Sierra 2001: The Mono Recess

October, 2001
Part 3: The Silver Divide.

Day 5, 10/18/2001

Evil Talus, Crocker Col, McGee Lake

In the morning we continue up Pioneer basin. At every courner this basin stuns me with it's beauty. Lake after lake this is a magical place.


Looking south toward the 4th recess.


Upper part of the basin.


Last large lake in the basin


Basin.


Final gem.

The very last lake has a small arm with a beautiful beach where we stop for lunch.

After lunch we head toward Crocker Col. There is a lot of tallus between us and the col. The blocks are huge and some are unstable. Before long we are all feeing uneasy being on the evil tallus. As the slope steepens footing is more difficult. Paul or I dislodge a pack sided rock. We split up and take seperate paths.


Looking up toward Mt Crocker and the col to it's left.


Before the evil tallus.


Jamie reaching the col.

Paul and I scramble to the summit of Crocker. From there we are able to look north into McGee lake and get an idea to change our route. Mt. Crocker is on the Silver Divide. We want to cross to the north side of the devide and are considering using a pass called "Shout of Relief", which is further west. On the map "Sout of Relief" does not look that difficult and we have begun to suspect that the releaf may be from loose tallus. Based on our recent experience we are thiking we should like to avoid more loose tallus. Perhaps we can cross Headly Pass into McGee Basin then follow the trail over McGee pass.

At the end of this trip I lost my camera along with my last roll of film. Most of the pictures from here on were taken by Paul Russell

Paul and I catch up to Jamie and we stop on slopes above upper Hopkins lake to consider our route. From there getting to Headly Pass looks easy so we decide to go for it. The route down the other side is a little steep, but generally a decent foot path.

We camp on a rock outcrop above McGee lake. We pitch the tent for warmth.


Headly Pass.


Camp at McGee Lake


Cooking at McGee Lake.

Day 6, 10/19/2001

McGee Pass, lakes plateau

In the morning we pickup the trail and hike it toward McGee Pass. Again, the nature of the terrain has changed. Now the rock around is a rust orange with sparse pine trees. Further up it is just rock. The pass is back up a narrow valley aways. The trail crosses a slope of loose scree above some small lakes. The higher lake has some thin, fresh ice. We stop and spend some time throwing rocks down on the lake, watching them plunge through the ice or trying to get them to stay on top of the thinist ice.


Tral to McGee Pass (which is to left)


Ice in lake.


Hucking rocks down to ice covered lake.

The pass is another place of beautiful desolation. We descend too many switch backs, cross Fish Creek, then ascend to a plateau of many lakes which we suspect of being most beautiful. We cross to the west side of the plateau to check our descent route then camp nearby.


Camp on far side of lake.


Double mountain and McGee Pass.


Camp and kitchen.


Boulder problems.

After setting up camp we take off to climb a small nearby peak which looks like a fun scramble.


Tom


Jamie


Jamie climbed this easy, but high crack.


Tom reaches the summit.


View down to lakes plateau.

For our reading material we have all brought palm pilots with books on them. This works out very well: they are lite to carry and the backlight makes reading in the tent easy. This evening, after getting into the tent, we all pull out our palm pilots at the same time, look at each other realizing what we had just done.



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Page last modified:  Feb 18 17:20 2010  by  Tom Unger