The trail was snow free until headlee pass, where parts of the switchbacks were covered in snow. Getting past the snow was not difficult. I had an ice ax ready to go, but didn't need it since enough of the trail was snow free. After reaching the top of the pass, I traversed toward the lake where I came upon a small snow bridge. I probed a bit and it seemed ok. There were obvious boot prints across the snow, so stepped up, walked a couple steps, and then fell right through. Fortunately, I was ok, just fell up to my thighs or so. A great learning lesson for me, considering I'm still learning a few things. I then proceeded further toward the lake where the whole basin was covered in snow. I would have needed to cross a gushing, snow covered creek, which looked risky. I realized I was out of time, due to my late start and decided to play it safe and turn back, considering I was the only soul up there. Overall, this was an incredible and fairly challenging hike. I plan to head up again in a few weeks, much earlier and get to the top. Wirtz basin was gorgeous, despite the amount of loose rock needed to hike on.
Comments
day after
My friend and I made it to the summit a day after you were up there. It was slow going through the basin with all the loose rocks, and even slower going once we reached the snow. Neither of us had hiked to the summit before, so there was much second guessing as to where the trail was once it was covered in snow. We saw a cairn up by the lake and assumed the trail to the summit was that direction. Once we got there we realized we were wrong. So we backtracked and ended up scrambling up the rocks you can see in the last photo you posted to get up onto the ridge to continue to the top. We were there on Wednesday the 16th, didn't see a single human track in the snow, must have been the abnormally warm weather melting it off. Rad trip report, thanks for posting.
Posted by:
Ryan and Sara on Jul 22, 2014 02:50 AM
question for ya Ryan
Yeah, the solitude was amazing! Congrats on making the summit, I now know starting too late hinders ones chances on getting to the top, lol. Anyhow, did you have any trouble crossing the snow bridge/ creek that I mentioned in my last photo? And where did you cross it? I turned back right where I took that final photo. Thanks for posting too
Posted by:
Skefillson on Jul 24, 2014 01:59 PM