I went up a hike to Gothic Basin with a plan to bag Gothic Peak. I arrived at Barlow Pass around 8 am and there were tons of cars parked there. There still was ample parking though.
The route up to Gothic Basin was pleasant as always, but there were tons of backpackers coming down from the night prior. I'd estimate well over a hundred. The area is pretty overused and not a place to go if you want solitude. There were enough people that parts of the trail, especially along the waterfalls, became a bottleneck.
Since I went last time, the trail builders had cut steps into the slabs that you had to scramble up prior. This sort of scarred the landscape but certainly made it easier.
Once at Upper Weeden Lake, there were a ton of social trails but the trail builders had put tiny flags in the ground to mark it. At the lake, I headed south of Upper Weeden Lake since I wanted to end up near the base of Gothic Peak. This led me to another maze of trails and a fun scramble squeezing around ledges on the lake. This route was pretty hard to follow.
I eventually arrived to Foggy Lake, and as advertised, it was foggy. I sat and ate my lunch, and then discovered my water filter was clogged. Attempts to backflush it failed, but a nice hiker let me borrow hers.
From Foggy Lake, you cross the stream and head towards the saddle between Gothic Peak and the unnamed peak to the south. I ran into a large metal object that looked like a short shipping container. It smelled of urine. I think it's actually a toilet. There were no trails or signs going there, so I hope the trail builders are eventually going to make it an official toilet. They desperately need this, as the area simply can't support the degree of backpacking traffic it receives.
You end up in a bunch of talus, but there is a bootpath. Once at the saddle, there is a nice bootpath to follow but it eventually ends at a talus field. You can follow this for a while with a handful of cairns, but eventually they too disappear. There still are a few patches of snow up there, so there was running water.
From there, it's a huge slog over talus, scree, and dirt. It's tempting to climb up to the ridge but you will quickly end up on class 4 terrain. There are some nice slabs up there that make faster travel, but you do have to drop down to prevent being cliffed out. Route finding was tedious. Essentially you want to traverse under the ridge, using the slabs to your advantage. I can see why people go up there when it's covered in snow. This would be more mountaineering-like, but it would be far faster and more pleasant.
This will dump you out at the base of the summit block, slightly north of the ridge. From here, I could not make heads or tails of the beta I read. Nearly everything posted on Summitpost is wrong. It says that if it looks hard, go there, attack it head on, and do not go left as you will end up in class 4 terrain. If you attack it head on, you will end up on class 4 / 5 terrain. Other beta advises you not to go left. You should absolutely go left.
You do not need to climb anything that is class 4 or exposed. If you find yourself doing that, you are in the wrong place. The route is solidly class 3, no more difficult than the bottom part of the Haystack. Summitpost says the scramble is 100 feet. It is substantially shorter than that.
Instead, traverse left, climbing up to the ridge over a short, low angle slab. Continue traversing left to a bit, and you will end up between the SE ridge you ascended and another SW ridge. There will be a band of trees to your left. From there, there is a very clear class 3 climb over non-exposed large steps. The hand and footholds are solid, although there are some smaller loose rocks that you could kick down. A helmet is recommended. Birb's track, video, and route description (linked below) are spot on.
From the top, I finally got above the clouds and had a great view of Del Campo shrouded with clouds on the bottom. There was a little ridge you could easily scramble over to which had better views.
From there, I scrambled back down the class 3 section which was straightforward but did require a bit of butt scooting. I then made the miserable slog down the talus and scree and eventually back down to Foggy Lake. It finally cleared up a bit so I could see Del Campo and Gothic Peak.
After a quick break, I headed down the trail. There was again a maze of social trails but follow the flags and you're golden.
Overall, I saw 3 groups of people heading up Gothic Peak compared to dozens going up Del Campo. It's certainly a nice place to go if you want a bit of solitude, although compared to Del Campo which has a delightful approach, the approach is miserable. This really isn't a place for the casual hiker, not because the scramble is hard, but the route finding is tedious and travel is slow. You can definitely get into trouble if you aren't experienced in these things.
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