Looking for intel on Gardiner Pass and Gardiner Pass East

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hisdudeness47
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Looking for intel on Gardiner Pass and Gardiner Pass East

Post by hisdudeness47 »

Hey there, I'm going to be in Gardiner Basin next week, entering via 60 Lakes Col, but I'm trying to decide how I'm going to exit. I'm trying to make it from Gardiner Basin to Kearsarge Lakes in a day (might stop at Charlotte). Gonna be a big one whichever way I choose.

Option 1 is to just exit the way I came in, via 60 Lakes Col, then to Rae Col/Glen Pass which would be the familiar/easier way because that's the way I'm coming in.

Option 2 would be to exit W/SW from Lake 11407 (Also called Gardiner Lake?) over Gardiner Pass East (http://www.highsierratopix.com/high-sie ... =2&zoom=14) and then on to Gardiner Pass (http://www.highsierratopix.com/high-sie ... =2&zoom=14).

Gardiner Pass info: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=8530

Gardiner Pass East info: http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... hp?t=13969

A few questions...

1. There's really not that much information about Gardiner Pass East out there, which makes me hesitant. I did find a track for the route I'm looking at (https://caltopo.com/m/HLML) but I'm not sure if this is a track or a plan. Does anyone have any beta about Gardiner Pass East out there? It says Class 2 on the HST map, but I'm not sure if I believe it! I think I need a little more information to be confident in this route. Otherwise I'll have to make a judgement call when I'm out there...

2. The main Gardiner Pass looks tough but doable. There's a lot more info on it, with gpx's galore, and the trail is actually on the map (https://caltopo.com/m/HLML) which is nice. However, I'd still love to hear any beta about it from people who have done it. What was your experience?

Any information on Gardiner Pass or Gardiner Pass East would be amazing. Thanks!
Last edited by hisdudeness47 on Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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cgundersen
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Re: Looking for intel on Gardiner Pass and Gardiner Pass East

Post by cgundersen »

Hey dude,
I already responded concerning GP East, and if you try it out, I'll be curious how it goes. It has looked a notch beyond my comfort zone, so be careful up there! But, for Gardiner itself, the last time through that area (~4 years ago), my buddy and I ascended the north side (we had camped at the uppermost large lake in that arm of Gardiner basin the night before) with no problem. The use trail is still pretty clear, and though it's overgrown in places, it's nothing challenging. On the south side of the pass, a fire had burned through the canyon a couple years before, and that made it difficult to keep track of the remnant trail. We eventually dropped off the hillside and found bits of use trails down in the canyon leading to Charlotte. We did make it all the way to Kearsarge Lakes, so that's certainly a "doable" target. But, I'm guessing folk with better technology have been through there since then, so see if they can give you better info. Cameron
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hisdudeness47
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Re: Looking for intel on Gardiner Pass and Gardiner Pass East

Post by hisdudeness47 »

cgundersen wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 1:11 pm Hey dude,
I already responded concerning GP East, and if you try it out, I'll be curious how it goes. It has looked a notch beyond my comfort zone, so be careful up there! But, for Gardiner itself, the last time through that area (~4 years ago), my buddy and I ascended the north side (we had camped at the uppermost large lake in that arm of Gardiner basin the night before) with no problem. The use trail is still pretty clear, and though it's overgrown in places, it's nothing challenging. On the south side of the pass, a fire had burned through the canyon a couple years before, and that made it difficult to keep track of the remnant trail. We eventually dropped off the hillside and found bits of use trails down in the canyon leading to Charlotte. We did make it all the way to Kearsarge Lakes, so that's certainly a "doable" target. But, I'm guessing folk with better technology have been through there since then, so see if they can give you better info. Cameron
Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I thought making a separate thread devoted to Gardiner Pass and Gardiner Pass East might make for more focused responses. I really would like to know how it is from those that have been. It's the crux of the trip!
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Re: Looking for intel on Gardiner Pass and Gardiner Pass East

Post by CAMERONM »

I will be interested to hear about how you do on the East pass. I can tell you that Gardiner Pass has many different use trails to the south and to Charlotte Lake, and I would trust your nose more than any single GPS track you might find. Some of the trails die into impossible brush, some are too steep, etc.
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whttiger25
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Re: Looking for intel on Gardiner Pass and Gardiner Pass East

Post by whttiger25 »

I've pretty much done this exact trip, expect from the west at Road's end. The climb out of Bubb's creek around Charlotte dome was rough, steep, lots of shrubs, and an accidental need ot hike directly up a cascading stream whiel being attacked by mosquitos. The pass from this side is straightforward, and it was easy to find the use route through the steeper rocks on the north side. We then headed east to the col leading into Gardiner basin. This was also steep but nothing dangerous. We popped out on the other wide onto a steep snow slope. It was late afternoon and hte snow was soft enough to heelstep into, but if icy you would need an ice axe. Probably find this year but I'd bring spikes. I remember a somewhat complicated descent from there but nothing bad. Beautiful, beautiful area.

Attached are pics of the East pass east side first. We actually went west to east, not sure why the ordre got switched when uploading.

On our way down of gardiner pass east, we stayed toward the climbers left, in the second pic you can see the ledges we picked our way through, following a narrow ledge all the way to the left bottom of the pic. Looked easier than the steeper stuff on right (left on pic), however looking at it now it looks like you can easily wrap around those cliffs to the left, then hang back right.
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hisdudeness47
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Re: Looking for intel on Gardiner Pass and Gardiner Pass East

Post by hisdudeness47 »

whttiger25 wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2020 11:08 pm I've pretty much done this exact trip, expect from the west at Road's end. The climb out of Bubb's creek around Charlotte dome was rough, steep, lots of shrubs, and an accidental need ot hike directly up a cascading stream whiel being attacked by mosquitos. The pass from this side is straightforward, and it was easy to find the use route through the steeper rocks on the north side. We then headed east to the col leading into Gardiner basin. This was also steep but nothing dangerous. We popped out on the other wide onto a steep snow slope. It was late afternoon and hte snow was soft enough to heelstep into, but if icy you would need an ice axe. Probably find this year but I'd bring spikes. I remember a somewhat complicated descent from there but nothing bad. Beautiful, beautiful area.

Attached are pics of the East pass east side first. We actually went west to east, not sure why the ordre got switched when uploading.

On our way down of gardiner pass east, we stayed toward the climbers left, in the second pic you can see the ledges we picked our way through, following a narrow ledge all the way to the left bottom of the pic. Looked easier than the steeper stuff on right (left on pic), however looking at it now it looks like you can easily wrap around those cliffs to the left, then hang back right.
This is exactly the type of intel I'm looking for. Thank you! A few questions... I'll PM you too because you might get a notification. Leaving tomorrow!

1. I've attached two of your pictures with what I think is the pass labeled. One is from the west base and the other is from the east base. Do I have the pass labeled accurately? I just want to be sure.

2. Any chance you have a gpx or kml of your trip?

3. Here's a current satellite image of the area (https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel- ... ates=false). The pass is smack dab in the middle. You can turn the satellite image on and off by clicking the satellite in the upper right. There seems to be a few snow patches near Mt. Gardiner, but I'm not sure they impact the route. Does it look to you like there's snow on the route?
GardinerPassEastBaseLookingWest1.jpg
GardinerPassEastBaseLookingEast.jpg
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whttiger25
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Re: Looking for intel on Gardiner Pass and Gardiner Pass East

Post by whttiger25 »

hisdudeness47 wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:40 am
whttiger25 wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2020 11:08 pm I've pretty much done this exact trip, expect from the west at Road's end. The climb out of Bubb's creek around Charlotte dome was rough, steep, lots of shrubs, and an accidental need ot hike directly up a cascading stream whiel being attacked by mosquitos. The pass from this side is straightforward, and it was easy to find the use route through the steeper rocks on the north side. We then headed east to the col leading into Gardiner basin. This was also steep but nothing dangerous. We popped out on the other wide onto a steep snow slope. It was late afternoon and hte snow was soft enough to heelstep into, but if icy you would need an ice axe. Probably find this year but I'd bring spikes. I remember a somewhat complicated descent from there but nothing bad. Beautiful, beautiful area.

Attached are pics of the East pass east side first. We actually went west to east, not sure why the ordre got switched when uploading.

On our way down of gardiner pass east, we stayed toward the climbers left, in the second pic you can see the ledges we picked our way through, following a narrow ledge all the way to the left bottom of the pic. Looked easier than the steeper stuff on right (left on pic), however looking at it now it looks like you can easily wrap around those cliffs to the left, then hang back right.
This is exactly the type of intel I'm looking for. Thank you! A few questions... I'll PM you too because you might get a notification. Leaving tomorrow!

1. I've attached two of your pictures with what I think is the pass labeled. One is from the west base and the other is from the east base. Do I have the pass labeled accurately? I just want to be sure.

2. Any chance you have a gpx or kml of your trip?

3. Here's a current satellite image of the area (https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel- ... ates=false). The pass is smack dab in the middle. You can turn the satellite image on and off by clicking the satellite in the upper right. There seems to be a few snow patches near Mt. Gardiner, but I'm not sure they impact the route. Does it look to you like there's snow on the route?

GardinerPassEastBaseLookingWest1.jpg
GardinerPassEastBaseLookingEast.jpg
Yes, you have labeled the pass from the two sides correctly. Unfortuantely we weren't tracking this trip with gps. However I can assure you the route is pretty clear from both sides, there are lots of options. On the west side there are pretty clear use trails through the steep part, stay north of the upper lake and cruise around the north shoreline of the lower lake. Cross the outlet and traverse, don't climb too much until you see the gardiner pass west and can pick out the best route. On the east side it's mainly straight up/down, but seemed better to favor the north side of the glide path, and as you can see the ledges at the very bottom we may have been able to pick a better route than we did, obviously a pitfall of going down.
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