Lake Ingalls, South Ingalls Peak, Fortune Peak via Esmeralda Basin (Esmerelda), Lake Ann, Fortune Creek Pass & Esmeralda Basin (Esmerelda) — Sunday, Jun. 20, 2021

I was a busy beaver today nabbing both South Ingalls and Fortune Peak, making a full day of traversing and adventuring on rock and snow. What should have been a Grade I/Type 1 day turned into a Grade II/Type 2 kind of day.

Another Mid-State Miler and Wenatchee Back Court 100 in the bag, and 2 more Teanaway 20 peaks nabbed now too.

Trail Conditions

Lake Ann/Lake Ingalls

Lots of snow if heading towards Lake Ann or Lake Ingalls. Route finding to either destination is non-trivial and being able to travel in steep snow up to Lake Ingalls is a must right now. I was able to get to all my destinations today without traction, but I did slip quite a bit in the morning and I'm relatively sure footed.

The only spot I found which wasn't snow covered near the respective lakes was on the ridgeline over at Lake Ann; expect to snow camp if heading towards Headlight Basin, unless you have a bivy and are willing to deal with non-flat surfaces on boulders, or a hammock and a heavier quilt, etc (it probably dropped down into the 30s or 40s the night before up near the lakes).

There are a lot of trees down over the Ingalls Way/Esmerelda Basin trails. A large (probably D3) avalanche ripped through an area along the Esmerelda Basin and split a number of pines in two and their limbs/trunks are strewn about the trail.

There's a large washout up the Ingalls Way Trail caused by a downed tree that should be cleared, as it's eroding the already narrow trail and someone could slip, resulting in a serious tumble.

There are also some blowdowns up Ingalls Way Trail that really should be cleared because people are bypassing the blowdowns and causing erosion.

The trail's a bit muddy too due to snowmelt, but not too bad.

South Ingalls

I traversed over from Headlight Basin in the snow. It was pretty easy going in my TX4s around 08:00; the snow was soft so I didn't need traction, but still consolidated enough that I wasn't sinking in. I had to hop over a few larger boulders getting up towards the upper tarn directly below South Ingalls.

I transitioned near the upper tarn and headed straight up to the right of it using my Trangos, ice axe, and one of my trekking poles. I was going over very steep snow (50°+) to get to the col between North Ingalls and South Ingalls, staying to the right as there was a large cornice along the eastern side of the South Ingalls summit ridge, but was also following a col to the left of the one Beckey describes in his Ingalls Peak route(s).

I saw a couple parties heading over to the col between North and East Ingalls, presumably to summit North Ingalls from the east (the highest of the 3 peaks). I don't know if I'd head that way given that I heard a fair bit of rock fall, but to each their own with exposure, runout, and whatnot; I'm much more comfortable negotiating steep snow vertically than laterally traversing or dealing with moats.

Getting up to the col was not too bad after the ridge, but I went a bit too far to the left, requiring low dagger placement and intense kick stepping buckets into the snow around some larger boulders with moats opening up around them. It was relatively dry rock for the next 100'~200' from the col.

Note: if you plan on going to South Ingalls, stick to the melon-sized talus on the NNW side, then go up the notch to the NNE side, and wrap back around to the NW/W side. I accidentally went way too far to the E (climber's left from the saddle pointing south) and ended up in some really crappy class 3~low class 5 terrain with oodles of scree and slick serpentine. I sat down for a couple minutes to gather myself as I was starting to panic like a cat in a tree, but finally figured out a safe path down (with some trust edging via my Trangos -- not the best shoes for the job). I do not advise going on the E side/wall at all unless you want to get seriously injured. The larger talus I described before on the other hand is hard class 2/easy class 3 that is very well protected.

The traverse from rock transitioned back to snow for another 200' below the summit. I stuck to the right to avoid disturbing the cornice. The runout was better along here, but it was still relatively steep off to the NW. I highly advise bringing an ice axe for this section as well; I skated by just booting in, but in retrospect, I should have had my axe out just in case I needed to self-arrest.

Once you get to the final summit ridge you'll have to negotiate steep snow on the way to the summit on the N/NE side or go around to the SW side on rock; I chose the rock approach since there was a nice bootpath and because I didn't have my ice axe out.

The summit block was entirely snow free.

South Ingalls to Fortune Traverse

Important: be sure to test all rock before committing! There were a number of areas where I thought I was dealing with solid/sound rock, but it either shifted, broke apart in my hands, or broke when I placed my feet on it.

This is honestly where I felt like I wasted a lot of my day. I got up to South Ingalls in about 4.5 hours; it took me about 1.5 hours to get from summit to summit because of mistakes that were made along the way and difficulties I ran into, so key advice is don't underestimate the difficulty of the traverse.

First off, you'll have to down climb/scramble a gully with ball bearing-ish scree on the SW side of South Ingalls. I did a lot of butt scooting, reverse chimneying, and pasting with my hands to brake myself while down scrambling. Your trekking poles are pretty much no good here: there's lots of hard, smooth higher angled rock under the loose scree. This down scramble wasn't quite as bad as coming down from Liberty Bell (Beckey Route), but it was in a similar ballpark. After you get down the gully, you will need to traverse a ways to get from the base of South Ingalls to Fortune.

I didn't bring my microspikes and my crampons didn't seem like the right tool for the slushy snow late morning, so I just booted it across several sections, trying to stick to the ridgeline. This was a bad idea: I did a lot of unnecessary bouldering; some class 3 scrambling with exposure, some class 4 scrambling, negotiated with crappy scree, and on top of that had to deal with moats, postholing, etc, with bad runout (the exposed boulders <30' below me would have made a fall very painful). It would have been a lot smarter to down climb on snow, traverse lower on lower angled snow with better runout, then push back up a couple hundred feet to the Fortune summit.

The last 100' to Fortune up the ridge was a cake walk. I saw a young buck cruising up the hillside with their built-in crampons (curses!). They had the right idea :D.

Fortune to Lake Ann Trail

Advice is: stick as much to the ridgeline as possible. I accidentally went way too low in one section and ended up doing really bad steep sidehilling over scree. You'll have to deal with scree regardless, but it's nicer not having to sidehill it as much.

Getting down the ridge was probably hard class 2... maybe easy class 3 (just because of the angle and the ballbearing scree).

You'll eventually pop out the ridgeline next to (east of) the Lake Ann Trail; the ridgeline separates the Lake Ann Basin from the Fortune Creek Basin.

Lake Ann Trail to Esmerelda Basin Trail via Fortune Creek Pass

There was lots of snow. Lots of creek holes and eroding snow bridges with streams flowing over the trail. Some really awesome streams, creeks, and waterfalls though.

I really liked this section a lot and had a lot of fun boot skiing over the snow--this was probably the highlight of the day for me, minus the summits :P...

I ran out of water here (I packed 3L at the beginning of the day), but the water sources were plentiful, so I refilled at my convenience.

Esmerelda Basin Trail to Trailhead

A very hot, sun exposed slog with lots of blowdowns and a fair number of easy stream crossings. If you don't want your feet to get wet, I'd use aqua socks/sandals. I didn't care at the end of the day because I was so spent, got sunburned on my calves the day before, and gave no f's about getting wet.

That being said, it was really nice being forced to slow down/stop so I could meditate in the shade to the bird calls and fragrances of the forest.

Gear Used

• Approach boots (TX4s)
• Climbing helmet
• Ice axe
• Mountaineering boots (Trangos)
• Trekking poles