Quick TR 5 Days from Lake Sabrina 8-12 to 8-16-21

[robertseeburger]

Well, I usually like to plan longer trips. Being retired, I dont like the "overhead" of packing and driving up to a trailhead and driving back, plus the inevitable difficulties of day 1 and day 2 with fatigue. So, I prefer to have longer trips ( 10-14 days) where I endure the difficulties of day 1 and day 2 but free totally free on days 3 thru X. But...personal circumstances did not allow a longer trip.
I had hoped to make a loop trip from Lake Sabrina, over a pass that is not named, through Ionian Basin, and back of Echo Col.
I have joked in previous posts that every year I try to make it to Ionian Basin, and every year I dont make it.
It looks like this year is a repeat. Oh well.

So, I had a permit for 12 days, but now I had only five days. What to do? I developed an improvised plan using the permit.
The plan was to do a small portion of the intended 12 day trip, going over the pass, also seeing Echo Lake, which I had not been to since 1980.

So, I left home at 8AM, got to Lake Sabrina at 2PM, and was hiking by 2:30.
A view of Lake Sabrina..the water level doesnt look as bad as I thought it might. I think it was lower in 2015.

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And a classic view of Mount Thompson over Blue Lake. I am used to seeing more snow on the glacier.
I climbed Mount Thompson in a day hike in the early 1980's, after having seen this view, and after reading that Norman Clyde had climbed Mount Thompson 50 times. If he liked it that much, then it must be a good peak to climb and it was. I saw his signature in the register.

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I made it to Dingleberry Lake by early evening and was satisfied. Tired but not too tired.
The next couple of days would be cross country. The first step was to get to Bottleneck Lake. It looks easy on the map but there are several
"micro cliffs" not visible on the map.

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The ranger who issued the permit to me suggested ( without me asking..this was valuable) that I go up the trail a ways from Dingleberry Lake and cut back rather than going straight up to the gap between Dingleberry and Bottleneck. I did this and a path presented itself.

The next step was to go from Bottleneck to Shober Hole Lakes. A few across Bottleneck to Fishgut Lakes.

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Here is the largest of the Shober Hole Lakes.

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And finally I made it to the Upper Shober Hole Lake where I camped. Not many people get here. I had my usual day 2 blues (fatigue) but made it OK.

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Sunset. I think this lake basin has kind of a unique amphitheater like look.

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The objective now was to go over the "shoulder" between Upper Shober Hole Lake and Darwin Bench. I had seen a post by Leor Pantillat ( sp?) that showed that this was doable. I had originally planned to do this as a backpack, but now time dictated that this be a day hike.
So I headed up toward the shoulder. ( I say shoulder because there are passes, on both left and right, that have steep cliffs and are higher than class 2.
However if you go up in between, I thought you could keep it at class 2, which was the case. I remember seeing a post from Wandering Daisy where she found someone who missed Lamarck Col and came over the steep northern pass and it was very difficult.)

Here is the objective..looking over upper Shober Hole Lake. I cut left and then right and went basically over the high point in the middle.

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A picture going up the shoulder.

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And another. I went straight up the center and returned a little to the right.
I believe there are many class 2 options to do this.

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Mount Darwin comes into view near the top. I had some illusions of climbing Mount Darwin but decided it would take too much time and I wasn't physically up to it, plus the previous two days there had been late afternoon thunderstorms.

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A view back toward Shober Lake Basin from the top. North Palisade and Mount Sill visible on the horizon.

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[robertseeburger]

Continuing.

A view from the pass to Lamarck Col.

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And a view from the pass ( shoulder) to Darwin Bench Lakes..

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And a view toward Mount Darwin. I am used to Darwin glacier being totally white.

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Descending from this shoulder was very very easy. Class 1. In fact the west side is easier than descending from Lamarck Col.
But you connect with the route descending from Lamarck Col and get the more traditional view of the lakes below.

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I mentioned thunderstorms. I went to the upper lakes and had lunch there and enjoyed the peace and quiet. But I hastened to return to beat the thunderstorms. I barely made it. I cut it too close. Clouding up..

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I next just wanted to return to Echo Lake. The next day I retraced my steps to Bottleneck and started toward Echo Lake.
A picture of Moonlight Lake.

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The final ascent up the cascade to Echo Lake.

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And I finally made it to Echo. I had gone over Echo Col above many years prior.. I know I could do it again, but from this view,,it looks HARD..
maybe just getting old.

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Another view of Echo Lake. I wanted to return..just cuz I had fond memories from years past.

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Camp at Echo.. last night.. Haze getting worse, but overall on the trip not too bad.

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And walking out... just a view toward Haeckl.

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Well, I didnt make it to Ionian Basin but I did get out there and saw some neat country. I am seeing some titles of trips from WD and Harlen
on Tunemah country that I haven't read yet, but look at with envy.
Oh well wait till next year!

And I made it over the pass I wanted to try. Perhaps it deserves a name. I am thinking Shodar shoulder, or perhaps Darsho shoudler.
In any event there is a class 2 way to get over from Lake Sabrina to Darwin Bench which may have some attractiveness for some people for trip planning.
I would characterize is as class 2 only..no class 3 at all. It is sustained class 2 though, all the way from Dingleberry to Shober Hole Lakes to the pass ( shoulder) to where it meets the west side of Lamarck Col. It isn't for everyone, but it is doable.

[giantbrookie]

Nice photos of territory seldom visited. The photos are the most definitive I've seen of the shoulder from Schober to Darwin Canyon and they very clearly show the nature of the terrain. I plan on taking my full pack over that shoulder next summer.

[texan]

Thanks for the TR. I have been over Echo Col before too and it wasn't hard you just have to take your time. Also I have never seen Echo Lake with so little snow or no snow like this year. I am curious if the rainbows are still in there. Thanks again for the report.

Texan

[cgundersen]

Hi Robert,
Nice work on that route! Many moons ago, my wife and I introduced our "flower girl" (from our nuptials) to the Sierra with a trip to Bottleneck and the Schober Holes and we've not been back since then. Part of the reason is that my estimation of the difficulty of the possible routes out of that area led me to think it was not worth further consideration (OK, unlike you, I never climbed up to have a look, it was panning with binoculars). You clearly convinced John to give it a whirl, and I may follow suit one of these days (well, after giving Blue Canyon/Tunemah another shot). Yes, I know that Echo col has its fans, but I'm not one of them. Once and done was fine by me! I'll look forward to your v.2! Cameron

[giantbrookie]

You clearly convinced John to give it a whirl, and I may follow suit one of these days (well, after giving Blue Canyon/Tunemah another shot). Yes, I know that Echo col has its fans, but I'm not one of them. Once and done was fine by me! I'll look forward to your v.2! Cameron

Actually I was already dead set on taking a full pack over that shoulder as part of the 'exploratory' aspect of a future trip originally slated for 2023, but now that I can see how mellow the terrain is, I'm planning on a 4-day in-and-out trip next year as a conditioning hike for the planned 2022 feature trip preliminarily tagged as Splitarrowboose, for which I will need a lot of conditioning. I had first thought of the shoulder back in 1994 when I missed Lamarck Col a bit from the west and ended up looking down this route. I remember thinking at the time that it was too bad we were headed for North Lake instead of Sabrina because the descent looked pretty straightforward. Nonetheless when you're looking down it is always possible that you're missing some vanishing points. I think there had been one post somewhere that showed some photos, I recall of the rather gnarly saddle to the south, but I couldn't find any photos that really showed the terrain of the preferred route until now.

Regarding Echo, it always looked unappealing to me, but I hadn't tried it. I did Haeckel Col back in 1977 and I think I crossed a bit too close to the low point so the east side top move was very athletic class 3 with a full pack. I still have hiker's PTSD about that crossing, but it seems to me Haeckel Col, if done right, is vastly better than Echo and is way more convenient for folks who want to find a route from Sabrina Basin to Evolution/Goddard country (Echo drops one E of Muir Pass). Still, the lingering memories of Haeckel, such as the extender bar on my external frame pack (don't use external frame pack anymore) getting caught on the roof above the last ledge and having to lean out backwards to make the last move onto what proved to be a knife edge crest, made me think of the northernmost crossing (ie shoulder above Schobers) as the crest-crossing route from Sabrina to the greater Evolution area. Then again my 2023 maybe I'll consider a loop route in which I cross both passes (probably Schober first then return by Haeckel).

Anyhow getting back to the post, this is really neat not only for showing the shoulder route over, but also for showing that pocket valley that holds the Schobers (+ Bottleneck + Fishguts). For some reason I've never done it, although it has long looked attractive to me on the topo map.

[erutan]

I’ve found it pretty easy heading up from ~dingleberry outlet to bottleneck directly, you angle up a bit and there’s a wide talus chute with some grassy patches you can CYOA up to the saddle going into the middle of Bottleneck. It’s easier than going to fishgut lakes and then up through the bottleneck to bottleneck.

I haven’t done it, but there’s another route from Sabrina to Lamarck Col - from upper Schoeber cut into the northern part of the Y and then exit on the east side of Lamarck Col. We were looking down it in 19 and saw a bit of a social path. It’s probably not as ideal as the direct route into Darwin Canyon, but it’s an alternative.

[windknot]

Bob, thanks for this great report and photos. Very cool to see that that route from Sabrina to Darwin Canyon goes, after having scrutinized it myself on the topo and up close in person (on both sides) at various points.

Erutan, I agree that I didn't find it too difficult to go directly up from Dingleberry to Bottleneck (though I started from the inlet, not the outlet). With that said, I'll beg to differ on the difficulty of your other proposed route from Sabrina to the east side of Lamarck Col. That looks very steep on the topo!

[Bishop_Bob]

I've seen many of us on HST declare a long-held desire to make it up to Ionian. Maybe we should band together in 2022 and make it happen!

[kpeter]

I enjoyed your report. Have been to Schober Lakes and Echo but not above them as you have. Interesting to see the views from beyond my furthest reaches.