Day 3: New York, Sentry, and Raid Peak Pass
Miles: 18.1 miles Vert: 4,600 feet
Captains Log: https://recorder.google.com/5a4cbdf4-f3a9-49ce-8f8e-d957a308e9bc
Another 3:30am alarm and a 4:30am start. Our goal was to stay slightly ahead of the itinerary and get over three passes today. Reading Skurka’s play by play descriptions last night had me a little nervous for what was to come today. There were a couple class 3 features mentioned as well as crossing some loose rock fall. To begin the day we rock hopped across the outlet of Lonesome Lake by light of headlamps and then made our way over to New York Pass. Starting the climb still on trail, the terrain got extremely steep and my pack was feeling just as heavy as it started. At this point there was an alternative route option to go up and over Texas Pass which I have done before and it seems like many other high route hikers opt to do so since it is a lot less technical than New York Pass. Lauren and I’s goal was to stick to Skurka’s primary route as closely as we could so to New York we went. Leaving the trail and facing the more or less vertical looking wall called New York Pass head on, we both thought it looked absolutely crazy to go up there. After zig zagging through the field of boulders scattered on the tundra below to get near the base of the feature we began to see and understand the cliff system on the right hand side that Skurka described as the way to access the pass.
Lauren led the way up the rock ledges until we were hugging the wall. Indeed we did have to cross an area of loose rock fall which we both suspected had actually been washed away by recent rainfall. This part of going up the pass was the spookiest as we were up pretty high and each step had some amount of soil and rock sliding out below my feet. Sometimes those small rocks would tumble over the edge and launch down to the ground a good bit below me. This made me hug the wall to my right even more, it was such a narrow strip of ground we were clinging too. Loose terrain with some exposure is what makes me more nervous than anything else in the backcountry. My hands were sweating and my upper body felt gripped with adrenaline. I was glad Lauren was in front. I would stop to let her get a bit ahead of me and then quickly pass through the less stable parts of the climb stopping to take a breath once I was back on solid ground. Getting to the top of the pass instantly triggered an adrenaline release and I started crying as my flight or fight response became deactivated. Lauren and I hugged and had another dance party. This was the point in the route in which I knew that the two of us were going to make a great team and stay faithful to the goal of staying on the primary route. We just passed up the opportunity to take one of the easiest “outs” and instead did something that looked completely crazy and made me feel super uncomfortable. I was ready for whatever was next.
Heading down New York Pass Skurka describes three different loose rock chutes and says to take the middle one because it is the most stable so that is what we did. At some point in his guide Skurka says “When all options are ugly … usually the most direct one is the best”. I carried this advice with me for the entirety of the route, often laughing at what a metaphor for life it could be. It also mentally gave me permission to tackle things head on. Might as well get the hard stuff over with, it’s going to be hard anyways! At the bottom of the chute we landed right above the shoreline of Billy lake which we skirted around and then joined a trail with easy walking for a couple of miles. We certainly enjoyed the trail while it lasted. This was one of the last longer trail sections we would see for the rest of the route. For context it was only about four miles of trail walking.
Upon reaching the Northwest corner of Skull lake we were back to the off trail route finding again. This time we were aiming for the East Fork River so we could use it as a hand rail to the base of Raid Peak Pass. We went through an open forest for quite some time during which I saw two elk. Eventually we reached the river we were supposed to follow and as we headed upstream the valley opened up more and its magnificence became apparent. We found ourselves in a wide open space with willows and granite slabs underfoot, a cascading river to our right and towering mountain walls with sheer flat faces to our left. The walls were so tall it was dizzying to look up at them. We played “wide open spaces” by The Chicks and sang along for fun as we hiked. This valley was a highlight of the whole trip for me. Eventually we reached a couple of long Alpine lakes situated at the base of the dizzying tall mountain peaks where we stopped for lunch and a dip in the ice cold water. This break really helped me bounce back for the remainder of the day.
Heading up Raid Peak pass was very round about, to say the least. It was not a pass that could be viewed head on from the valley floor. Instead we had to hike Northeast up what Skurka describes as a “sublime ramp” and then hook around a long boulder field back towards the Northwest. Going up the pass was on a large stable talus field. “Stable” was becoming my new favorite word. I had a blast climbing through the jungle gym of rocks up to the top. We passed a group of NOLS students and all they wanted to know from me was how long I had been out there and “ Who made it to the world cup final?”. They had been in the backcountry for over 20 days and it was laughable to be way out in the middle of the Wind River range getting questioned about sports. The way down Raid Peak pass was definitely more interesting than the way up. Based on the description I expected this part to be a bit more difficult. From the top of the pass your view is straight downwards and over a cliff with a long drop off. How does this work? Listening to Skurka’s description we headed across a talus field at the top before zig zagging downwards through the cliffs. As I descended I began to see the way but it still involved some class 3 moves which are not exactly easy with a heavy pack on. It felt like I just had to walk to the edge of a small cliff several times and trust that when I looked over the edge I would be able to see a way down which was definitely the case. It was just a matter of being smart about it.
After this point, we passed our original itinerary and quickly skirted around Bonneville Lake getting chased by a cloud of Mosquitoes. Sentry Peak pass with absolutely no description was next on the agenda. Lauren and I had fun looking at this from below coming up with a plan to scramble up the cliffs and get to the top. It felt like Skurka intentionally left us a little treat and challenge by leaving out any sort of advice on this. The true spirit of a high route is hitting the high and low points while being required to pick your line between the two. I really enjoyed the mental engagement this trip required and I also look at it as a skill that is constantly built upon. I was SO physically spent going up the pass in the late afternoon and so was Lauren. I had a moment where I was both so tired and engaged in the route I picked a really silly line upwards and just stuck to it. I just don’t care how I get to the top, I just need to do it. We both sat down to take a quick break near the top breathing heavily taking a solid minute to catch our breath. We started laughing and crying about how comically hard today was and said “yea this is definitely harder than Scout Mountain 100 miler” a race we both ran a month prior to this.
Getting from the top of the pass to camp was very straight forward however still the baseline level of tedious off trail navigation of a high route. You just can’t turn your brain off when every step you take is on a loose rock or soft tundra or navigating through scratchy willow bushes. We descended down to Middle Fork Lake where we set up camp for the night. Another successful day with three big passes and 14 hours of moving and decision making. The sky was filled with heavy looking clouds and the wind was blowing strongly as we sat together and recorded our captains log for the evening. At least there were no mosquitoes!
Sunset from camp.
Des Hikes Thru 