Sawtooth High Route

After a whirlwind of travel from Mexico City to Salt Lake City and finally to Stanley, Idaho, it was August 11th, I was camping out with Hannah (Road Runner, for long-time readers) for the first time in almost a year, and all felt right in the universe. This bliss continued during breakfast at the Stanley Bakery, and by 9:30 I was reunited with Chloe (Cinderella) and we were walking in a line down a trail as we should. Alas, it wasn’t a full PCT reunion without Buff Baby and The Model, but I still felt ecstatic.

We were headed into in the Sawtooth range, a subrange of the Rockies in central Idaho. Our aim was to roughly traverse the range south to north over three days, following the crest of the range while avoiding technical terrain. The route we followed definitely achieved this goal, mixing trail, tundra, easy scrambling on slabs, and all the stages of glacial moraine (sand, gravel, scree, and talus from the size of a baseball to a sedan) with minimal bushwacking.

You can see the gear I brought here.

Day 1

The walk up the Alpine Creek trail west of Alturas Lake was pleasant. After a few miles the trail was no longer maintained, but there was a strong use trail that led rather steeply up to Lake 8522, named Heart of Gold Lake by Hannah.

After a snack there, we turned north and hopped up an idyllic boulder field of weathered talus to get to the next basin.

We pondered a few murky tarns before climbing a bit more to the truly spectacular Lake 9050 and Lake 9167.

Contouring high clockwise around the lake to avoid some steep bluffs, the final climb resolved into a straightforward tundra march to our first real pass. Before that began, we ran into an eccentric guy in sandals doing the same route as us southbound. In keeping with my experience on the PCT, he “warned” us about several terrain features that awaited us that, all of which—without exception—were greatly exaggerated or dead wrong.

Trying to keep up with my two crusher partners after a week of math, mexican food, and meager exercise in Mexico, I came very close to an all out bonk on this climb. Fortunately, I made it to the top, crashed down, and attempted to revive myself with a big dose of peanut butter M&Ms and a liter of water. My medicine kicked in by the time we reached Heart Lake for a late lunch.

Feeling back to my best after a dip and some food, we sallied forth up and over the pass east of Glens Peak, and descended 250 feet towards Ardeth Lake before backtracking and to the right contour, traversing about the granite cliffs on the lake’s east flank, and finally descending northeast towards Edna Lake and the first trail we had seen since the morning.

We shot down the trail towards Hidden Lake, where we diverged from the trail and contoured west to the next drainage over. Feeling exhausted at this point, with even a slight incline on the trail causing my heart rate to redline, I told my friends I could take no more. Relenting, we made camp under the stars at a small tarn off trail for fifteen miles and five thousand feet of gain for the day.

Day 2

After a night of poor sleep, we all woke up early and were moving by 6:30. We packed out cinnamon rolls from the bakery for breakfast, so we were riding a sugar high as we ascended medium and then large sized talus to a truly exquisite lake basin.

The climb up to the pass was a mellow tundra stomp taking us past several more stunning lakes.

The final push to the top was sandy and steep, and at the top we were treated with a spectacular view north. The descent on small stable talus brought us to a swampy area and the beginning of a steep and slow ascent to Lake Kathryn.

Though the Sawtooths haven’t been extensively glaciated for at least 10,000 years, our ascent towards Lake Kathryn traversed through a jumbled moraine of Mini Cooper sized boulders that was quite tedious to navigate.

Eventually we reached a smattering of tarns, after which the travel to Kathryn was joyful in comparison.

After enjoying a snack here, we scrambled up some easy slabs before commencing a long ascending traverse across scree to begin the final push to the pass along a faint climber’s trail.

The descent down to Packrat Lake was steep and loose, so the descent was slow, and lunch came later than my stomach wanted. Sooner than my energy levels wanted, we were walking once again, a long sidehill on talus and tundra towards Blue Rock Lake. I started to feel low energy again here, but copious sugar, fear of embarrassment, and music sustained me.

Once there, we followed a steep climber’s trail up the lake’s inlet and past beautiful sheer granite faces with lots of weathering and desert varnish (manganese oxide I think).

After this narrow section, it was another grind up all tundra and then all the stages of glacial moraine to reach the pass. Fortunately, my energy rebounded well (dead cat bounce) and we all made it to the top in no time.

The north side of this pass was very steep, with the top thirty feet around 45 degrees. After this first contour, it was over one thousand feet of loose scree punctuated by a nice glissade to arrive at the Baron Lakes.

We snuck across the isthmus and briefly enjoyed the privileges a trail affords before bushwacking a half mile east to make camp at Upper Braxon Lake. A hard twelve hour day with fourteen miles and just shy of six thousand feet of vertical gain to show for it.