Carol Col

[rlown]

My trip to the Puppet basin ended up being somewhat special when Paul (meyersp) found this bronze plaque near Carol Col.

Carol's namesake

I couldn't find anything more on the web searching for Carol Ransford, but I'm guessing it was maybe her favorite place.

After doing the Col two ways, and watching a third HST member try the slabs, I thought I'd document where I think the real trail is. I'm not focusing on the South side, because that's easy. North end of Mesa Lk, then up either via Wedge Lk basin or the whaleback above Mesa Lk. The use trail is obvious into the nice meadow before you reach the "cliff." Um, I'll never refer to that place as "Puppet Pass." For me, a pass has a nice trail up and down. This is a nice trail up and then a cliff. Besides, to do Carol justice, it should just be called "Carol Col."

This is the view down on what i think is the right way. It's way to the east just before you start up the peak. Yes, it looks like a sharp drop, but it's better than any of the talus to the left. Heavily used.

Um, is Puppet Lk laughing at me?

Here's two views looking up coming out of Puppet.. The slab cliff is the path. 30 mins from bottom to top.

Lower looking up

Closer now.. The cliff is the key

Here's to Carol Ransford!

[quentinc]

Despite Secor and that plaque, it's always been Puppet Pass to me (has a use trail, practically). It's one thing to name a pass after John Muir, but after someone that even Google hasn't heard of?

[rlown]

not everyone is indexible. good for them.

[meyersp]

After a couple of minutes of googling, I found the following:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1097 ... 9595gHKQrD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the picutre or page had the following caption:

     Originaly set by Carol's friends, including my father and sister in 1976.[/tab]

Looks like someone got a bronze plaque and placed it there. So, I don't know if it is a pass or col.

What I do know is that it is not the safest way to Puppet lake area.

Paul

[windknot]

Neat topic, Russ. I wonder if Carol died there, or this was just one of her favorite places? I scrambled up the slabs to the right (west) on my way up to the pass/column from French Canyon, but I found the "right" trail coming back down (the one in your shots). Didn't see the plaque, but the light was fading as I returned from Humphreys Basin so I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed even if it was right in front of me.

[Ozark Flip]

Wow! A new section! Cool!

I've seen a lot of plaques like this but I am surprised at this one. When in the ranger station I asked about any advise for traversing Puppet Pass from Mesa. They handed me a book. Puppet Pass was not in the book but Carol Col was and it had a neat description of how the column got its name. It did not mention if Carol died on top though.

I was pretty intimidated going over the first time from Mesa into Puppet Basin. I probably spent close to an hour on top looking around for the best way down even with the excellent advise from windknot of how he had accomplished it. I kept to the very far right of the cirque and found the proper way but it wasn't face slapping obvious in the beginning. It is also steeper (on the Puppet side) than Lamark Col which is fresh in my memory from last year.

Neat topic Russ and glad to hear you got it done.

[rlown]

So.. what bugs me the most. Even though someone might not want a memorial plaque embedded in a rock in the backcountry, as shown in the pic that paul found, what's worse is that in the plaque pic we took, it was obviously ripped from the rock it was set into, with something along the lines of an ice axe.

The bend was right along the left set of mount pins in the plate. whomever.. shame, shame.

[edebe]

A 2020 trip report from the family of Carol. Explains how Puppet Pass was given this name.
https://meganandtil.wordpress.com/2020/ ... gust-2020/

[austex]

Thx for passing along the info and bringing Russ to the forefront.