Colosseum Col

[commonloon]

TITLE: Colosseum Col

GENERAL OVERVIEW: Colosseum Col provides a route between the lakes basin below Pinchot Pass (just East of the JMT) and Woods Lake area below Sawmill Pass. It is essentially the saddle between Mount Cedric Wright and Colosseum Mountain.

CLASS/DIFFICULTY: Class 2 with snow likely on north facing slope dependent on the years' snow accumulation.


LOCATION: Kings Canyon Nation Park. HST Map

ELEVATION: 11,500 (ft).


USGS TOPO MAP (7.5'): Mt. Pinchot


ROUTE DESCRIPTION: We started from (NW of pass) the larger unnamed lake below "California Bighorn Sheep Zoological Area" on the Mt. Pinchot 7.5' map. Contoured SE towards the obviously saddle. Follow the drainage past the 3 tarns shown on the map. Some of these tarns may be dried up or smaller than the map indicates. Wait to begin upward travel until the last tarn. We got impatient and went up before the big chute that is the pass and encountered loose talus before dropping into the chute. Don't do this! This large wide chute will likely contain snow. Crampons may be required to walk directly up the chute. You may avoid walking up the chute by using some Class2-3 rock on the edges. My hiking partner used the snow, I used the rock. The snow was firm (mid-October) and the better option. There is a short section of fairly steep snow that some might feel more comfortable with an ice axe. I would say similar, slightly easier than the end bit of Shepherd's Pass. The South side of the pass consist of gentle sandy slopes easily traveled. Simply head towards the lake below. We saw mountain lion tracks!

[commonloon]

Photo of top of Pass.

[Stanley Otter]

Some supplementary photos:

Base at north side of col

Midway up north side of col

Upper portion of north side col showing another view of the snow field

South side of the col

[jimmyjamhikes]

I did this pass in June 2019:

https://jimmyjamhikingclub.com/2019/06/ ... lus-three/

Everything was covered in snow and the pass is low enough angle that it was a straightforward class 2 traverse on both sides with crampons and ice axe.


View from the south, Colosseum Col is the low point far right


View of the south side of Colosseum Col


View of north side of Colosseum Col


Glissade down the north side