[DIYSteve]

Anita and I had great day on a fun route (a last minute alternative route after persistent on-shore flows caused us to change our original plans to do a Hibox-Alta traverse). Anita and I left Esmeralda TH at 0805, and humped steadily up to Long's Pass. On the way, we ran into two young, lean and strong guys on their way to climb the W ridge of Stuart -- seemed like a very late start for that route. I gave them some beta (from my memory of doing the route 10+ years ago w/ Ted) and wished them luck. From Long's Pass, we walked up the SE ridge of Not Hinkhouse Peak (Pt. 6878), a pleasant hiking ascent with no difficulties.

anita on E ridge of Not Hinkhouse

The on-shore flow had oozed over the crest just enough to keep the sun behind the clouds (no bugs!). We reached NH summit about 2 hours from the TH, sooner than we had forecasted. We could not find a benchmark. Anita and I took alternative descent routes on the W ridge of NH -- I stayed on or near the ridge crest, while she traversed just below on S flank. Anita reported max class 2 travel; I had a few third class moves, with an occasional green belay on white bark pine or subalpine fir. We hooked up about half way down.

anita descending not hinkhouse 2

anita descending not hinkhouse by krummholz

We reached, and immediately crossed, Ingalls Way trail a bit S of the pass, and traveled cross country with a few 3rd class steps to a bench above Lake Camp Fire Girls.

lake camp fire girls 2

(When we were here in October 2006, the lake was bone dry. Lake Camp Fire Girls is the smallest thing I've ever seen labeled a "lake" on a map.) We spotted a pair of mountain bluebirds on the bench -- but I was too slow on the draw to get a pic of them. From the bench we ascended easy terrain

anita ascending toward fortune

to the ridge NE of Fortune Bowl.

fortune bowl

(We were here last in June, carving turns down the bowl on corn snow). Anita led the way up to the E ridge of Fortune, where we scrambled around a crag

anita above Fortune Bowl

and then gained the krumholzed ridge, which we ascended to one of our favorite spots,

anita atop fortune

where we looked back where we had been.

not hinkhouse from fortune

We were ahead of schedule, and we pondered taking the tread and scramble route to S Ingalls, but we declined to do so as the shore flow had enshrouded the peak. So we scrambled down the W ridge of Fortune to the pass above Lake Ann, where we stopped, packed the hard hats, chatted with some hikers and gained the trail. We completed the trip in 6-1/2 hours, faster than I had predicted. I had done at least half of this route on previous trips, and the routefinding went without a hitch. This a fun non-technical cross country route. It's worth repeating, although next time, if the weather permits, we'll extend the route over the S Peak of Ingalls.

[Karen²]

Looks like a great outing. Too bad about the weather, we had expected it to clear up by Sunday morning but woke up to cloudy skies. The best weather up there all weekend seemed to be late Saturday afternoon. Too bad you didn't get the bluebird shot, I have this thing for birds!

[DIYSteve]

KxK, I've been a hack birder for 30 years. Perhaps birding will become a bigger part of my outdoorsness as I age. I am so accustomed to seeing a limited variety of species on alpine and subalpine terrain (pipit, rosy finch, swift, ptarmigan, golden eagle, Clark's nutcracker, etc.) that I don't spend much time looking for oddity (although I don't think mountain bluebirds are such an oddity there).