chair peak lake, Denny Creek, Snow Lake, Gem Lake, malakwa pass

We started the trip by dropping off a bike at the Snow Lake trailhead and driving down to the Denny Creek TH. Started up the trail around 9:30 in clouds and made it to upper Malakwa Lake around noon for lunch. We got on top of the clouds and entered smoky sunshine just below Malakwa Lake. The route from the lakes up to Malakwa Pass was straightforward up the rocks with the final bit on a track through the trees on the W side of the valley. Not much of a view on account of the smoke.

Dropped down the N side on steepish snow to 90% ice covered Chair Peak Lake. From here on to Gem Lake the route finding involved a bit of guesswork, considering the limited detail on our 15' topo map, and the low visibility. We crossed the Chair Peak Lake outlet stream and climbed up a rocky knoll on its W side. From there we dropped part way down a talus slope until we could turn N and head to a ridge on the N side of Roosevelt. Once on the ridge we found an occasionally distinct track heading NE that brought us to Gem Lake. From there it was back on the Snow Lake trail for the descent back into the clouds.
Total time including breaks from trailhead to trailhead was just under 9 hours.