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talapus
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Joined: 17 Aug 2012
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talapus
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PostWed Jul 18, 2018 8:46 am 
Julia and I hiked a variant of the Alpine Lakes High Route (West Fork Foss to Necklace Valley) in 3 days on 7/13-7/15. Neither one of us has ever succeeded at this route before, and it was certainly quite a trip! TL;DR: the best advice came from DIYSteve:
Quote:
Don't get too married to a route on a map. ALHR requires both navigation and routefinding skills.
We started the first day relatively late (10am) on Friday, having dropped off our bike at the Necklace Valley trailhead. The predictable series of West Foss lakes emerged: Trout (little kids)
(seen here from the ridge above Little Heart Lake), where a couple of guys told us how they ‘failed’ at ALHR 8 years ago, and were forced to exit via Necklace Valley as a consolation prize…, Copper (medium-sized kids),
Little Heart (solo adults), and finally Big Heart:
Why is it called Big Heart when it looks nothing like a heart? This puzzle ended up having an answer a bit later! From here on, all company ceased. The trail is very visible (and snow-free) up to the ridge, where Angeline Lake makes its appearance, along with glimpses of Delta (and Trout again):
But what’s this?
It’s Big Heart Lake again, distinctly heart-like from this vantage point! The trail gets markedly less pronounced and easier to lose after that. It’s almost as if the route is providing a gentle refresher to one’s route-finding skills, a little bit of practice with the training wheels still attached. Descending to Chetwoot Lake is steeper and snowier, with all semblance of trail lost (possibly due to the snow)
Little ponds along the way are icy-blue
After a quick rock-hopping quiz (we passed) around Little Chetwoot Lake
we arrived at Chetwoot Lake (frozen) and a campsite (snow-free)
evening
evening
morning
morning
The bugs were out in force. Saturday morning, the fun began. We climbed out of Chetwoot on staircase-like suncups (new word!)
The snow was pretty hard, and we soon switched to ice axes:
Following the “walk up to the cliffs, then turn north” advice, I thought I found a ledge that would lead us to Iron Cap Lake without dropping into the valley:
It didn’t, cliffing out instead. So around we went. PSA: Traveling on snow is great; unless it’s thin and forms bridges. The valley worked well, and the Iron Cap Lake was very pretty in its frozen bowl
From here, we attempted to follow the “find the entrance at 5640’” advice. We are pretty sure we found it (is it on the extreme left of this photo?)
but judged the snow on the approach to be too steep (we had no real crampons or rope). So we tried to go around it at the base of the cliffs (randkluft!). This proved foolhardy (PSA#2: rocks can be slippery), and bought me experience for the price of some equipment… There is also a scrambleable gully you can see in the same photo on the right. We didn’t feel like scrambling up it, though. We backed off, ascended the less steep snowfield to the ridge at 5900’, and walked very pleasantly and beautifully to the top of the very same gully and beyond
Now, in doing my research, I wondered why there were so few photos being published of the most difficult part of the route --- accessing the NE ridge and traversing it. The answer soon became clear --- the focus required for determining where to place one’s feet does not leave much room for the photographic kind! But it went something like this: We descended along the rib to a little stream (5750’, great rest spot). Once cliffed out, scrambled left, and continued to descend in immature pine trees (yes, they will hold your weight; be sure to grab trunks, not needles) to around 5500’. There are cairns there. We then traversed through steep trees and easy talus, descending to about 5400’. Once again, we thought we found just the right ledge at 5350’ to continue, but got badly sketched out fairly quickly, and extricated ourselves by climbing to 5450’ and then descending on moderate talus to the snow. From there, we took the easy way out, descending to the creek bed at 5100’ (another great rest spot) before climbing to Iron Cap Gap on easy snow. Whew.
It took us 9 hours to get to the Gap from Chetwoot Lake. Another hour of pleasant and scenic ambling on a mixture of snow and rock (and sometimes trail) brought us to Tank Lakes, our destination for the night.
The lakes were, of course, mostly frozen, but there was water. We found the landscape to be worthy of Upper Enchantments. But maybe it was just the sense of accomplishment talking. The bugs were verging on intolerable, though.
There was another tent at Tank Lakes, the first humans we saw since Big Heart. On Sunday, about 2 miles of easy snow and moderate talus hopping brought us down into the lushness (and peopleness) of Necklace Valley.
The lakes were OK, but we were hot and in the exiting mood
The waterline trail at Jade Lake was fully submerged in about a foot of water. But the water was warm and the weather was hot, so this obstacle was actually quite welcome. At the bridge across East Fork Foss River we met a guy coming back from climbing Otter Point with a pacemaker. Respect. The bike was still there. And the traffic. And the roadside cherries.

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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks



Joined: 13 Feb 2007
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
PostWed Jul 18, 2018 12:44 pm 
Congrats on a classic trip. It looks like your research paid off. You also enjoyed spectacular weather.

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DIYSteve
seeking hygge



Joined: 06 Mar 2007
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DIYSteve
seeking hygge
PostWed Jul 18, 2018 3:35 pm 
Cool up.gif I'd call that the E half of ALHR w/ high around Iron Cap variant

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Zloi
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Location: Burien, haven for the helpless & homeless
Zloi
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PostWed Jul 18, 2018 8:30 pm 
I did this route a few years ago in reverse in October. It's interesting to see from your pictures how different it looks earlier season. I imagine the snow made routefinding easier in places, maybe harder in others. Congrats on a fine trip which bad weather would certainly have detracted from.

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