TR: Piute-Rust-Puppet-Alpine-Lamarck: June20-30.

[cgundersen]

My wife and I are generally fond of early season trips, but this one had a bit more snow and a few more photons than our already high expectations. Fortunately, we had no big agenda and 11 days worth of food, so once we hit the Piute Pass trail, we winged it. I'm going to try to post a photo taken looking back at the Glacier Divide from Rust col (above Desolation Lake), and once I know that the photos are uploading, I'll continue the thread in a second post.

Rust Col.jpg

[rlown]

pic works. scary white still...

[giantbrookie]

Thanks for the post and view into the snow conditions there. Looks like fun for the early season High Sierra enthusiast whereas fishing folks will have to wait awhile for this area to thaw.

[cgundersen]

OK, the preceding trial worked, so here's a visual update on snow conditions during this period. I will outline our trip itinerary and then post selected photos which should give folks a good idea of how the snow conditions are evolving. Conservatively, I think we spent 70% of our time walking on snow, and we do not need to see a snow cup again for a long time. Beyond that admonition, the trip was stunning for a number of good reasons (serenity, scenery, solitude, stars, snow-melt), and challenging for reasons that should be obvious from the photos.
Day 1: We hit snow below Loch Leven on the way to Piute Pass, but there were plenty of open campsites all the way beyond Piute Lake and on the ridge at the pass. However, Piute canyon was snow-encrusted as far as we could see, and Golden Trout Lake was frozen solid when we first saw it, as well as 6 days later when we doubled back across Humphrey basin. Snow depths along Piute creek hit 20 feet in places even on day 6.
Days 2-3: We slowly worked our way across Humphrey basin eventually reaching a perch above Desolation Lake that had great snow-melt ponds for bathing. The scorching heat that had been predicted for Bishop was also evident in the backcountry, and the contrast between the abundant snow and balmy temps was amazing.
Days 4-5: We went over Rust col and camped on the ridge separating L Lake and Steelhead. The next morning we took a "day hike" to try to reach the thunderous outflow from Royce plateau, but with clouds building by mid-morning, we doubled back to our campsite and reached our perch 15 min before the start of a 6 hour thunderstorm. With the outdoor temperature dropping twenty degrees, it was a relief from the heat of the preceding several days. The rolling thunder was a bonus!
Day 6: We had been thinking about going over the ridge between Alsace and Knob Lakes, but after closer inspection, we camped for the night above Alsace and headed for Puppet col the next morning.
Day 7: I had only been over Puppet from the Humphrey basin side, and for some reason, it seemed much more strenuous going over from the French canyon side. There was snow about half way up the col, and then exposed talus and scree. But, once we got over the ridge, there were a couple of nice patches of clear ground that served as our camp that evening. The snow level in Humphrey basin had not diminished much while we were in French Canyon which is a testament to how thick the white stuff is going to be for the next couple weeks.
Day 8: The snow cups had really hit stride for the otherwise simple traverse from Puppet col over to Muriel Lake. Plus, there was very little exposed dirt around Muriel (still frozen solid, too). The one salient event was encountering the first footsteps (other than our own) in more than a week! Whoever was heading down Piute canyon had a good chunk of ground to cover before finding a camping site.
Day 9: Alpine col had a few exposed patches of ground, but given the abundance of talus/scree on that route, I think we had it easier riding the soft snow cups. The south side of Alpine had more exposed ground, but again, it's going to be a while until the lakes open up.
Day 10: We scrambled up Darwin canyon to Lamarck col and there was appreciably less snow than we expected. Nevertheless, we encountered areas where snow drifts had separated from adjacent granite exposing yawning 30 foot chasms. Very impressive! And, remarkably, there were at least 4 separate sets of footprints up around the col (but, none that had reached down into Darwin canyon). This gave us the false sense that snow on the East side of Lamarck might have been melting faster, but we found out the next morning that this was not quite true.
Day 11: We made pretty good time down to the area around Upper Lamarck Lake, but even so, there were 4 big snow fields to cross, en route. Patches of ground were open around the lake, but no sign of campers. No sign of the trail, either. Here, we'd been wandering around on snow for most of the preceding 10 days and we could not locate the Lamarck Lakes trail. In the end, we wound up bushwhacking down toward Grass Lake and came across a use trail (I'm still thanking the soul(s) who built that thing) which took us to Grass Lake. Yes, we had to circle around 80% of the lake to avoid the killer flow of the inlet, but getting across the outlet only cost me a small scrape. This is not a year to mess with high water! If you feel like messing with snow, check out the following photos:

L Lake.jpg

L Lake.jpg

Gemini 7 Gables.jpg

Darwin Canyon.jpg

Mt. Darwin.jpg

Cameron

[maverick]

Wow, great TR and pictures, this really serves as a good eye opener for those who think, the higher temps have melted away a lot of the white stuff. Sounds like you and Joy had a wonderful time and plenty of solitude.

[C-level]

How was the snow and conditions from upper Lamarck lake and down from there? I've been up there the last few years. Going Thursday and probably going up bishop pass instead, heard road to north lake is closed? Anyone have any info on that? Thanks, and great photos!

[cgundersen]

Hi C-level,
There was a crew working to fix the road to North lake campground, so you might want to check with the rangers to find out whether they finished. We left our car in the Day Use lot near North Lake and were pleasantly surprised that they neither ticketed nor towed us. There was still a lot of snow around the Lamarck Lakes, but also exposed ground for camping. I'm sure you'd still hit plenty of snow on the trail to those lakes this week, and I'm confident it'll be the same or worse heading over Bishop Pass. If you want to be reasonably sure of hitting open ground, I think the route up to Piute Pass is probably a better bet. One other thing that may affect your plans is that the fire burning down south had seriously sullied the air on our drive back to LA, and Cory's Bishop webcam shows that area getting variable smoke pollution.
Good luck,
Cameron

[Hobbes]

So beautiful up there in early season conditions. Did you see anybody else?

Harlen, another HST member, was up there during the same period with his wife, skis, sled & dogs.

[cgundersen]

Hi Hobbes,
Joy & I thought that we'd be following your tracks over Piute Pass, but we did not see any recent activity on the way up to the Piute ridge. For how fast things were melting, any boot tracks more than a couple days old would have become undetectable (but, we were looking for subtle hints). However, on the stretch between Puppet col and Muriel Lake we did see one set of fresh tracks heading down Piute canyon, but no sign of the person responsible for them. Our next encounter with any sign of human activity was at Lamarck col, where at least 3-4 different footprints were visible up near the ridge. However, there was no indication that any of those folks had dropped more than ~100 ft into Darwin canyon, so we assumed that they were day hikers. Frankly, for the amount of snow from the col down to Lamarck Lakes, it would have been a monster day hike. Overall, it was mighty peaceful up there except for the sound of rushing water. And, we chose this route expressly to avoid creek crossings. We like looking at Mt. Darwin, not collecting Darwin awards!

[Mike M.]

We like looking at Mt. Darwin, not collecting Darwin awards!

Amen to that!