Day 19 - Route Finding

Wednesday, Aug 4, 2010
Stats for the day: started at Iceberg Lake (9,780') at 7:45 - ended at Twin Island Lake (9,658') at 5:30 Total ascent 3488'. Total Descent 3800'. Total Distance 9.61 miles. 5 hrs 0 mins walking.

One of the things trail hiking excludes is route finding. Following a trail is akin to one of those toy trains whose single front wheel has a deep grove in it that is placed over a long flexible rubber tube and when the train is turned on it mindlessly follows the tube.

When traveling off trail one immediately becomes more mindful of their surroundings because they must pay attention to the physical landmarks and the compass to find their way. So far we have covered 84 miles of trail and 78 miles cross country. We all agree the cross country, although far more physically demanding, is our favorite.

Today, we woke to find Iceberg Lake had completely frozen over during the night. We ate breakfast (I have had Cream o' Wheat everyday for the first 17 mornings because it is so compact, but now with food drops only 7 days apart I have switched to bulkier granola), packed our gear, and followed the trail one mile down to Ediza Lake. From here the rest of the eight miles of the day are cross country. We headed toward Nydiver Lakes, about 600' above Ediza and a mile NW. Halfway up, a band of cliffs blocked our route so we veered left until we found a heather and willow choked gully that gave us access to the top of the cliffs. From here Nydiver lay a quarter mile off and 30 feet below us. Whitebark Pine Pass rose on the opposite side of the lake another 400 feet higher. A short stop for water at the lake and we quickly ascended the pass. From here we had a fantastic view down into Garnet Lake, a long lake with many islands. A steep snowfield lay before us, so Gary and I donned crampons and wielded ice axes for the descent. Andy had left his ice axe with Craig back at South Lake, so he clambered up over the rocks to descend via the talus slope.

Once past the snow we traversed the broad upper basin above Garnet to the unnamed pass between Garnet Lake and Thousand Island Lake. A strong wind and no mosquitoes enticed us to stay for lunch, even though it was only 11:15. As we munched, a party of 4 came up from Thousand Island Lake, swatting mosquitos as they came. We chatted for a few minutes, then packed up and headed down into Thousand Island Lake basin.

A long traverse across the basin brought us to the use trail up to Glacier Pass, the entrance to Catherine Lake. We passed a group of ten kids and an adult leader working their way up the fairly gentle slopes to the pass. From the pass we dropped into Catherine Lake, a beautiful azure blue lake at the foot of the snowfield that lays between Banner and Ritter.

To this point route finding was not much. All the terrain in front of us was open meadow and easy to navigate. But, as we began to descend from Catherine on the west side of the Ritter Range the ground fell away so sharply we could not see the route ahead. At first we danced over smoothly polished granite, delighting in the cascades and waterfalls the waters from Catherine formed. At a point those waterfalls fell over cliffs we could not descend and we had to start working our way to the right to avoid them. At one point a band of 300 foot high cliffs barred our descent and we had to move way NW to find a stream valley that cut a swath through the cliffs that was passable.

Where this stream met with Catherine's outpouring the route tumbled near vertically to the valley 500' below. We were able to work our way down the right hand side a hundred feet, then traverse on ledges and sloping ground to a more moderately sloping hillside that we followed toward our destination, Twin Island Lakes. A half hour ascent through cliffs and meadows and we were at last looking down on the lake. Most of the lake was already in shadow by the time we traversed the glacier polished granite bedrock to the inlet, our camp for the night.

After dinner, as we lay in our bags in the tent we all agreed it was a marvelous day of incredible terrain and route finding, the 19th in a row.