks it may easier if comfortable with that kind of terrain, steeper but more stable would probably be my choice if I could have seen it from below. Rodgers is definitely looser (harder) in my opinion than Bighorn or shout of relief but no where near as bad as Kaweah pass!
Davis was awesome in my opinion! Would not have minded staying at Marie lake. If Marie pass is between Davis Lakes and Marie lake no harder than class 2.
Hope that answers some questions I also may have other pictures of that area if you need.
Kristine