Carol Col/Puppet Pass vs Steelhead Pass

[hawkfeather]

I just registered and have a question already. Does anyone here have an opinion on the routes over Carol Col aka Puppet Pass vs Steelhead Pass? My husband and I are planning an itinerary for August. I did CC/PP 10+ years ago; it was my first real knapsack pass and at the time I thought it was pretty wild. Although I/we have done a bunch more since then, we aren't getting any younger! (Last summer we did Crabtree with *really* full packs and found it long and tough. I definitely creaked the day after.) Anyway, I would appreciate any thoughts that you might have.

[quentinc]

I've never done Steelhead Pass. But Carol/Puppet Pass only looks tough. The first time I did it I thought it was tricky too, because I started
out too far south, and there were actually some Class 3 moves needed to traverse. If you look closely, there's a pretty easy route down, starting closer to the round hill that rises up to the north.

[Snow Nymph]

Both were tough with full packs and lots of snow. Last year we lost so much time on water crossings and deep snow we bailed.

Puppet Pass 2005:


At the top of the ridge from Mesa Lake . . . Blue is where we planned to go (Sierra High Route) and Red is where we ended up going (snow was too soft & deep)
http://community.webshots.com/photo/394 ... 7782ATkuzF

Where we dropped in
http://community.webshots.com/photo/394 ... 7782zFlLTc

Starting down
http://community.webshots.com/photo/394 ... 7782ImFbJk



Steelhead Pass 2002:

Close to the top
http://community.webshots.com/photo/429 ... 6011FVYvXt


This is what it looked like going down
http://community.webshots.com/photo/429 ... 6011ebwKJb


Looking back at what we came down
http://community.webshots.com/photo/429 ... 6011iafZtl


Not fun:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/394 ... 7782dmrlEY

[hawkfeather]

Thank you both for your input. Great photos, Snow Nymph! I hope (and expect) that if we end up doing one or the other, there'll be a whole lot less snow. I can't recallthe exact point we started from when I did CC/PP, but I do remember some huge talus blocks near the top and having to lower packs down in one place and then rejoin them..