Summary: Alpine Lakes High Route 7/16-17/2022 with InReach, Ice Axes and Spikes

Full report:

We set out to attempt the Alpine Lakes High Route (West Fork Foss River TH → Big Heart Lake → Necklace Valley TH) from Seattle on Saturday morning 7/16. It was unclear whether snow conditions would allow us to do the loop. Parked at Necklace Valley (our exit point) at 9:30am. Began walking the ~2.5 miles up Road 68 and 1064 toward West Fork Foss River TH but our hitchhiking thumbs caught us a ride most of the way! Climbed up to Malachite Lake in 2 hours and after a refreshing swim continued to Big Heart Lake, arriving at 3:30pm. Plenty of time for another swim, sunbathing, and looking for the iridescent, spotted purple trout swimming beneath the logs!

After a solid 10 hours of sleep, we began ascending the spine between Big Heart and Angeline Lakes at 7:30am the next morning 7/17. We carried 1.5L of water each plus 1L Nalgene to share. This was sufficient to get us to the river valley on the Necklace Valley side. We enjoyed almost completely snow free terrain and faint dirt trails all the way to Chetwood Lake, which was still completely frozen. We took a brief accidental detour to lower Chetwood lake, but corrected our course. Chetwood Lake’s river outlet crossing was doable over sturdy logs.

Beyond Chetwood Lake, we picked up on helpful crampon footprints in the snow that appeared to be following our GPX track closely. This single track proved extremely helpful throughout the long day on the snow. Snow depth was typically at least several feet, quite sturdy except at the edges. 

We assessed the snowy slopes for holes or soft spots but found the only sketchy parts to be the small cornices and ice bridges at the edges where snow meets rock.

**Warning: In a few weeks/days this route may become much more treacherous as the snowfields become too thin, risking falls between the boulders beneath. By our estimation, less snow doesn’t necessarily mean safer until it’s fully melted out. We were aware this may have been one of the narrow windows to safely complete this route this summer due to the high snowfall last winter.**

We avoided the notoriously ridgeline section included in the Becky Guides –– do not attempt this; people have fallen and died. Instead, skirt in front and traverse the front of Iron Cap. This  modification is now much more common but worth stressing.

We traversed relatively steep grades beneath Iron Cap (assisted by microspikes and ice axes), high boulder fields with helpful cairns and a difficult bushwhacking section (the debris from some  big blowdowns obliterated the weak trails) here and below Tank Lakes later on.

 A few chutes up Iron Cap Gap looked viable –but this may become dicey. 

We envisioned smoother sailing after Iron Cap Gap, but climbed around various features on snow for several more miles until below Tank Lake. We connected with established trails only after descending to the Necklace valley floor near the base of a long waterfall around 4pm.

The water level in the Necklace Valley was clearly higher than usual, and many massive trees were downed and made the lakeshore trails difficult. Jade Lake required walking through the water at mid-calf. From this point we made quick progress down several thousand feet and the remaining 7 miles on easy trails- sweet relief after 7 hours of routefinding on snow. We ran most of this section despite our packs. 

Back at the car by 8pm, achy legs but happy! Sunday stats (Big Heart Lake to Necklace Valley TH): 13 hours, 21 miles

Necessary gear: GPS navigation (we had Garmin InReach and Gaia iPhone app both with downloaded GPX file, microspikes, ice ax, could maybe get by with trekking poles)

Highlight: Completed a run/day hike that connected Necklace Valley and the West Foss trail using a route route that gained the ridge up to Iron Cap and traversed that ridge before coming down (and up and down again) to join the West Foss Trail at Big Heart Lake. Lots of routefinding, snow travel, and scarmbling. Gear was running vests, ice axes, and microspikes.

Necklace Valley was beautifully serene with the only thing of note really being the mosquitos and the overgrown brush including devil's club and stinging nettle on certain parts of the trail. After getting past Al Lake we continued up the snowfields towards Tank Lakes navigating generally towards Iron Cap mountain. The snow was generally good to travel up. Once we could see Iron Cap we noticed the ridge approach looked a little complicated and the GPX track we were following suggested dropping down to the the base of Iron Cap before ascending again. We descended the snow slope carefully assessing which direction would avoid cliff drop offs. Once at the base of Iron Cap we started up again ascending up snow slopes and looking for any signs of a faint trail. Any sign we did find soon disappeared in the snow coverage. Once on the summit we turned our attention to the ridge traverse. Immediately leaving the summit on a faint loose exposed trail soon gave way to a more solid traverse on rocks that required class four and sometimes five moves. The difficulty of the travel was most likely heightened due to the snow coverage on the north side of the ridge. After finding a solid slope to descend down towards an area that was shouldered by a still frozen Chetwood Lake, we could again find our way up towards the route that would eventually lead us up before finally heading down to Big Heart Lake and finding solid trail again. 

Stats: 15.5 hours, 27.6 miles, and 8,400 feet of elevation gain

Got up early and was walking at 6. Not much to report up to the river crossing except that it's pretty overgrown in places and you'll be wet with an early start. River crossing was fine.

Made Jade lake by 9:15 and then things really slowed down. The trail goes right along the shoreline and with the water level up like it is you have to wade through some of the lake. Not a huge deal but it's awfully cold. The worst is about 2 feet deep. After passing Jade snow starts in earnest. Navigation became difficult as I had to constantly check GPS. This area isn't too steep and the snow was pretty firm. I did fall through a snow bridge however on my decent but fortunately it wasn't too bad. Eventually I made it to the head of the valley. What a beautiful spot! I sat for a bit looking up at La Bohn Gap and it just looked too intimidating. Looking up the waterfall route I could tell there was less snow but I couldn't see a lot of the route. I decided to try this until I didn't like it. Long story short I made it up this route although I definitely didn't like some of it. There are a couple steep snowfields to climb the last one near the top being very steep.

Once on top the scenery was spectacular! Initially I had thought I might try for Hinman but that wasn't happening. I was pretty beat and had a lot work to do just to get out. I walked over to the Gap and checked out a couple other spots before heading back down. Getting down the waterfall route was tedious as expected. Be careful on the boulders towards the bottom as some are loose including large ones. After getting back to Jade it's a long slog back to the car.

For gear I decided to go with trail runners, spikes, and axe. Spikes didn't help much. Boots and crampons would definitely be preferable climbing the steep snow but I just didn't want to wear the boots all day.

A little over 20 miles and ~4500' of climbing. Got back to the car at 6:15. Long day but worth it! Thanks to whoever picked up my hat and hung it so I could find it!!

WTA logout. Only traversed the first two miles in, spent most of the day on two fun logs. Road is fine, there are 1 or 2 potholes but easily avoidable. Trail conditions are good, some areas appear overgrown, which we worked on as well. Pleasant stroll through a gorgeous forest, even when carrying tools

Went on a day hike with some friends with no set end point on this trail—just wanted to see how far we could go. Made it just over 5 mi in before we got to a crossing of the East Fork Foss River where we decided to turn around. It looked like the water would be calf to knee height before getting to the log. (Picture attached.) I didn’t see any hand wire. There were two spots  on the trail with blowdowns, but it wasn’t difficult to find the trail past them. It looks like one of the campsites marked on Caltopo (it lies east of the trail) suffered from a blowdown. Other sites are in good shape and the one before our turnaround has space for a few groups and looked good for hammocks. A little buggy by the river. Trail up to this point is free of snow. This would make for a nice, gentle trail run (~1000 ft of gain over 10 mi).