iluka Posted October 28, 2007 Posted October 28, 2007 Trip: South Ingalls to Fortune Traverse Date: 10/27/2007 Trip Report: We decided to take advantage of the nice weather today and headed over to the east side to do the Ingalls to Fortune Traverse and perhaps get in one more good dose of the larches. We were on the trail at 8:45AM in some quite cold conditions but warmed up quickly. We encountered snow for the first time around 5500 feet but it was patchy from there to Ingalls Pass and travel and trail finding were no problem. Once in the basin, we encountered more continuous snow coverage but it was not very deep (never more than 1 foot) and the firm surface layer made for easy travel. We had some steps to follow as well as a pair who we ended up later seeing on the summit of N. Ingalls had been through the basin before us. Our original intention was to access S. Ingalls from the saddle between the north and south peak. However, as we headed towards Lake Ingalls from where we would climb to the saddle, we remembered how we had tried this route two years ago around the same time of year and ran into a lot of solid ice on the part from the saddle to the summit of South Ingalls which prevented us from summiting. We figured that given the cold temps, the position of the sun and the recent snow, we were likely to encounter similar conditions and, therefore, decided to get up a different way. A ways before the lake, we left the trail and climbed an obvious broad gully that leads to a saddle on the ridge between S. Ingalls and Fortune (red line in the photo below). The sun had softed up the snow sufficiently to make travel pretty straight forward. Once on the ridge, we then headed up to the summit of S. Ingalls. There is a gully on the right side of the summit block that appears to go all the way to the top, but we opted to work our way around to the left where we found an easy ramp to the summit with little in the way of snow or ice on it. The sun was all over this aspect too so any snow was adequately soft. We were on the summit by 12:30 where we enjoyed some views, including ones of a pair of people over on N. Ingall's, before heading down to grab lunch in a sheltered spot. From there we went back to the spot where we gained the ridge and started to traverse over to Fortune. Rather than following the ridge proper, we dropped to east (left in the photo below which shows the ridge between the two peaks) and stayed in the snow as much as possible. We probably dropped down about 50-100 feet and tried to stay as high as possible in the snow. At one point, we came to some narrow, steep gullies with firm snow so at this point, we climbed up and gained the rocky ridge line (this required one short Class 4 move) and scrambled along it for a short bit until we regained the final snow slopes up to the summit of Fortune. Had we inititally dropped lower down off the ridge in the snow, rather than staying as high as we did, this all might not have been necessary. The snow on these slopes was firmer than we had seen further down as it was pretty wind scoured but it was easy to get purchase without crampons. From the summit of Fortune, we headed down the southwest ridge towards the trail that leads to Lake Ann. There was little snow on this ridge but plenty of soft scree to make the travel pretty straight forward. We found the trail with little difficulty and headed out to the cars, making it back by 4:30. Gear Notes: Ice Axe, Helmets and Crampons Approach Notes: Patch snow beginning at 5500 feet on the way to Long's Pass. More continuous coverage between Long's Pass and Lake Ingalls but easy travel as it's not very deep. Quote
wayne Posted October 29, 2007 Posted October 29, 2007 The traverse of the 3 ingalls from north to sou is fun too, Good TR, thanks Quote
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