Requesting Beta on Gardiner Pass East

[Alpinista55]

Not to be morbid, but isn't the pass NW of Gardiner exactly where Gregory Muck died a couple of summers ago?

Yes, but the news stories didn't say whether he fell while crossing the pass, or maybe while ascending the ridge towards Gardiner's summit. In any case, I would still love to hear from anyone who has actually crossed the pass.

[vandman]

I considered this pass as a shortcut from the lower lakes below gardiner pass, but it looked too dicey with a full pack, so my brother and I took the scenic route, which was a long slog, but worth the extra time. Beautiful country!

[Cross Country]

I wonder what makes a pass change so much. I went over the pass 3 times in the 90s and it was just plain easy. From the pass I went up once and down twice on Charlotte creek and that was a little bit difficult.

[zbernstein]

I went over this pass, west to east, on July 30. Made for a fun little high route through the basin: Gardiner Pass, Gardiner Pass East, 60 Lakes Col. It's an unproblematic Class 2. One minor thing to be aware of: the approach on the west seemed easiest on the north side of the pass, but the only way down on the east was on the south side of the pass. Fortunately, the ridge itself can easily be traversed.

[maverick]

Thanks for the beta zberstein, and welcome to HST!

[gscfire33]

Wanted to re-up this post as I am considering a loop that would go over Gardiner Pass East. My thinking is to do a single-day push starting at Onion Valley to Rae Lakes Basin (up and over Kearsarge and Glen Passes), then from Arrowhead Lake go up Basin Knotch into 60 Lakes, then over 60 Lakes Col into Gardiner Basin. From there I would ideally head up to Gardiner Pass East, traverse to Gardiner Pass, and then out via Charlotte Lake and back to Onion Valley.

Looks to be ~35 miles and ~10k elevation. I'm accustomed to long single-day pushes of this nature with cross-country travel and am comfortable on Class 3 scrambling and steep snow (looking to do this in late June, so recognize there will likely be snow, especially on north side of the passes), so not terribly worried about the distance/elevation gain. The crux of the route looks to be Gardiner Pass East -- this forum is the only bit of beta I've seen on it and would love to gather some additional beta if possible. Helpfully, I could always bail out the longer, more traditional way of the Gardiner Basin "Trail" if things look sketchy, but was hoping to cut off some of those tedious miles.

Appreciate any beta or other helpful advice folks might have.

[maverick]

Found this with a quick search.

taylamkin wrote:

One thing to consider is that a lot of these passes were first graded when they were more consistently covered in snow, and conditions have changed a lot since then, especially on the NE side of the passes. Last summer (2023) we went over Gardiner Pass East, which had steep snow in late July. We roped up as I am not as experienced in ascending snow (also obligatory crampons/ice axes), but it felt far safer and more protectable than Hinman. Maybe we would have had a better experience on Hinman if it were in similar condition!

viewtopic.php?p=184631&hilit=Gardiner+Pass+East#p184631

[maverick]

Additionally:

whittiger25 wrote:

Attached are pics of the East pass east side first. We actually went west to east, not sure why the ordre got switched when uploading.

On our way down of gardiner pass east, we stayed toward the climbers left, in the second pic you can see the ledges we picked our way through, following a narrow ledge all the way to the left bottom of the pic. Looked easier than the steeper stuff on right (left on pic), however looking at it now it looks like you can easily wrap around those cliffs to the left, then hang back right.

viewtopic.php?p=158255&hilit=Gardiner+pass+east#p158255

[limpingcrab]

It's easy and straightforward when it's dry, but sketchy in the snow. The one time I did it in the snow it wasn't that top part that was a little spooky (it was easy enough to stay on rocks) but it was the big snow field below it. It was steep and long enough that if someone slipped and wasn't able to stop they'd probably pick up a ton of speed before hitting the rocks.

Short version, I found it easy and standard scree walking without snow, but with snow I was wishing I had some way to self arrest and considered waiting for it to soften up later in the day.