Before starting on the TR, the pre-trip was awesome: on the fight from Seattle to Reno, I sat next to none other than Conrad Anker, perhaps the world’s greatest living, active mountaineer. Now that was an interesting conversation! He was going to Bishop to hang with Peter Croft, doing laps on the Palisades as 'vacation.' After that was 5 days of geology (and beer) in Bridgeport with the likes of giantbrookie.
- giantbrookie, anon, me with Stone IPA
Most of the trip was unremarkable: Day 1 Pine Ck. trail into Granite Park. For me the high point was going to be Granite-Bear Pass (GBP) on day three as that would be something new. On day two (rest day) we ran into HST member skywalker and all went up to Italy Pass (he continued to Bear Lk's.), did the slog up Julius Caesar, and walked the ridge between Granite Park and Chalfant Lakes. But I had a funny feeling about GBP as it looked like the snow completely filled the upper reaches.
- Granite Bear Pass
So we set-out to get a better look. The closer we got the closer I had to get. On reconn, we ended up going up the pass on the far right, as the scree was a bit more locked against the right wall. About half way up, we moved onto the main talus bar, just right of the snow. I continued up until the snow filled the pass. I then climbed down into the moat to see if it was passable.
- Wife coming up into main talus bar, half way up
After kicking snow bridges into the moat, the moat became deeper with vertical walls. This is extremely dangerous, if the moat breaks through, one would be in a vertical pin. To continue I did a couple of low-class 5 moves on crappy rock and actually topped out on the pass, but knew that would not be possible with a pack on. I went back down and rejoined the wife on the talus. But I did not want to give up, so after going back down to the bottom of the snow I went back up the left side. Near the top, again the snow completely filled the pass and the moat was even in worse shape. SO- if interested in GBP, either come prepared to take on the steep snow at the top, or come a few weeks later in the year.
Damn! After almost climbing the pass twice on the ‘rest’ day it was not going to go. Maybe if I had alpine boots for kicking proper steps and an ice axe we could brave the upper thirty feet of snow on the right side, but without that, no way (I am very leery of steep snow without proper equipment, in the Pacific Northwest where I live, steep snow is a killer, and if nothing else, will leave you weeping with fear. Give me steep rock any day). After talking over the risk vs. reward calculation, we reluctantly decided to go the alternate route.
So the next day we went over Italy Pass to Vee Lk. via Bear Lakes. I don’t find this route interesting- from the standpoint of a physical and route finding challenge, or geological or visual standpoint.
Next day we went up past Den Lk. towards Feather Pass and ran into HST regulars: Calipidder and Trailtrekker06, who had teamed up with skywalker, as they were heading east. That night the weather started to break, giving some visual interest to the sky, and the next day we went from Vee Lk. to Feather Pass via Den Lk., contouring above Bear Lks. Much better route in my opinion. We continued down past Merriam Lk. to French Canyon, over Pine Ck. Pass and camped near the small lake (pond) at about 10,550 ft. Next day out to car at Pine Creek. Passed a packer (female) leading an unloaded horse and boy, was she rude. Just saying.
Lastly, with that full moon, it was very, very bright at night at Vee Lk. So bright it was hard to sleep...
