Any beta on Huntington Col? (or other Hilton Lakes > Pioneer Basin routes)

[erutan]

Secor just says it's a direct class 2-3 route between Pioneer Basin and Hilton Creek Lakes - which either means it's very straightforward or it'll be a class 4 nightmare.

Nothing showed up on me searching the forum or internet, though one person accomplished the goal of connecting the two areas by going up and over Stanford (N): https://pantilat.wordpress.com/2015/10/ ... -stanford/ another on the forum tagged stanford and morgan together which covers the east approach at least: http://highsierratopix.com/community/vi ... sin#p18205

I haven't been into Hilton Lakes before, so was thinking instead of there and backing it to hop over into Pioneer and then get around to Laurel & the lower part of Grinnel basin (looking down at the area while doing Pace Col / Grinnel Pass via Bighorn on a loop from McGee once put it on my list of spots to visit).

[erutan]

Bump

[SSSdave]

I looked at it on Google Earth and the topo and one route looks much more possible than any others. From lake 10353 take the inlet stream and its south fork. Climb the whitebark slope to the ridge line. First crux is crossing the sand and rock face of 12320+ that faces SE so won't be snow.

If from the east saddle to the bump at 12080 you traverse just slightly above that level, you stay on the sweet inclined ramp coming out at 12100. From there on the west side is just one option without cliffs with the crux at 11640 to 11690. Looks probably doable on GE if one monkeys hanging onto vegetation between the loose chutes. Not something in my younger days I would have gambled on because long back track and more straightforward way to reach that area via Mono Pass.

[ExploreABitMore]

I recall a trip report of someone going up and over Mount Huntington. Looks pretty doable. Dropping you off near what I am guessing are some of the less visited lakes of Pioneer Basin.

It's something that has been sitting on my mile long to-do list for some time now

[erutan]

Hanging onto vegitation in loose chutes will get a hard veto from my partner, and it's not something I'm enthusiastic about.

I'm sort of leaning into trying the north fork from 10353 and bagging stanford then either doing the direct route down into pioneer that pantilat described in their report or ridgewalking over to stanford col and forgetting about huntington col. I'll do some more reading into stanford peak, but it looks like the ascent from 10353 is mostly class 2 and the only non-straightforward bit would be the upper couple hundred feet of the western ridge.

I agree it doesn't make sense as the optimal route to get into Pioneer Basin, it's more about tagging a new area into an old one / seeing what's there. Looking at things more it does make more sense to stay low along Piute creek heading in, then xcing from grinnel to hopkins to pioneer basins, which would in turn lend itself more naturally to an exit out of hilton lakes I guess. Grinnel Col seems best done W to E, and I've hopped gone between hopkins and pioneer via mt hopkins, which would be a slog on the E side coming up but is a pleasant jog heading down.

[Harlen]

Hey erutan,

Great area to explore. I highly recommend this TR by Tomba: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9439

I hope it is linked; their's was an interesting route, and the photography in this report is stunning! If you can manage to get into the Grinnell Lakes basin, I'll bet you will think it was worth it. There are many routes in, we've only come in via Laurel Creek, and out via the SHR passes. Coming in from the east ridge routes looks spectacular! Good luck.

[erutan]

Thanks, that trip report was useful - the laurel/hopkins pass seems like it might be better to do E to W actually... so that's nice. Might try that over Grinnel Col. I saw that hanging valley from the top of hopkins and it looked charming, so that'd be a bonus!

I've only been into the very top of Grinnel Basin. Years back I came in via Bighorn and out the pass to red & white lake as part of a lollipop trip (McGee to the Silver Divide / Peter Pande area then hopping over graveyard pass) - it looked really pretty and it's been on my radar since. I remember looking at Grinnel Col (not knowing it was a thing, just eyeing terrain) and wondering if it'd be doable. Everything looks steeper from afar!

At this point I'm thinking of Hilton Lakes > Pioneer Basin > Hopkins Basin > Grinnel Basin > Piute Creek > 3rd/4th Recess lakes > Mono Pass. It'd be a nice mix of my previous McGee lollipop and a loop I've done of North Col > Gabbot > Hopkins > Pioneer > 4th Recess > Mono Pass.

[erutan]

I ended up being spooked by weather (the chance of showers day was quite lightniningy - was planning to use stanford peak as a pass the next day when there was actually supposed to be thunderstorms ~11am). So I passed on this and will probably just do the hilton lakes area as a short trip at some point to fill in gaps and take a look at stanford from that side (or bag it to get a feel for using it as a route in the future).

[kazo-kada]

A year later from the original post by erutan, but, my friend and I had the same idea to connect Hilton Lakes and Pioneer Basin. We made it over a sub-peak on the Stanford-Huntington ridge following this caltopo track found by search. https://caltopo.com/m/3U87. I could not locate the author/TR of this (just turned up on my google search). If anyone knows whose route this is, I would love to know that. This was a part of a 5-day shuttle trip we did last week, connecting the upper Pioneer to Hopkins basin via Crocker col then descended to McGee TH via Hopkins pass. It was a great trip, fishing along the way.

[erutan]

Interesting find Kazo-kada - that's definitely not a col, but it's more direct on the hilton lakes side than just going up Stanford, though Stanford looks like it'd have a great view and is pretty straightforward.

How was the east part of that, pretty straightforward Class 2? The lines are definitely a lot mellower than where I assume the proper Huntington Col is.