We took 3 cars. Only at the TH, I realized that I forgot to bring the squeeze pouch for my Sawyer filter. So dropped the filter in the car.
We started hiking at Pete Lake TH around 8am, and arrived at its east end ~9:15am. It's an easy 4-mile walk, not much elevation change, minor creek crossings.
There were already plenty tents here. The lake is quite pretty.
We took a break, mosquitoes were annoying.
Here, we turned right onto Waptus Pass Trail, gaining elevation.
Then turned left onto Copper River trail for a little bit before bushwacking up a slope towards Escondido Ridge.
It was rough at times. No tracks.
Finally, we hit PCT.
Took PCT southbound (west here), until the small lake west of Escondido.
There's an obvious track here going up to the 2nd lake.
We arrived ~1pm. Setting up camp, cleaning up, waiting for OK.
I buried my dinner in the snow, and filled my water bottle with snow. There's not much snow left.
There are more ponds here, breeding mosquitoes. In the hot afternoon sun, they were not too active.
The water is warm. The K brothers floated on their sleeping pad.
I regret to have left my book in the car.
There's not much shade to be found.
Around 3:30, a few of us decided to go up to Escondido.
It didn't take long. However, only JB and R actually went up to Escondido Peak.
Me and the K brothers descended east and visited more mosquito breeding ponds before getting on PCT and come back.
On our way back at the first lake, I met OK. It was past 5pm.
More cleaning up. The snow on my dinner was all melted.
I ate it inside my tent. I only put the rainfly on after the sun dipped a bit lower.
Hard to take a nap.
It was a warm night. I slept through the night.
7/9, Sunday.
Up at 5am. Put more snow into my water bottle. Packed for the summit.
We headed out at 5:30am.
Nice light early in the morning, temperature was pleasant.
I drew our general route on this photo.
When you are at the base of the mountains with multiple peaks, it's often hard to tell which one is taller.
We tried to tackled the wrong peak (the one to the east). Thankfully, it was no go.
The traverse to the west most peak took some time, due to loose scree.
On the way down, we took to snow, after some loose descend.
Once reached the ridge on the west flank, go around a bit.
Here, AS gave up. He was giving up when we did the traverse. MB and I had to stay behind to direct him where to step sometimes.
In the last month, he climbed both Baker and Rainier. You can never tell climber's ability on these roped ascents.
The K brothers, R and OK took to a gully, as you can see from this photo. I didn't like this approach.
I picked rocks to go up directly. It was steep at the bottom, so requires some manouvering.
But all the while I could see a way up. MB and JB followed me. We reached the summit faster.
On the way down, all took to the direct rocks.
R did a slight varient of my ascent, and it is better. I followed him on the way down.
The summit photo of 6 (without me who took the photo, and AS who waited at the ridge).
The view is splendid.
R, as usualy, brought a bottle of sake and tiny plastic cups to toast on the summit.
Thunderstorm was in the forecast after 11am. We didn't linger for too long, as we could see the clouds forming. Headed back down, and met up with AS. The group all agreed to take the snow down. Getting to the snow was a bit tricky. We went one by one, so we don't kick rocks onto someone's head. Oh, yes, I brought my helmet. Once on the snow, I glissaded down first, while others were putting on crampons. The snow is just soft enough for glissade, didn't ball up under my butt. I did put on crampons on another stretch of snow. Not absolutely necessary, but I feel safer. Putting on/off crampons costed ~10 mosquito bites!
We were back at camp ~1pm. Camp to summit ~2300', 2 miles one-way. Packing up the tent. I ate 3 bars, stuffed more snow in my bottle. A few rain drops, lessen the mosquito activity. Folks were so slow getting their junk together. We didn't leave until ~2:45. We took PCT down. So many zigzags. My feet were aching (new boots, even though same model, same size), and my energy was running low. I was the last one who arrived at the TH. ~7:30pm. ~12 miles, 3000' from the camp. Saw quite a few backpackers coming in.
No stop on the drive home. I got dropped off off I-5, and then walked home. 10pm, totally exhausted.
38k steps on Saturday, 51k steps on Sunday.
About 40 mosquito bites.
