Re: Longley Pass and Cunningham Creek Route
Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2018 10:20 pm
Back in early July of 2009 we went up Cunningham Creek over Lonlgley Pass and then down through Lake Reflection to East Lake.....
We stayed on the north side of Cunningham and never found anything that looked like a trail. The lower part coming out of Cloud Canyon was the steepest and the worst because it was a bush whack through some pretty thick manzanita, once we got through this section the angle lessened and so did all the manzanita. After that the hiking was fairly pleasant all the way and relatively easy on the upper part leading to Longley Pass. We were shocked by the Size of the cornice that covered pretty much the whole pass and were almost thinking of turning back until I discovered the relatively easy class 2-3 way down among the rocks just north of the saddle. The reason why I looked to the north was because I remembered reading in Secor's The High Sierra about this way down if the cornice was present. So, I hiked over to the north and actually saw deer tracks leading the way down to what looked like a pretty easy chimney system down. I wouldn't really classify it as a chimney more like a series of small cracks and ledges pretty easy to follow with full packs. I would say that it was a lot more class 2 than 3 with no real exposure.
I would post my photos of the exact route but I can't seem to figure out how to decrease the size of my images in order to post them....
We stayed on the north side of Cunningham and never found anything that looked like a trail. The lower part coming out of Cloud Canyon was the steepest and the worst because it was a bush whack through some pretty thick manzanita, once we got through this section the angle lessened and so did all the manzanita. After that the hiking was fairly pleasant all the way and relatively easy on the upper part leading to Longley Pass. We were shocked by the Size of the cornice that covered pretty much the whole pass and were almost thinking of turning back until I discovered the relatively easy class 2-3 way down among the rocks just north of the saddle. The reason why I looked to the north was because I remembered reading in Secor's The High Sierra about this way down if the cornice was present. So, I hiked over to the north and actually saw deer tracks leading the way down to what looked like a pretty easy chimney system down. I wouldn't really classify it as a chimney more like a series of small cracks and ledges pretty easy to follow with full packs. I would say that it was a lot more class 2 than 3 with no real exposure.
I would post my photos of the exact route but I can't seem to figure out how to decrease the size of my images in order to post them....