Sawtooths

With my summer internship finished on the 15^th, I found myself with 9 free days until Speedgoat 50K and the end of my time in Utah.  With a race approaching, it seemed a great time to rest the legs a bit and go for a long weekend of backpacking and climbing in the Sawtooths with Bria.  Having already climbed a number of the moderate classics together there in prior summers (mountaineer’s route on the perch, stur chimney on mt. heyburn and the finger of fate), we decided upon the SE face of warbonnet peak, described on Summitpost as the “grand teton of Idaho.”

To keep the pace/feel of the trip nice & mellow and since we both had sufficient time off, we decided to hike in the 8 miles to a base camp at Feather/Bead lakes on day 1, climb warbonnet on day 2, climb nearby packrat peak on day 3 and hike out on day 4.  The shuttle across Redfish was quick and easy as was the initial hike to alpine lake.  We made slow but steady progress on the cross-country terrain to the saddle north of Pt. 9769 where we were pleased to find the climber’s trail and a stellar view of the baron spire and the baron lakes.  

navigating extensive boulder fields above alpine lake

baron spire and lakes

We continued along the climber’s trail and dropped down the steep and loose slope north of warbonnet lakes, before finding a spectacular camping spot between the second and third feather lakes, below the striking Mayan Temple.  

camp - packrat on L, mayan temple on R (photo: bria)

Bria started setting up camp while I scouted the way from camp to the bead lakes for the approach in the morning (thoroughly enjoying the feeling of running, free of a big heavy pack which felt so slow and foreign on the hike in).  We enjoyed a pleasant evening and beautiful sunset before heading to bed, excited for warbonnet in the morning. 

view from camp, warbonnet is far looker's L (photo: bria)

Thanks to my recon, the way past the bead lakes went smoothly and we were soon slowly making our way up the approach slope to the east saddle where the route starts (II 5.7 6p).  Armed with some excellent beta from summitpost, the climb went smoothly, the only hiccups being the heinous rope-drag I induced upon myself linking pitches 3 & 4 and Bria being unable to clean a stuck cam on a pitch (but I managed to re-climb/downclimb to it and snag it on the descent).  

pitch 1

stellar pitch 5 handcrack

The exposed summit pitch was awesome and we took turns tagging the 2 summits, trying to capture pictures that accurately depicted how incredible the exposure was.

awesome summit pitch (photo: bria)

peering over the clean 1500+ drop from the summit 

on the northern (lower) summit (photo: bria)

The descent was slow but straightforward and fortunately the two occasions the rope hung-up on the pull I was able to easily climb up/down to free it.  We arrived back at camp in the early evening, having enjoyed a casual pace all day, ready for a swim and big dinner.

Despite a high chance of rain/storms in the forecast for Saturday, we awoke to beautiful blue skies and thus set off for the NE ridge of packrat peak (mostly class 3 & 4, a little 5.2).  Clouds quickly began to build during the slow boulder-hopping approach and approx. two-thirds of the way up the ridge, we decided to bail due to a combination of rain drops, dark storm clouds, and Bria battling some GI issues.  

class 4 up packrat

contemplating bailing (photo: bria)

It is never mentally easy to bail in the mountains but we made the right decision, getting caught in a steady rain on the last stretch back to camp.  We spend a few rainy hours relaxing and napping in the tent before the clouds cleared and we enjoyed a beautiful evening and dinner, amazed we had had this entire drainage to ourselves for 3 days & nights. 

The hike out was quicker and easier than expected and we arrived at the redfish inlet with just enough time for a quick swim before catching the noon boat back to the car/civilization.

Rose: the stellar (albeit only 5.7) handcrack pitch 5, the summit exposure

Thorn: having to bail on packrat (even though it was the right decision)

Bud: all the amazing-looking ski terrain in the Sawtooths I need to come explore

Thoughts: warbonnet is a remote and infrequently climbed peak but a worthy adventure, I added the route to MP here, there is a tremendous amount of adventurous climbing to be had in this area, the trail network in the Sawtooths appears/sounds to be extensive and well-maintained, thus conducive to big mountain runs