So-called "Epic White Cloud Backpacking Loop", August 24, 2020
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DSCF0321.JPG13 viewsHalf an hour later, I encounter the upper of the two tarns alternating my path between the ridge and the drainage. Once again, I move right (N) to re-gain the ridge, avoiding boulder-hopping. The saddle is above and left (E) of the highest snow in the couloir. The route crosses under the buttress (in shadow) in the upper right of the frame. The route unfolds as one progresses, working its way up through the broken rock buttress, well above the tarn, toward the higher snowfield.
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DSCF0322.JPG10 viewsLooking back to the north, beyond Island Lake from the saddle between the two Boulder Lake basins. It’s already 3 pm, but the cloud development is not anywhere as threatening as it has been the past two afternoons.
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DSCF0324.JPG11 viewsThe saddle I’m standing on drops into a drainage west of Boulder Chain Lakes, which descends to Warm Springs Creek. The correct saddle, to drop into Hummock Lake, lies higher on the ridge to the east. That saddle in a bit east of the low point on the skyline. It becomes obvious when one looks down into the lake basin.
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DSCF0325.JPG10 viewsD. O. Lee Peak to the west northwest, from the saddle that allows access to Hummock Lake.
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DSCF0326.JPG10 viewsThe descent was not as exposed as I remembered, but requires careful route finding to ensure the safest descent.
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DSCF0327.JPG10 viewsLooking southeast from the saddle between the two Boulder Lake basins to Hidden Lake, draining into Hummock Lake. Smoke from fires in Oregon and Washington is drifting back to the White Clouds.
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DSCF0328.JPG10 viewsCastle Peak, and the Serrate Ridge rise in the distance to the south. Scoop Lake (seen below the Serrate Ridge) is the highest Lake one encounters on the trail before climbing south out of the Boulder Chain Lakes basin.
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DSCF0329.JPG10 viewsTo the north, the ridge I ascended to avoid “side-hilling” in talus is seen west of Island Lake. It might have taken longer, but was a much more pleasant route than that from Cove Lake, described in the Idaho Alpine Zone article, and the one taken in my first crossing between the two Boulder Lake basins two years prior.
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DSCF0331.JPG11 viewsLooking northwest from the saddle between the two Boulder Lake basins past the lower saddle (above the snowfield) to D. O. Lee Peak in the distance (directly above the low point of the saddle).
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DSCF0332.JPG5 viewsPeak 11272 rising northwest above the lower saddle (above the snowfield).
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DSCF0333.JPG5 viewsLooking northwest from the saddle between the two Boulder Lake basins past the lower saddle (above the snowfield), D. O. Lee Peak is the most distinctive landmark in the distance.
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DSCF0335.JPG5 viewsLooking northwest from the saddle between the two Boulder Lake basins to D. O. Lee Peak.
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