Drive into the end of road was good for all cars. Pretty packed trailhead on a Friday afternoon.
Brought bikes for the washed out section of about 5 miles. Took 1:08 for us to make it to the proper Lake Constance trail. Couple good spots to stash bikes nearby.
The trail up to the lake starts out very steep, and we missed an early turnoff so encountered more blowdowns and off trail challenges. The middle of the hike to the lake mellows out considerably before getting into Class 3 terrain right before the lake. It is a very steep approach, especially with a heavy pack.
We had permits to camp and found that spot #5 at the far northern part of the lake was great. Food and star gazing at night.
Left camp at 5:30AM for summit next day. Trail basically starts from near the toilet. Meanders through avalanche gully until the turnoff up a significant scree field to the “Cat Ears”. Tough stuff, scree skied on the way down. From the notch, you traverse and then ascends another gully that ends with Class 3 to another super skinny notch. Here encountered only lingering snow field and used the moat on climbers left.
After navigating this section, traverse up to the start of the Finger Traverse. The move around the corner is the worst part. It’s very airy. From there, hand holds are great. After this, made way into bowl and located key ledge to wrap around the mountain and ascent to final summit ridge. Ridge curls all the way around until some final Class 4 at the very top. There is a rap anchor, but we downclimbed. Summit views are amazing.
The descent is often slow going and requires a lot of mental focus through Class 3 downclimb and scree fields. Finally made it back to the lake, jumped in, refilled water, and hiked down. Having the bikes to breeze back to the cars was incredible. Did that nearly 5 mile stretch in 25 minutes.
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