High Sierra Topix

SSSdave wrote:cc to Hortense Lake, cc to Tully Lake, cc over Shout of Relief could climb Izaak Walton Peak,

Sheesh, dave, I'd hate to see one of your strenuous trips!
We went from Larch Lk. to Cotton Lk. a few years ago - that country south of Shout-of-Relief was pretty broken up. Of course, if one dropped towards Rosy Finch you'd bypass the worst of it.
Can you roughly describe your route to Hortense? I asked about that lake last year on HST and it seemed info was pretty sketchy.

Telkwa wrote:

SSSdave wrote:cc to Hortense Lake, cc to Tully Lake, cc over Shout of Relief could climb Izaak Walton Peak,

Sheesh, dave, I'd hate to see one of your strenuous trips!
We went from Larch Lk. to Cotton Lk. a few years ago - that country south of Shout-of-Relief was pretty broken up. Of course, if one dropped towards Rosy Finch you'd bypass the worst of it.
Can you roughly describe your route to Hortense? I asked about that lake last year on HST and it seemed info was pretty sketchy.

I did Hortense from Fish Creek headwaters in 2003. We passed Cotton Lake, dropped down to Izaak Walton--that part is all pretty straightforward. Rounded the west side of Izaak Walton and then wound generally up and northwest, following a nice system of mini-valleys, to the ridge east of the easternmost point of Hortense; then a steepish drop down a broad gully to the lake.

From Hortense the next day we headed up top of the east ridge at the isthmus, where we picked up a ducked route heading more or less northwest down to the flats at Fish Creek. No need to cross Fish Creek if you come this way--the use trail continues to the bridge.

By the way, for my money Hortense is one of the two prettiest lakes on the Silver Divide (Peter Pande is the other one).

If you'd like a change of scenery everyday try: TH Lake Edison, take JMT south over Selden Pass down to junction with French Canyon/Piute Pass trail. Continue up French Canyon to Pine Creek Pass, then up Granite Park to Italy Pass and down to Lake Edison. Or do it in reverse. About 50 miles total and this trip has it all. Lake and stream fishing (including goldens) High Country galore and 13,000' peaks abound in the Lake Italy area. Not much cross-country with the exception of some scrambling around Italy Pass. You would need two permits for this trip (TH & Italy Pass).Good Luck!

Telkwa wrote:

SSSdave wrote:cc to Hortense Lake, cc to Tully Lake, cc over Shout of Relief could climb Izaak Walton Peak,

Sheesh, dave, I'd hate to see one of your strenuous trips!
We went from Larch Lk. to Cotton Lk. a few years ago - that country south of Shout-of-Relief was pretty broken up. Of course, if one dropped towards Rosy Finch you'd bypass the worst of it.
Can you roughly describe your route to Hortense? I asked about that lake last year on HST and it seemed info was pretty sketchy.

That's just a moderate trip for 6 days at less than 40 miles and 7,000 feet of total altitude gain. Its all class 1 except for Shout of Relief Pass that is modest class 2 at the top on the north side. And route finding is nothing special as long as one is checking topos. Tom pretty much layed out the route to Hortense from Cotton, all class 1. Go to Mace and turn that little knob north on the east. Likewise from Fish Creek following the outlet out of Hortense looks class 1 though I personally haven't gone that way. Actually if I were personally going that way I'd try cc from the creek out of Squaw Lake leaving at about 9500 feet up the obvious diagnonal set of benches due east thus removing about 400 feet of uphill.