We agreed to a 4 am wake up call, and we stepped off from camp at 5:20 am with the sun nowhere in sight. We didn’t need the llamas this day – so what do you do with llamas when you want to leave them behind? Nothing. Once you tie them off, they eat grass, and you give them water once a day. They “kushed” in the grass and watched while we prepped for the day with nothing but dork lights to guide our way. The night before, Gary scouted the trail and placed small reflecting lights for the first quarter mile so that we could find the trail and maintain it to start. After that, the trail was defined enough to follow. After the first half mile we struggled with a couple false starts up side trails that we hoped would lead us to the start of the wide “ramp” that led up to Wind River Peak. Once the sun came up, we found what we were looking for, and stopped for a quick breakfast of breakfast bars, beef jerky and dried fruit. By this time is was close to 9 am, and we were already behind schedule.
The ramp looked easy enough - a combination of alpine tundra mixed with marshy snow melt and boulders. The group soon spread out all along with 1.5 mile long ramp that led up to a secondary landmark at 12,500 feet. I mistook a bump on the high horizon for the Chimney Rock we were pursuing, and I directed Nora to this location. Being in such good shape, she arrived there long before me and the rest of the group. Once I got to the higher elevation, I could see that the real Chimney Rock and Wind River Peak were off to the right. No matter though, because there was a large snowfield blocking our way (considered too dangerous to climb on) that prevented us from proceeding up more directly. So, once others in the group caught up, we began skirting the large snowfield, which set us back quite a bit. Once we got even with the snowfield, we were faced with a very steep boulder climb that did not allow us any views of the path ahead. At this point it was getting to be around noon, and our backpacks and gear were making the boulder climbing difficult, so we dropped packs and left them behind while we continued to climb. Eventually we came out onto a large plateau at 12,500 ft with a view of Chimney Rock, and a clear view of the path to the peak – and another large snowfield that was going to block our ascent. Bummer. At this point it became clear that we would not be able to summit the peak. The snowfield was going to cause us yet another major detour, the day was getting on, and in addition we started seeing clouds above the peak and off to the north that seemed to indicate inclement weather was approaching. Gary explained that the Wind River Peak was on the Continental Divide, and weather approached from the backside of the peak from where we were. Thus, a storm could blow up on us and we wouldn’t know it until it was too late. Having called off our ascent, those of us that made it that far (we left Chuck and Kayla behind) stopped for pictures with the peak in the background, along with the rest of the major snow-covered peaks in the Wind River range off to the north. It was a beautiful spot, with grand views!
We retraced our steps down to where we left Chuck and Kayla, had our lunch in another wonderful spot overlooking some of the southern Ice Lakes from high above, then we worked our way down the way we came. The bad weather that looked like might blow in never materialized, and we were back in camp by 3 pm with time to ourselves. Some napped, some soaked their feet, some bathed, some swam. I took a shot at some trout fishing with a pole and spinner bait that I had brought along. I did not feel like wandering far from camp, and I had a few bites but no catches. Gary, on the other hand, had gone to another lake not to far from the lake we were camped on. The night before he only caught a couple, but today he came back with 9 keepers, a combination of various kinds of trout: brown, silver, brook, and rainbow. It was later in the day, and we had all refreshed ourselves, filtered as much water as we could contain, and started and finished supper. Gary and Michael cleaned his catch, then Gary sat down and began frying up his trout, after which he would hand over to the bone-removing hands of Kayla who produced chunks of trout for each of us to grab and eat. Yum! It was a great way to end the day, and once again we had a clear night with stars, and a few shooting stars to view. It was clear that everyone was tired, so after supper and eating trout, we all headed to bed. Tomorrow we would begin our 2-day trek back to the Worthen Meadows trailhead via a more northerly route to complete our Popo Agie Wilderness loop.
All in all, the scouts didn’t seem disappointed that we did not make the summit that day. We had done all we could do to prepare, and we gave it our best shot. While we knew there may be snow up close to the peak, we didn’t expect large swaths of snow to cause a major roadblocks on our route. We saw other people walking on the steep snowfields, but they had put special cramp-ons on their feet before walking on the snow. We never considered doing it ourselves, lest we slip and go sliding down the steep snow into a boulder field!
Wind River Peak & Trout Fry photos - click for more
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A journal of my Wind River backpacking trip from August 6-16, 2009 with members of Venture Crew 93.
Hi all, welcome to my blog of my trip to the Wind River mountain range with Venture Crew 93! Being that this is a blog, posts read from bottom to top with the most recent posting at the top. So, start at the bottom.Better yet, click here to read each day's blog starting with the first, then selecting the "Newer Post" at the bottom of each day to read the next day.