It has been quite a start to our Italian Dolomites trekking vacation.
We left Boise on July 21 at around 1200 (we walked out our front door at 0900 hrs) and we where scheduled for Venice (VCE) via Salt Lake City (SLC) and Paris (CDG). We arrived at our hotel in Cortina, Italy at 1630 hrs on July 23.
Without our bags.
And it’s thunder-storming.
But we found an Italian cafe for drinks.
How did all that happen?
We made it from BOI to SLC with no issues at all. Then our SLC to CDG plane suffered a catastrophic fuel leak before it even left the gate in SLC and was grounded. We were all loaded on board and the doors were closed when it happened. Delta tried fixing it at the gate and even restarted the engine to test the repair, but it was unsuccessful.
Being unable to fix it, Delta cancelled the flight. We immediately rebooked using the Delta app picking a flight from SLC to Atlanta (ATL) to VCE the next day. Doing this rescheduling on the app was a big time saver. Delta paid for our hotel in SLC but only gave us $30.00 for dinner. That was pretty lame.
We had some anxiety about getting our bags rebooked. We arrived at the airport early the next morning and spoke to a baggage expert who got our bags figured out. At the gate I watched both bags get loaded. We figured with a 2-1/2 hour layover in ATL and direct into VCE our issues were over.
We were wrong.
Even with a 2-1/2 hour layover in ATL, Delta misdirected our bags and never put them on the ATL to VCE flight. Somehow they just simply misplaced them I guess. I really have no idea how they missed our plane. We know they were in ATL, they just didn’t get them on our plane.
Oh, it gets better!
As our flight was taxing to take off (after a 45 minute delay), yet another mechanical issue cropped up and we had to return to a gate to fix that problem. I used the opportunity to talk to a flight attendant about our missing bags. She took down all our info (I kept our baggage receipts we were given in BOI) and spoke to the pilot and the ticket counter agent. But our bags were so out of place in the terminal that it wasn’t possible to run them down and bring them back to our plane.
Let me just say that every Delta human we spoke to was exceptional. It seems to me that it’s the logistical issues Delta struggles with. For example, Delta sent us two text messages with four meal vouchers for $15.00 each within minutes of the SLC flight being cancelled. We thought that was $60.00 worth of vouchers, but the two pairs of vouchers were identical. So I never protested the $30.00 to Delta when I had the chance. We didn’t know the vouchers were duplicates till we tried to use the second pair in Atlanta.
While we got the food vouchers by text immediately, we had to wait in line two hours for a hotel voucher. That makes no sense.
We had heard all the horror stories about bags and delays happening in Paris and London and elsewhere so we both packed our carry-ons with this worst case contingency in mind. So we do have our necessities with us. If we have to, we could make do for 10 days out of our carry-on luggage. Doing laundry in a sink in a mountain hut isn’t very clamorous, but it would get us by.
There was another issue this mechanical problem in ATL created. We were now at risk to miss our 1410 hrs bus from the airport at VCE to Cortina. What had been a 3-hour gap was now just under 1 hour and we would have to deal with customs and the lost luggage issue. If we missed the 1410 hrs bus, we’d have to wait three hours for the next one and we wouldn’t arrive in Cortina till 2030 hrs.
While sitting at the gate in ATL, we came up with a plan for our luggage. The flight attendants said Delta should drive the luggage to our hotel in Cortina for us if we had a way to get them picked up. We figured Mont Trekking (the company we booked this trip through) would do that and sent them an email.
Once on the ground in VCE we breezed through customs and (and!) the lost luggage line. There was only one person ahead of us and four people available to help. Mont Trekking confirmed to us our plan for the luggage via a phone call to them after we landed. The woman who helped us was great and our plan we made with Mont Trekking fit into the options available to us.
Now, we are a day late arriving in Cortina, Italy as it is July 23 as I post this update. From our front door at home to the hotel lobby has been 47 hours. But our self-imposed “rest day” we built into the trip for travel SNAFUS like this saved us a little bit of grief. However, we didn’t expect our luggage to take three days.
Hotel Regina in Cortina, Italy. Where our trek will start from.
The baggage people in VCE will drive our luggage to Cortina on Sunday after it arrives and Mont Trekking will pick it up at our hotel. Mont Trekking is going to meet us at a hut a day or three into our hike and we will be able to sort things out with our gear.
Mont Trekking, has been great. This trip had been planned for July of 2020 and that got wiped out. They refunded everything back to us and we stuck with them. They have been exceptional.
We leave for our Dolomites hike along Alta Via 1 tomorrow morning.
To catch up on our experiences in navigating the logistics of climbing Mt Whitney and learning about our preparation, please read Part 1 of this story at this link.
Feeling discouraged and frustrated but the day’s events, we descended back to where we cached our main packs. On the way we passed a party of three Japanese climbers going up. We asked what their plan was since they were going up late and the National Forest was closing. They said the Rangers told them that any trips in progress were being honored and not canceled.
That information made things more confusing. Did anyone really know what was going on?
We made our way down to our packs, collected them and descended all the way back down to about 9,800 feet till we got cell phone reception. We found a phone number to an Inyo National Forest Visitor Center (I have no idea how we didn’t find this number our first time) and spoke to a Ranger who confirmed what the Japanese climbers told us. If our trip had already started, we were good to continue. The campground wouldn’t be locked and after we completed our trip, we could come out and exit the campground without any problems.
There was no forest fire nearby. The state of California was reallocating their fire resources from our area to other areas and thus they needed to close our forest.
After climbing from the trailhead at 8,327 feet to 12,020 feet and traveling 6.1 miles, then descending back down to 9,800 feet, we decided we would climb back up to Outpost Camp camp at 10,380 feet and call it a night.
We pulled into Outpost Camp camp around 1700 hrs and pitched our camp. We had traveled 11.2 miles, ascended 4,250 feet only to finish our day just 3.7 miles and 2,000 feet from the campground. What a crazy show this first day was.
We decided we could make our summit bid from Outpost Camp camp if we started early. Outpost Camp is a couple hundred feet higher than Camp Muir on Mt Rainier, and we would be making our summit bid with super light packs. It shouldn’t be a problem.
The next morning our alarm went off at 0200 hrs and we were on the trail by 0250 hrs after breakfast. And we made great time! It was so easy. Compared to all the mountains we have done over the years, this was the easiest, by far.
Our first break on the switchbacks above Trail Camp.
Taking a break on the switchbacks.
Handrails along the switchbacks.
At the intersection of the John Muir Trail and the Whitney Trail we found the only printed, official US Forest Service notice of the National Forest closure. That’s right, at around 13,000 feet, we found the only written notice of the National Forest closure. No signage or postings at the actual trailhead at the campground, but there was one at 13,000 feet. It was actually a literal laugh out loud moment.
The only posting we saw notifying hikers the National Forest was closing. I have never understood why it was was at 13,000 feet and not at the trailhead.
By the way, that note at the bottom about visiting the Forest Service website for the most up to date info wasn’t correct as that was the first website we checked.
We arrived at the summit of Mt Whitney at 0850 hrs. In our research we learned that normally there are 50 – 100 people on the summit during the peak morning time. But this day, with the National Forest closed, there were two others besides ourselves. Once they left, we were all alone until we left. It was crazy how perfect it was.
Cops on Top in memory of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
I was surprised at the number of markers and signs on the summit of Mt Whitney. Many were pretty damaged and unreadable.
There was a nice climbers hut on the summit as well. It was built in 1909 and you can read all about its history here and here.
We made it back to our camp around 1400 hrs. We talked about descending all the way back to the campground but decided against it. We weren’t sure what we were going to run into when we got back to the campground and didn’t want to be forced to leave at 1930 hrs with no where to stay. With our trip “still in progress” and our permit showing it didn’t end till the next day, we hunkered down for another quiet night on the mountain.
Looking up the summit ridge from just above the intersection with the John Muir Trail.
Back down near Trail Camp looking back up
The next morning we woke up without an alarm and made our way back to the campground finding the camp host waiting for us. We were the only vehicle in the campground. There were a dozen or so cars in the overnight parking at the trailhead, but only us and the camp host in the campground. And the campground gates were locked. With a pad lock. We were lucky the camp host was around. He was super friendly and told us his story about the closure, which was just as much of a crazy show as our first day was. No one told him it was happening till it happened, which is why he never warned anyone in the campground. In fact, that day was his “day off” and he was driving home (he lived a few hours away) when his boss called his cell phone to tell him the news. He had to turn around and come back to the campground to help close it up. But he couldn’t leave as long as there were campers in the campground. And we were the last ones.
Dawn as we pass through the mountain meadows during our descent.
Sunrise above Lone Pine Lake.
Some of the many switchbacks on the Mt Whitney Trail.
Deer grazing in the cool morning.
He couldn’t let us stay the night in the campground, unfortunately. Which is what we were afraid of the night before and why we stayed on the mountain instead of returning to the campground. But having come down in the morning allowed us to pack up the trailer and truck without a rush. We headed back to the Visitor Center to return our bear canister and Shelley called the RV park in Winnemucca, NV and moved our reservation up a couple days. We were all set for our 2-day drive home.
It was quite the trip. I’m glad we don’t have any complicated High Points such as Mt Whitney left. Some have time and day restrictions, but nothing like Mt Whitney.
Our plan was to take two days (one night) to drive down to the Whitney Portal Campground, arriving on a Sunday. We would make an acclimation climb up to the Whitney Zone boundary (that hyperlink should drop you right on the boundary marker along the trail) on the following day on a Monday. Then start our summit trip on a Tuesday.
We entered the lottery for Mt Whitney and picked a 4-day window, mid-week, in the hope that a mid-week attempt would be easier to obtain. This was our first attempt at a Mt Whitney lottery and we pulled a permit for the days we wanted. Maybe our mid-week plan worked out? Our trip was scheduled for a Tuesday – Friday.
There is a lot of information on climbing Mt Whitney and we soon discovered that not all of the information functions as it was told to us.
On thing to remember when reading further. This is our experience in August of 2021. This process may be different today when you are reading about our experience.
Our first problem was just getting the permit itself. At the time we did this, April-ish of 2021, the US Forest Service or the Reservation.gov page warned that the Rangers at the visitor center will not print your permit for you. Reviews and warnings stated to expect long lines and delays at the visitor center so the recommendation was to print the permit at home. No problem there as we have a printer.
Another piece of advice was to request the permit 3 to 14 days in advance. One thing to keep in mind for those of you traveling, this is 3 – 14 days in advance of your permit start date. The website stated to give at least 2 days to process the request for the permit. A link would then be provided to us and we could print the permit at home.
Shelley requested the permit 10 days in advance of the permit start date, which was 6 days before we left Boise. When we didn’t get a response by Thursday, before we were to leave Saturday, she started calling them on Friday. We had no way to print a permit while driving on the road. The phone tree just kept taking her in circles with all the ending points not allowing for us to leave a voice message and the phone tree hanging up on us. This experience would be repeated again on the first day of our summit attempt. She tried one last email on Friday hoping to get a response before we left on Saturday. We received no response before leaving Boise.
The US Forest Service finally did answer us, by email, 3 hours before we arrived at the visitor center on Sunday, while we were on the road. Luckily, the reply said we actually could print the permit at the visitor center. That was good.
Arriving at the Ranger Station to pick up our permit
When we arrived, the place was nearly empty. One person was in line and he wasn’t even getting a permit. The last thing we found annoying is that we were only allowed one name on the permit. I don’t know if we inputted our data wrong when we made our initial request, or what. We were told there was no way to add a second name to our permit. Since the permit was in Shelley’s name, if I was contacted on the trail I would have to make sure I was near Shelley so she could provide a copy of the permit with her name on it. I just thought it was dumb that multiple names can’t be on the permit. My name was printed on it as an “alternate” but that wasn’t sufficient, per the Ranger at the visitor center.
When we finally got the permit, we found out that a “bear canister” actually was mandatory. Again, the US Forest Service page and the emails all said that our Ursak Bag was sufficient. Another inaccuracy. We rented the canister from them at the visitor center and we were finally all “legal” for our climb.
We left the Visitor Center and drove up to the campground and settled into our camp spot and the next morning did an acclimation climb up to Lone Pine Lake.
Lone Pine Lake is at approximately 10,030 feet. This is also a potential camp site for our descending day from the summit. We took a nice long break here and scouted the area out for possible tent pads, just in case we used this lake on Thursday.
After we returned to our campsite, we repacked our backpacks and got our gear ready for the next morning.
The next morning we left later in the morning, 0830 hrs, since we were only going to try for a 1-day push to Trail Camp. We stopped at the trailhead portal and weighed our packs, which was a nice little feature of the portal. Shelley’s pack was at 42 pounds and mine was at 54. Pretty “light” for a mountaineering climb.
Somewhere above 9,500 feet, and about an hour into our climb, Shelley’s phone received an email push that our campground reservation was cancelled. The email only said something about wildfires and that we needed to be out of the campground by midnight that night. We dropped our packs and started trying to figure out what as happening.
We checked the Inciweb fire website and there were no fires near us. We checked the Inyo National Forest website and it said it was open. There were no alerts posted on the website. We could find no information online confirming the information in this email. Shelley tried calling various phone numbers regarding our campground reservation and got nowhere. Recall the attempts she made trying to get our permit before we left Boise? Same results this time. She finally got through to an operator in the state of New York(!) who tried to help us for 20 minutes. She was super patient and very nice. She couldn’t confirm anything nor could she recommend any options for us.
The day before on our acclimation hike we spoke with a Ranger on this trail who didn’t mention anything to us. We had no reason to ask, but he certainly had no concerns either. We also passed four Forest Service firefighters who were descending from somewhere above us. They were friendly, but never gave us any cause for alarm.
When we walked out of the campground this same morning, we passed the camp host and he didn’t say anything to us. No one had come around to give us any warnings. We just had no idea what was going on. Since we had no information and all the mentioned observations, the email made no sense. We had no desire to hike all the way back down either. We assumed some sort of fat-finger entry and if it was real, we would run into another Ranger and get better information. After about 45 minutes of researching and making phone calls that went to pre-recorded messages, we decided to keep going up.
Sure enough, a little later we met some climbers coming down who said they had spoken to a Ranger the previous day and confirmed to us that the Forest Service was, in fact, closing the National Forest at midnight. That confirmed to us the email was accurate. There are a lot of Rangers on Mt Whitney, and why one would warn a group of climbers and another not warn another group of climbers was odd to us.
We decided to dump our main packs and hide them off the trail. We pulled out our summit-day packs we had planned to use for the next day’s summit attempt, filled them with food and water and made a run for the summit. The problem was it was late now, around 1100 hrs and we had to get up to the summit and back down to the campground with enough time to pack up and move out of the campground by midnight. The timing couldn’t be much worse.
Eventually, we made it up to about Trail Camp at around 12,020 feet and stopped for a break. It was about 1300 hrs. We did some calculations and realized it was going to be doable, but very close. If anything went wrong, for example if Shelley’s knee tweaked or I twisted an ankle, we were screwed. The risk just wasn’t worth it. We were tired and we had no idea where we would stay if we got back down late at night and were forced out of the campground. We decided to bag it and head back down.
Day one of our summit attempt was very frustrating and discouraging.
Tarns camp is a wide open space set in a valley between two large mountain ridges. The headwaters of the Dinwoody Creek is here as well. Once you crest the final lip onto the plain, you just pick a spot to camp at as there really aren’t many “defined” camp sites. We picked one as far away from the ridge cliff as we could get and were lucky enough to be up on a little rise. We wanted to make sure we were far away from any rock fall that may come down and roll to our little tent.
Summit day would be a round trip of about 4.2 miles with about 3,000 feet of elevation gain. 3,000 feet in about 2.1 miles is steep, but very manageable. Especially when you are topping out under 14,000 feet. It would not be the elevation gain or the distance that would be the hard part.
We decided to get up at 0200 hrs on summit day with a departure around 0300 hrs. We had a map of the route and knew where we were going once up on the mountain. From our preview of the route the day before, it appeared there were cairns marking the trail through the boulders. We had no idea how poorly marked the route was going to be in the boulder field after the first 1/4 mile. And we would be navigating it at night.
We woke up, had breakfast and headed out. After about 20 minutes we realized the boulder field was going to take forever to get across. The cairns disappeared shortly after we started and would only show up once in a while. Most of the way was just dead reckoning with our gps and with what little landmarks we could make out in the dark. We learned rather quickly our map was only going to give us a general idea if we were headed the right direction.
Once through the boulder field we started up, but even that was difficult as our map lead us up the ridge about 50 feet early and we turned before seeing the actual trail. The actual trail was in a draw, but our map had us going up the spur. We found the trail in the draw on our way down as we could look down on it in daylight. But at night, with headlamps, we never saw it. In the day light, it did not appear to be a seasonal route. It looked like a full-time trail that we just missed.
We didn’t have much light until we started up that spur and took our first photo of our summit day looking back down the valley and boulder field we just crossed.
Even though we ran into some snow above the first ridge, we should have stuck to the boulders. But man, we were sick of boulders and wanted to get on some snow. The snow was nice, but it wasn’t the fastest route and we ended up coming off the snow and back onto the boulders. Although the travel was easy, this wasted more time for us. Finally, we made it to Gooseneck Glacier and got to do some proper snow travel to the Gooseneck.
Looking across the Gooseneck Glacier as we approached the Gooseneck (off to the left). The red arrow shows the summit ridge to the top.
But once we were above the Gooseneck, it was back to boulders, rock and scree all the way to the summit. There was one spot where there was a well beaten path, which was a nice relief, but it didn’t last long.
We passed some climbers coming down who let us know that now that we were past the Gooseneck, the “hardest part was over.” I would agree with that. The summit ridge wasn’t very difficult. More rock hopping and boulders, but it was fairly shallow and not very steep.
Somewhere along the summit ridge, we took this photo looking back down on the route across the Gooseneck Glacier (the 3rd and 4th arrows from the left) and the Gooseneck itself (the last arrow on the right)
Then finally, we stood on top of the highest point in Wyoming.
Mark Arlin Stall, EOW Sept 20, 1997. K9 Jardo, EOW Nov 15, 2016.
We spent about 30 minutes or so on the summit. Got our trophy shots and took in the views. The smoke from the forest fires wasn’t horrible, but it did interfere with some of the views. After some equipment maintenance and some food, it was time to head back to camp.
The biggest climbing issue with boulders, rock and scree is the time it takes to down-climb it isn’t much faster then the time it takes to climb up it. Unless you’re on an actual trail where you can move quickly, but there wasn’t much of a trail anywhere on Gannett Peak. On snow, or any regular trail, the time to down-climb is much, much faster than to go up it. But not boulders, rock and scree.
We worked our way down and finally got off the Gooseneck and off the glacier. We took a long break after we came off the Gooseneck Glacier and took in some water and food.
Shelley at the bottom of the Gooseneck Glacier just before stepping back onto the boulders where we took our long break.
We started down the boulder and rock ridge knowing that we still had that horrible boulder field on the valley floor to still navigate. It was on this ridge when we looked down and saw the switch-back trail we missed in the draw coming up in the dark. I was so mad we missed it. We walked down this draw and out the bottom onto the valley floor and the massive boulder field back to camp.
Shelley found this small snow field during our crossing of the boulder field.
At the exit from the draw and looking across the boulder field we needed to cross to return to camp.
In that photo above of Shelley on the snow field, you can see a pink-ish tint to the snow. The pink-ish tint to the snow is a form of algea that is common on mountain snowfields. It is species of green algae that has a red pigment. It can be found on glaciers and snow capped mountains around the world.
We were hitting our empty fuel tank at this point. We found a few trails and some small snow fields in this boulder field, but they would come and go and they were no where near our maps/gps trail markers. There’s no way we would have found them without dumb luck or prior knowledge. My other guess is the local guides know all about these little trails and use them for their trips. But these guides are ‘locals’ and we were tourists.
We got back to camp late, but before the sun went down. It was a long day. A hard day of climbing. We needed every skill we have learned over the years to accomplish this summit. There was no way we would have made a safe, successful summit without a lot of skills we learned on previous guided climbs.
I can also say that Gannett Peak was probably at the very high end of our skill set. When others say it is as difficult as Mt Rainier, Denali and Granite Peak….it really is. I never believed it when we were prepping for it and I’m glad I didn’t take my training or equipment for granted because it really is as difficult as those other mountains.
During dinner after returning from the summit, we were eating dinner in our tent when I felt a creepy-crawly on my neck. I could feel it crawling along my neck and asked Shelley what it was. She gasped and swatted it away and off my neck and it flew into tent somewhere. We tried to find it but there was no way we would find a single spider in our tent. So we went to sleep.
At 0230 hrs Shelley woke up to that same spider crawling across her face and stopping on her eyeball. This time she slowly was able to get onto her pillow and then unzip the tent and flick it outside the tent.
We had no alarm set for the next morning and just woke up when our bodies were ready to wake up. It was a bit late, but we got up and broke down camp. And found the same spider trying to hitch a ride on Shelley’s backpack. Before flicking it off the pack, I got some photos of it and to this day we have not been able to identify it. If anyone knows what this bugger is, let us know.
We decided to try and make a 2-day descent back to the trailhead. We were tired, our packs were still heavy and our feet hurt. Not to mention the two big creek crossings, the detour we would have to take for the new bridge and the long switchbacks up to Star Lake. We figured if we could do the 10-ish miles to Star Lake, we would be set up for getting out the next day.
Even with our late start we did make it to Star Lake. We crossed the creeks with little issue, having navigated them coming up, and pulled into Star Lake around 1600 hrs. The lake appeared to be untouched. I doubt anyone had been at the lake for two days and we were all alone. The lake was totally calm and smooth as glass. It was a perfect mountain experience.
That night we had a huge thunder and lightning storm around us. The lightening lit up the inside of the tent and the hail was bouncing off the tent. It was quite the storm. By the time we woke up, it was a blue bird day for us. We ate breakfast, packed up and took off. This day’s goal was to make it all the way down to the trailhead.
With the overnight thunderstorms and lightning, we were concerned about crossing Burro Flat and Arrow Pass. Arrow Pass was in the middle of a 2-1/2 to 3-mile plateau with no cover. Burro Flat is on the Phillips Lake (uphill) side of the plateau. It wasn’t the kind of place you wanted to be in a thunder and lightening storm. As we arrived at the start of the plateau I decided to take my ice axe and picket off the sides of my pack and put them horizontal across the bottom of my pack. It didn’t seem wise to have a 90 cm aluminum picket sticking up above my head in a lightening storm. After adjusting our packs we headed out onto Burro Flat.
We didn’t make it 3/4 of the way to Arrow Pass before we were caught in a thunderstorm. First, it started hailing on us. Big, pea-size hail. It was hitting my hands so hard I had to bring my hands in under my arm pits to protect them. Then the thunder and lightening started. There was no where to go at this point other than to move as fast as we could and get off the plateau. At some points Shelley was actually running. We kept pretty far apart as well. There was a real, significant concern to being hit by lightening out there and we figured if one of us was hit, the other had to be far enough away to survive it to start CPR.
As tired as we were, we were pretty motivated to haul-ass off that plateau. We finally got to the other side and took a real long break. My feet were killing me. I had to take my boots off and give myself a foot massage, which really did help. From that point to the trail head, the hike out was uneventful.
We got back to our car and started the drive back to Debois, WY. Once we got cell service we started calling all the hotels in town trying to find a room as we did not have a reservation. Our third phone call was the winner. We made the reservation then called the nicest restaurant in town, The Lone Buffalo Steakhouse, and made a reservation for dinner. The only opening was 2000 hrs. We took it. We were gonna celebrate this summit!
We got back into town, took showers and walked to the local watering-hole again, the Rustic Pine Tavern, for happy hour beers. Then off to dinner and dessert.
This was one hell of a mountaineering challenge for us. Gannett Peak is not something to scoff at for an independent climb. Especially if you’ve never done it before. The hike into Tarns Camp is long and you’re carrying a lot of gear. Summit day is long and you have to know the little ins and outs of the trail system to make for an efficient day. Then you have to carry everything back out over two days.
After spending six days getting into, climbing and get out of Gannett Peak, both Shelley and I can say this climb was easily the most difficult mountain we have climbed in our short mountaineering history.
Denali was hard, don’t get me wrong. But most days were just long days. Not until we climbed the Headwall and the West Buttress did it become really hard. Even summit day wasn’t physically hard. It was a long, mental day spent above 18,000 feet making it slow, but it wasn’t physically difficult.
I think what made Gannett Peak so much more difficult for us was we didn’t know the route through the boulder field that starts the climb. Pretty much 90% of the climb on summit day is boulders. There was very, very little snow. And climbing snow is so much easier than climbing boulders.
We wasted a lot of time (probably hours of time) and energy navigating the boulder field just above Tarns Camp. By the end of the day, the energy we spent at the start of the day was just sapped us. Had we had a better map or the route had been better marked, summit day would have been much easier. Like Granite Peak before this trip, being familiar with the route is a big plus.
For this post, I am going to be using 27.2 miles for this trip length. I think there is some controversy as to how long this route is from the trailhead. I have seen on SummitPost it states this hike is 20 or 25 miles. But our hike was, by our GPS, 27.2 miles. We also had to take a new detour, that does not appear to yet be on Summit Post or All Trails. This detour added about 1.5 miles, 1-way, to the trip.
Our 1-way GPS track from the trailhead to the summit, with landmarks
Elevation, ascent and descent stats for the Trailhead to Tarns Camp.
Denali, 1-way, is about 16.8 miles (our GPS showed we hiked 18.8). Of course, it is about 12,500 feet of elevation gain too, but you don’t travel very far. You just climb a lot. And it is all on snow. We will take snow climbing any day.
Both of us would rather go back to Denali before we would ever go back to Gannett Peak.
Tarns Camp on Gannett Peak is, essentially, base camp for the summit. Due to some bad weather, we delayed our departure by one day. We decided that we would arrive at Tarns Camp just as the most favorable weather window was going to open. This would allow us to take three days to get in instead of two. This would put us arriving at Tarns Camp on day three of our trip. But this third day would be a very short day to give us plenty of rest time at Tarns Camp for a summit attempt the next morning if the weather window held up. Speed getting in wasn’t the focus of our schedule. Timing our arrival with the weather window was the focus.
Because of this extra day, we spent sightseeing around the historical area of Debois, WY. We moved into the Twin Pines Lodge and Cabins for our stay, then walked down to dinner at the Cowboy Cafe. There was a long line to wait, so we pre-funked at the Rustic Pine Tavern just down the sidewalk and where locals still tie up their horses outside.
Dinner at the Cowboy Cafe
The Rustic Pine Tavern
The Rustic Pine Tavern
The next day, our extra day, we drove out of town a short way and visited the National Museum of Military Vehicles. I have to say, this is a must stop for anyone interested in military history. This private collection of vehicles and firearms is incredible.
The owner of the collection bought this firearm for $500,000. It is the documented firearm that fired the first shot of the Revolutionary War.
Just one small section of this firearm collection. Every firearm is legal and in working condition.
Every vehicle has been refurbished. There are no mock-ups in the museum.
He set up a lot of dioramas depicting famous moments in US Military history. Here, it is the Chosen Reservoir.
We had seen some signage in town when we arrived of a local beer festival being in town this weekend as well. We drove back into Dubois and hung out for a few hours listening to music, having a late lunch and checking out the local shops set up in the City Park. Dubois has a great little memorial to the members of their community who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our country in this City Park.
This was a great, relaxing day before departing for Gannett Peak the next day.
Music and festivities in the park.
Shelley trying to make a wise choice. Choice is Good.
Wagon rides.
The City of Dubois’ Military Memorial to their fallen.
I was impressed to see this. If you don’t know the story of 1st Sgt Kasal’s experience in the “Hell House” in Fallujah, you should look it up.
The next morning, we grabbed some breakfast to go from The Perch Coffee House and headed for the trailhead.
Our goal for our first approach day was to get to Double Lake, at a minimum. Then see how we felt about pushing on with a best-case goal of making it to Star Lake. We felt strong on our first day and achieved our first night goal of traveling to Star Lake. This was about 12-1/2 miles in. We left the trail head around 0815 hrs and arrived at Star Lake around 1700 hrs.
Shelley at the Trailhead. There wasn’t anyone around to take a photo of us together.
Crossing Torrey Creek just above the trailhead.
Entering the Fitzpatrick Wilderness.
The first few creek crossings were ego boosters.
A view along the trail before climbing up to Arrow Pass.
Leaving the tree line behind and heading up the open plateau to Arrow Pass.
It was a good day. It was really long, but we took it slow with lots of breaks. The 30-ish switchbacks leading up to the open plateau of Arrow Pass was long and tedious. Then the 3-mile hike up and over Arrow Pass was everything it was cut out to be. Very boring. Our first real good break took place when we arrived at Phillips Lake. Once we made to Phillips Lake, we knew we would make Star Lake for the first night. When we arrived at Star Lake, we found ourselves feeling strong. We had really nice weather for day 1. No rain at all and very cool temperatures. We got our camp set up, had dinner and enjoyed the high mountain quiet lake. We were in bed by sunset.
A mule train coming down from Arrow Pass (off camera to the right) as we were ascending up to Arrow Pass.
Looking up at arrow pass, still about a mile away.
Shelley taking a break on the rocks at Phillips Lake.
Double Lake.
Once passed Double Lake, there were no more ego booster bridges.
From Star Lake, the plan was to get up to the Gannett Creek crossing and spend the night on the uphill side of Gannett Creek. We would still be in the trees at that point in case we had any rain or thunder storms left over from the weather front that was moving out. With day three beginning the climbing weather window for us, we felt there was less chance of being exposed at Gannett Creek to thunderstorms than moving up to the very exposed Tarns Camp.
This second approach day was a little harder. There were lots of obstacles along the trail this day. Lots of creek crossings and downed trees. Some of the creek crossings were easy, and others took some time to plan around.
Descending the switchbacks from Star Lake with Honeymoon Lake through the trees.
A National Forest Service mule train coming up the same switchbacks.
Then we ran into a detour. The Forest Service was taking out an old bridge and we were detoured around to a new bridge (which was quite nice) that added about 1.5 miles to our hike this day. We also ran into a couple guys coming down who informed us that Gannett Creek was impassable. The water was so high it was over the top of all the log bridges. They were forced to turn around as they had tried to wait it out but ran out of time on their trip.
The old bridge is gone for good.
The map of the detour the Forest Service posted.
We talked this over and decided to pull up at Klondike Creek instead of trying to get to Gannett Creek. We just figured we could give the creek overnight to come down for us to cross in the morning. Our pre-trip scouting seemed to indicate better camping options at Klondike Creek then on the downhill side of Gannett Creek. The obstacles and the detour made this second day pretty hard so stopping a bit early was a good idea for us, too.
This day the trail followed along Dinwoody Creek for a good portion of the hike. The creek meandered through the forest as well as a number of meadows.
Rich hiking along Dinwoody Creek.
One of the many meadows we hiked along. We never saw any wild life around any of them.
Dinwoody Creek.
Dinwoody Creek.
Shelley crossing over the new bridge. The Forest Service told us it took them three years to build this bridge. They could only work on it in the summer and everything needed to be hauled up by mule and then the bridge was built by hand.
After settling in at camp, we did get some rain this night. Which was the reason we didn’t want to move all the way up to Tarns Camp in the first place.
Our second camp at just down hill from Klondike Creek. Dinwoody Creek is in the distance through the trees.
The next morning, the sun was out and we crossed Klondike Creek and made our way to Gannett Creek. Luckily, the water was down but logs were still wet and slippery. Both Klondike and Gannett Creeks were pretty big creeks with multiple crossing at each. Some were pretty sketchy at times when you are carrying a 53-is lb pack and a 60-ish lb pack and others were pretty short.
Rich crossing Gannett Creek. This is the log bridge that was under water the day before.
Another section of creek crossing.
Shelley coming across the creek.
Once we cleared Gannett Creek, it was easy sailing into Tarns Camp. We settled in at Tarns Camp and planned our summit attempt for the next morning. Tarns Camp was a really nice spot. Wide open at the headwaters of the Dinkwilly Creek. It is set in a huge valley with towering mountains on both sides. It was a really spectacular spot.
Once we climbed up onto the plateau were Tarns Camp is located, I took this photo looking back down the creek where we can been coming from for the past two days.
Our tent with the valley walls across the other side of Dinwoody Creek.
Looking across the valley from, essentially, the north to the south. Our camp site is at the lower edge the photo. You can make out Shelley’s light blue shirt next to our tent.
After setting up camp and getting comfortable, we had time to walk up the trail a bit to where the boulder field starts and get a good look at what was in store for us the next morning. The red lines in the image are just a general description of where the route goes to give you some reference. The summit is out of view.
Summit Ridge News 