Day 3: Feather Basin, White Bear
Pass, Lake Italy
We were up early and heading
towards Feather Pass. As was often the case, staring straight on at a climb
always makes it look worse than it really is, and as we climbed towards a gully
flanked by steep slabs, we were relieved to find the crux was a few hundred
feet of very easy scree-covered track with the occasional 2nd class scramble.
Once above the steepest section, we had a series of slabs and benches to ascend
to Feather Pass. From Feather Pass, we got our first glimpse at Mt.Ritter and
Banner way in the distance. Tuolumne Meadows is twenty miles beyond those
peaks, so this gave us a good idea of just how far we needed to go over the
next week and a half. At the pass, we flipped on the weather radio, but
rather than an alpine forecast, we got a Bay Area surf forecast. So much for
knowing if the clouds we saw would produce rain, but at least we knew the seas
were calm in the Farallon Islands.
The descent from Feather was
time-consuming but easy - more boulder hopping over the moraine of a long since
disappeared glacier. On our way towards the Bear Lakes we met a party of four
who were returning the way they’d came yesterday. They’d had a longer trip
planned but a couple of their partners had pooped out the day before, so they
were returning.
For the next few hours we
descended open grasslands and slabs past Bearpaw, Ursa, and Black Bear Lakes
then climbed to White Bear Lakes on our way to White Bear Pass. The views of
the many surrounding 13,000ft peaks were outstanding.
Staring down the next 1,000 vf
from the pass to Brown Bear Lake didn’t immediately look too tough and we
congratulated ourselves on how easy the first 200 vf were...then it just got
bad. Loose scree on steep slabs hemmed in by 4th and 5th class
slabs on either side. We followed the route description but it was still
another huge time suck. Pete saw a faint track through waist-high brush and we
crashed through it standing on vegetation several inches above the actual
ground. Once through the brush, we found a faint track through scree slopes and
slabs and slowly made our way to the basin below. Two hours to descend 1,000
feet and maybe one mile of distance, and we arrived at Brown Bear Lake. We
filtered water, Becky tended to her feet, and Pete went for a swim to try and
ice his back and legs.
The rest of the day was relaxing
and easy compared to the morning. We descended to the Lake Italy trail and then
hiked the lake’s two-mile length towards our next pass, setting up camp at Toe
Lake just below Gabot Pass.
That evening a couple from the
Bay Area hiked by and we chatted for a bit. They were doing a week-long loop
out of Mosquito Flat covering some of the same ground as us. They had an
adorable dog, an energetic weimaraner named Lily, who handled the trail
sections easily, but they did have to pick her up and carry her through some
off-trail sections.
The rest of the day was spent
like the others, reading, laundry, and lots of stretching.
No comments:
Post a Comment