[TR] Earl Peak - Forgotten Trail loop - SE ridge 8/25/2011

[mountainsloth]

Trip: Earl Peak - Forgotten Trail loop - SE ridge

 

Date: 8/25/2011

 

Trip Report:

News of my brother moving back to New Hampshire led me to a last ditch attempt at convincing him to stay via another glorious romp through the Alpine Lakes.

I liked the sound of the forgotten loop trail for the solitude, easy peaks, and glorious views of the Stuart Range.

It did not disappoint in any of these categories.

 

 

The loop is a bit silly from a climbers standpoint. It circumnavigates 7000 ft Earl Peak ascending and descending its ridges loosing precious elevation when it could have easily traversed its gentle slopes and maintained elevation.

The loop also includes some unmaintained trails that make route finding a bit difficult. All of these things just added to my brother's agony and adventure

 

In hind sight, I would have just traversed ridges along Earl to make the trip quicker and with less elevation gain and loss.

 

Here are some pictures.

flowers are out

 

So was Stuart

 

and Rainier

 

camp night 1

 

Ascending Earl in the eve via the SE ridge

Earl

 

 

Summit!

Brother's summit cry

 

We hung out on the summit for the sunset

Ridge we ascended

 

I mixed views of our stunning surroundings with a bit of short crack climbing I found near the summit. The short wall offered cracks of varying sizes in super solid and sand-papery rock.

 

 

The next day was long as we got off trail and had to fight through some pretty loose scree and talus but at the end of the day we ended up where we wanted to be. Typical for me.

 

Trail went down 1000 feet

and up 1000 feet

Should have just traversed across

 

Missed the unmaintained trail, ended up on loose scree and talus. We fought our way back up to the ridge to reassess.

 

We followed the ridge and then down into the next valley all off trail.

 

Found a lovely meadow and spied the trail on the opposite side of the valley.

 

Ascended the next ridge and realized our error. If you look closely you can see a switchback through the scree on the opposite side of the valley. Oops!

 

This is an image of the map with a key.

purple = SE ridge to Earl

orange = Way we should have traversed to avoid unnecessary elevation gain and loss

red = the route we accidentally took off trail. (not recommended)

 

Night 2. Did I mention the bugs were bad?

 

Great trip in an area seldom traveled.

 

Gear Notes:

Bug nets

 

Approach Notes:

Teanaway river road to Beverly Creek Trailhead