High Sierra Topix

You will have plenty of time for a wonderful day-hike to the upper lakes on Darwin Bench.

You can also climb Mt. Goddard from Ionion Basin if for some reason weather scrubs your first choice. I climbed Mt. Goddard from the small ponds north of Martha Lake on the west side of Goddard. It goes, but is not a highly recommended route (lots of loose stuff down low).

If you are going light, get an early start, and are pre-aclimated you could get to down to the string of lakes below Lamark Col on Day 1. The advantage of this is that you go up over the snowfield on Lamark Col in the late afternoon when the snow is softer. If there is no snow, this of course is not an issue. There are even flat spots near a little creek about half way down from Lamark. When I did this route, my plan was to get over the Col, but I ended up altitude sick so had to stop at the tarn on the east side. At any rate, there are plenty of options to deal with afternoon storms or altitude sickness.

these photos were taken in Aug 15-16 2006 so you can get an idea of the conditions. There will be less snow this year, but given last years 200% snowpack and the tendency of Ionian Basin to hold snow I suspect that you may have to deal with some very hard old snow that remains from last year.


Camp below Scylla


View towards Lake 11818 from Reinstein Pass


Approaching Lake 11818


View back at Lake 11818 on way to lake below Scylla


Lake below Scylla bench


map of route

Here is a scan of my route notes. Not saying my choice of route was the best. This is a 6MG file I can send you if you send me a PM.

Thank you Wanderingdaisy. Your pictures are beautiful and I appreciate the details of your route through the Ionian Basin. I especially like the photo of your camp at the lake just below Scylla. I was considering the alternative approach up Goddard starting from the east slope (from lake 12,240 on the Ionian side), but hadn't even thought about the west side. Your climb up Goddard from the west is impressive. I sent a PM, thanx again, Andy.

Bluewater wrote:@tim, that photo of Davis Lake from way up the southern slope gives a great perspective. From the looks of it I would have hit an impassable cliff. Here's a quick detail map of the better way, does this look right?

Yes I think so, though I've not studied the route to Martha Lake in detail, as I was focused on going down N Goddard Creek

Thanks again Tim. Much appreciated!

Bluewater wrote: I have micro-spikes. Do you think it's 'worth getting some lightweight crampons or just bring the micro-spikes?

I have microspikes and lightweight crampons, but I don't bring both nor am I an expert.

My personal experience was that microspikes are most effective on very hard snow or ice that does not require kick stepping. They bite quite well into ice. I could walk up 35-40 degree fields under those circumstances quite easily. So walking over a few miles of snow on the trail over Muir Pass early in the morning was a cinch.

However, I think I would be reluctant to use them on even steeper angles simply because the elastic bands that hold them on can slip and slide around a little. I'd be worried that they might shift at a very high angle.

Also, as the snow softens the microspikes become worthless. They just don't bite deep enough into softer snow to make any difference. Crampons with toe spikes are obviously better for softer snow, and the toe spikes are much better for kicking toe steps when it is steep.

One advantage to the microspikes. I did not feel I had to take them off as often as my aluminum crampons. The light weight crampons really shouldn't be used on rock, and I found last summer a lot of alternating between snow and rock was necessary. While it is probably not great to wear the microspikes on too much rock, they are stainless steel instead of aluminum and will hold up somewhat better. They also are amazingly easy to put on and take off compared with the crampons.

Thanks for the comparison of microspikes vs crampons. I am seriously considering buying microspikes. The only issue I take is the angle of the snow. I think we all tend to over-estimate angles. When I am on a 70-degree technical climb, I swear it is vertical! I am always surprised when I actually take out ruler and calculate the slope angle from topo maps- they are always lower than I would suspect from "look" alone. 40-degree snow is REALLY steep! I somewhat doubt you could use microspikes on that. I would guess 30-degrees is more of the limit.

It is good to hear that microspikes work well on ice. I am doing a long trip in the Wind Rivers this summer and have to cross a few glaciers. I really hate to haul my heavy crampons for 12 days to do a few hours worth of travel. I am a bit confused because opinions of microspikes seem to vary from very useful to useless. Guess I will just have to try them out myself.

Wandering Daisy wrote:Thanks for the comparison of microspikes vs crampons. 40-degree snow is REALLY steep! I somewhat doubt you could use microspikes on that. I would guess 30-degrees is more of the limit.

You are most likely right. My mental calculation was that it was definitely a bit less than a 1:1 slope ratio, which would have been 45%, but how much less it is hard to say.

One anecdote might illustrate. At one point I was a few hundred yards below Piute pass which was still filled with snow in late July. I got to a point where the horsepackers had begun (but not finished) to dig a trail through the snow. They had a 10 foot wide, fairly deep trench traversing the upper snow bank for a couple hundred feet at the top. For some reason, the cut did not end gradually but abruptly, and you had to climb straight up the snow bank to get from the trail below to the beginning of the cut above.

I reached this point very early in the morning when the snow was rock solid and glazed with solid ice from the melt of the day before. The bank was too steep and icy to make even a few feet with boots and poles alone. I put on my spikes and walked straight up to the cut as if it were a granite slab or chunk of concrete.

Wandering Daisy wrote: It is good to hear that microspikes work well on ice.

I would say they work well on ice so long as you can keep your feet flat on the ground. For example they were great on my trip to Pear Lake in November when the Watchtower trail was a river of ice. I wouldn't have been so happy above about a 20-25 degree angle.