[rubywrangler]

Ruby dog and I spent a couple hot, smoky and buggy days in the Alpine Lakes this week to climb Summit Chief and visit the lakes and tarns nearby. There's a lot of exploring to do up there. I wish we had stayed another day! To avoid the long PCT switchbacks past Pete Lake, we followed the route described in Matt's 2011 report and exited via the old Escondito ridge trail described by Neek. The off-trail portion of the approach route was very easy, just a couple short (<20ft) brushy sections.

escondito lake

escondito tarns

meadow near escondito tarns

mossy

escondito tarns

escondito tarns

We meandered through the Escondito tarns and hopped on the PCT at their southern end. When we arrived at the first Vista lake there were already a couple parties camped so we continued to the next one, which we ended up having all to ourselves. I set up camp above the lake and had dinner with a view of the sun setting behind Chimney Rock. We went to bed early in hopes of getting an early start to beat the heat and the bugs.

upper vista view

view from dinner spot

sun setting behind chimney rock

mosquito bite near ruby's eye. her face was covered with bites

camp

My alarm went off at 4:30am and it was still dark so I hit snooze a few times. Gradually the sky changed from dark gray to light gray with no hint of sun or color. Mosquitoes were already hovering on the tent door when I opened it at 5:30. So much for sunrise and beating the bugs. It was a hot and smoky morning with no breeze, and the smoke worsened as we made our way to Summit Chief. From the 5700' col above Summit Chief lake we tried to maintain elevation but had to backtrack several times and go lower. On the way back we traversed 50-100 feet lower which was much quicker/easier.

morning "light" on lemah, chimney, overcoat from a meadow above vista lakes

near summit chief pass

peach sky

eerie light on chimney rock

summit chief mtn and lake

summit chief lake

relaxation

The route is described in detail in Matt's and others' reports. From the SE snowy basin, ascend to upper basin, take rock and snow ramp to notch. Getting off of the snow and onto the ramp involved hard mud with some loose rock which was not that fun. Once we crossed over the notch, I expected to find snow since a number of trip reports, Smoot, the Mounties, etc note that the route goes up a snowy gully. But there was no snow, so we continued traversing. I stopped to investigate one gully - the second (and correct) one - but it appeared to turn a corner and I couldn't tell what happened after the turn so I kept looking. After wasting a bunch of time poking around and being indecisive and not finding the snowy gully, we scrambled up a steep, loose slope to access the final summit scramble. Views from the summit were... smoky.

always ahead

approaching the notch

summit view

chimney rock

big snow in a smoky blue haze

looking toward vista lakes, u-shaped tarn where we ate lunch at lower center

summit nap

williams, hinman in the haze

gray crawford

We descended via the correct gully, which I was happy to locate since downclimbing the way we had ascended seemed potentially treacherous. There was a little loose rock but by this time Ruby and I had perfected human-dog tandem climbing After crossing back through the notch I was both dismayed and delighted to see a little blue sky and puffy clouds. It continued to clear as we worked our way down to the Summit Chief tarns for a lunch break. By the time we got there, the smoke had almost totally cleared, at least in the immediate vicinity.

correct gully

clouds appearing as smoke starts to clear on our descent

not summit chief lake

cooling paws in u tarn

chiefs and tarn

reflection

After refueling and taking a ton of photos, we made our way back to Summit Chief pass and then to camp. I took a dip in upper Vista lake and then we packed up and headed out. We picked up the old Escondito ridge trail easily after leaving the PCT, but then lost it and had to backtrack a bit to find it. Then we were able to stay on it until about 4600-4700 when we lost it for good. From there it was a very brushy and unpleasant 700' bushwhack back to the escondito lake trail. I doubt we saved much time by going this way. We stopped for a snack at Pete lake and were moving again at 8:30pm. I let Ruby set the pace to the car and we arrived at 9:50pm. 18:25/mile - not too shabby for an old dog!

summit chief lake

5700' col at upper right. we ascended the green ramps left of it.

summit chief, middle chief, little big chief, bears breast, daniel, summit chief lake

More photos

[neek]

Cool! Sounds like the lower part of Escondido ridge has filled in a bit. Hope these bugs go away soon. I've been having better luck these past few weeks.

[BigBrunyon]

i been up round there!! bugs were real bad on them ridgelines!!! no clothes needed to jump in those tarn lakes but you need em for the bugs!

[awilsondc]

Lovely trip! This is another one that's up there on my wish list. Hoping to get it this year or next! Great photos as always.

[Matt]

Nice trip. Sorry to see the bug bites on Ruby, but she looked very happy rolling on the snow.

[puzzlr]

[rubywrangler]

After looking at the gps track in his report, I see that my path diverged from Neek's below 4600'. He went ~due south from there, and we stayed on the ridge proper until it hit the trail. So, it's possible that his route is still in good shape.

[D. Inscho]

Lovely and exciting terrain Ruby! So many places to quietly rest one's bones. I believe Contour5 can add more to this body of excellent effort.