Route from Kern Headwaters/LSA over Thunder Pass and Longley Pass

[jhallard]

Hello, I'm putting together a loop that goes from Road's End passed Reflection Lake, over Little Joe's Pass and over to the Kern Headwater's / near Lake South America. I'm trying to complete the loop by heading west uphill to the south side of Thunder Pass, over Thunder pass, over Longley Pass east to west, then do some peak bagging on South Guard and Mt. Brewer before making my way back through Sphinx Lake and back to the trailhead.

Questions
1. How does the trek from LSA to the South side of Thunder Pass look? What are the best places to camp in that region? If I want to optimize for good camping and photography, should I come down from Mt. Ericsson and camp down low or does it make sense to head up closer to the base of the east side of Table Mountain / Thunder Peak?
2. Should I be worried about the cornice below Longley on the east side? I've seen some photos in other threads but they're all from June. I'm not averse to simple class 3 stuff to get around the snow but I will not have an ice axe with me, should I be able to skirt around the cornice to the north side of the pass?
3. Besides Mt. Ericsson / South Guard / Mt. Brewer, anything else worth bagging while I'm over there? I'm recovering from a shattered wrist and have poor wrist flexibility/strength so I can't do intense climbing, but I should have 1/2 a day in the Kern Headwaters, anything worth bagging over here?
4. For Thunder pass.. you just got to send it right? Seems like South to North is the preferred direction, and that coming down the north side you just got to commit to the scree skiing. Anything to be aware of here?

Thanks for your help. I

[thegib]

1 The creek descending from Thunder pass towards Caspar lake is lovely. I'd camp in there.
2 You'll pass the cornice on it's north end if need be. I wouldn't expect any issue.
3 North Guard is considered a better climb then Brewer.
4 Skiing it is the right approach. Just leave the bigger rocks alone.

[Harlen]

jhallard wrote:

4. For Thunder pass.. you just got to send it right? Seems like South to North is the preferred direction, and that coming down the north side you just got to commit to the scree skiing. Anything to be aware of here?

Crap! My long-winded comment was just lost to the ether! I had stated that my own path erred high and to the west. I have only crossed Thunder Pass once, and it was north to south. Since I was intent on climbing Thunder Peak, I was drawn up under the slope of the mountain, but it was steep and loose going. I can locate a photo that may show a better path close to the true low point.

Here it is:

From this photo it looks like everything east of my blue circle shoould be avoided. I reckon the easiest path is to follow the blue arrow. Hopefully, just out of the picture lies a continuation of that soft dirt/scree.

Great route jhallard; best of luck to you, Ian.

[thegib]

Hi Harlen,
Looks to me like I followed the slope directly below your photo. Isn't that Thunder pass proper?

[Harlen]

Hello Gib.,

I am really not sure, I only saw the lower route possibilities as I went up. My initial feeling about that low spot was that it looked kind of sketchy. I should have mentioned that to @jhallard. Thanks for presenting that question, @cgundersen may know..... Cameron?