Heather - Maple Pass Loop, Lewis Lake, Wing Lake & Black Peak — Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021

kidzwonthike and I got up to Black Peak Thursday starting from Maple Pass Loop. We passed by Lewis Lake and Wing Lake up on our way up to the peak.

Conditions

We parked near the Maple Pass Loop Trailhead on SR-20. The temps were a chill 34 degrees at ~10:00 and the road was ice/frost covered on the edges. We both skidded a bit on our walk to the parking lot in our Trango Tech GTXs. The temps were around 30 degrees when we got back to the car at 20:45.

The Approach

Getting to Heather Pass

We started the hike up the trail around 10:45. Much of the way was cruiser trail with a bit of mud here and there, but no real ice concern that day really up to Heather Pass. We passed by 30+ people at various points up to the pass.

Crossing the Boulder Field

Getting down to Lewis Lake was a bit of a routefinding challenge earlier on in the day, since it involved traversing a long shaded boulder field from Heather Pass to Lewis Lake which was covered with a dusting of snow. We tried to lose as little elevation as possible getting towards the lake, but sometimes we needed to adjust because there were points where we had to get off the boulder field on to impacted vegetated areas (heather, conifers). Some of the folks wore traction; we brought poles and I hooked the arches of my boots on the edges to help stabilize/stick my steps.

Getting to Wing Lake

We crossed the outlet stream from Lewis Lake, went up to the lake side, and took a food/water/WC break, basking in the cold sunshine. I couldn't believe low to mid 40s sunshine could ever feel so warm! After taking a break we pushed around the north side of Lewis Lake, then uphill towards Wing Lake.

This part was a bit tricky navigation wise in areas because some of the path went over/next to boulder fields, and there were a variety of social trails that spread out various directions from folks getting off-course. We found a proper impacted path up to Wing Lake with a little bit of effort, which went up sod steps that--because of the foot traffic/terrain--had turned into slippery muddy steps, much like getting to/from Eldorado from the lower meadows was like back in July.

Getting to the Saddle via the Old Terminal Moraine

Once we got up to Wing Lake we went around the north side of the lake towards the old terminal moraine which ran down from the dying glacier near the saddle. We used the old terminal moraine as a handrail to our right, climbing the left side of the terminal moraine. At the top of the drainage we crossed over and started our ascent to the low point (saddle) which lead up the south ridge of the peak. The way up the saddle was to the right of the dying glacier; the second picture is a great representation of where to go. Given that it was an old terminal moraine, much of the rock from the bottom of the basin to the saddle was kitty litter scree. It wasn't too bad getting up it -- just a bit tedious at times -- and it was fun to come down (scree skiing).

That being said, partway up the moraine, a pumpkin-sized rock fell off of the summit ridge and careened towards me at a decent clip. If it wasn't for kidzwonthike yelling "rock!", I might not have reacted in time and gotten seriously injured 😬. We weren't sure what triggered the rockfall, but I wonder if it had to deal with the ground warming up and/or boulders coming loose due to softening/contracting soil. So, to be safe I tried to go closer to rock walls to use them as shields against potential rockfall and paid close attention to the south ridge.

To the False Summit

Once on the ridge, the way up is a bit tricky, but somewhat straightforward when the rock is clean: the gist of the next section up to the area directly below the false summit is to pick a gully and stick to it. I picked the gully to the left of the climber's trail drawn on CalTopo, hugging the wall, whereas kidzwonthike picked the gully to the left of the one I picked, following the right wall up. I ended up doing some minor class 2/3 scrambling up to the final ridge, whereas he did more of a class 2 walkup, but I felt more comfortable going up the gully I took, because it seemed like there was less exposure to rockfall overhead.

Once we got above the gullies, it was a relatively straightforward walk around the false summit. I climbed up the false summit, noticed the path to the true summit around the east (climber's right) side, so I hopped down and continued over to the east side of the summit block.

The False Summit to the True Summit

I looked at the east face/mini-gully and at first blush it seemed a bit difficult, so I went around the northeast side to see if I could find an easier path; there was a cairn marking the path around the right and the route on CalTopo suggested I should go off to the right.

I tried pushing up the mini-chimney/corner on the left side of the northeast face using pasting and stemming, but the moves were awkward and I kept on getting stuck in a really awkward position. I lost my balance, fell a few inches, and almost fell backwards, so I stopped to reassess the route I was trying to take. Given the poor runout, lack of protection, and probability of getting seriously hurt, I went back to the east face to try climbing up the east face instead.

The east face is certainly more of a classic class 4 rock climbing challenge with a couple easy 5 moves, but the runout was better, so I gave it a go.

Starting in the left mini-chimney, I used the hand and foot holds with an initial long stemming move (I have short legs 😅) to push up to the less protected shelf (less protected because the ledges were smaller). I zig zagged up 5'~10' worth of smaller holds to get to the exposed 15' (vert) class 2/3 ramp which ran up to the summit. Once I got up there I took some pictures/videos, waved to kidzwonthike standing on the false summit, then slowly started working my way down to the ledge below the summit block.

It took me a minute to find the holds I used, but I got down roughly following the previous process in reverse. I could have jumped the remaining 5' or used the shelves to the right instead of struggling with the long stemming move in the mini-chimney, but I didn't want to accidentally tumble off the side of the mountain and/or break/sprain something in the fall, requiring SAR.

On the way down, kidzwonthike and I both took the gully he came up, because the grade/descent was easier than the one I came up.

The scree skiing I did from the saddle to bottom of the moraine basin was pretty primo too -- probably as good as the scree skiing down Cannon Mountain/Enchantment Peak ☺️.

Once we got down to the lakes, we went as quickly as we could across the boulder field to beat sunset. We got up Heather Pass just in the nick of time, flipped on our headlamps, then walked down the Maple Pass Loop Trail to the trailhead.

Vegetation Info

When we went the larches and huckleberry bush fall colors were in peak condition; the assortment of colors was fantastic, and the larches had plenty of needles on them 😊.