Piute Pass — Reason Number Seven

Piute Pass

2011 was a great year for snow in the Sierra. We were eager to get into the high country, and had initially planned a mostly cross-country route over Lamarck Col through Darwin Canyon then heading roughly north across Humphreys Basin to Lake Italy. We found it challenging to find any reliable trail condition reports, so we drove to our east side approach with a range of gear and a spirit of flexibility. Our only intel from the Mono Lake ranger was an update that the Italy Pass trail was off-limits due to concern for a sinkhole developing from rapid snowmelt. The popular North Lake trailhead was deserted and even on a hot July day it was clear that we would quickly hit snow on trail. We didn't have sufficient gear or confidence for some of the unmarked passes in these conditions, so we ditched the original plan and decided to head out on-trail over Piute Pass and see where our 10 days of food would take us. We explored Humphreys Basin, went up French Canyon to Pine Creek Pass, swung down Piute Creek to Evolution Creek, walked through the upper reaches of frozen Evolution Basin, tagged the stone hut at Muir Pass with nothing but snow in every direction, and made a visit to scenic Darwin Bench before heading back to Humphreys Basin for another night and finally returning to our car over Piute Pass. The raging snowmelt made several creeks too dangerous to risk fording and the deep snow kept us from taking cross-country shortcuts over steep passes, so we did plenty of backtracking. With the conditions changing daily in the mid-to late-July heat, following the same trail just a few days later provided all new scenery. We affectionately refer to this trip as our "Grand Meander" and it will always hold a special place in our many backpacking adventures. It was a rare treat to have these typically heavy-used trails nearly to ourselves - we saw only a handful of people in the entire 10-day trip and mainly along the JMT.

“The ranger at Evolution Meadow turned us back. We don’t have ice axes, we don’t have hiking poles, we don’t even have sunglasses. ”

— JMT section hikers from MN, aborting this year's section and heading home

LOCATION

John Muir Wilderness & Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness, CA, USA

MILEAGE

219 miles (some off-trail, & many over snow)

TOTAL CLIMB (& Descent): ~33,750'

DAYS: 10 SEASON: Mid-JULY

STARTING & ENDING TRAILHEAD

Piute Pass (North Lake)

Mt Mendel Evolution Range McClure Meadow

Map: Tom Harrison Mono Divide High Country Map & Kings Canyon High Country Trail Map

GuideBooks: The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, Trails by RJ Secor, Sierra South by Kathy Morey & Mike White from Wilderness Press

LOCATION

MILEAGE

TOTAL CLIMB (& Descent): ~33,750'

DAYS: 10 SEASON: Mid-JULY

STARTING & ENDING TRAILHEAD

Day 1 North Lake Trailhead 9284' (1.8 mi, 709' climb, 240' descent)

Day 2 Wilderness Boundary 9753' (9.4 mi, 3808' Climb, 2320' Descent)

Day 3 Lower Desolation Lake-Frozen 11,241' (15.5 Mi, 3540' Climb, 3818' Descent)

Day 4 Elba Lake 10,963' (13.7 Mi, 1958' Climb, 3636' Descent)

Day 5 Piute Creek 9285' (18.8 Mi | 6600' Climb, 6019' Descent)

Day 6 McGee Canyon 9866' + Muir Pass Dayhike (16.9 Mi, 5392' Climb, 4242' Descent)

Day 7 Sapphire Lake-Frozen 11,016' + Darwin Canyon Dayhike (14.3 Mi, 3722' Climb, 5360' Descent)

Day 8 Evolution Valley 9378' (18.7 Mi, 6682' Climb, 4830' Descent)

Day 9 Tomahawk Lake 11,230' (7.1 Mi, 1194' Climb, 1588' Descent)

Day 10 Loch Leven 10,836' (2.9 Mi, 191' Climb, 1657' Descent)