Trinity Alps High Route

[Aaron Madsen]

I haven’t been able to get this trip off my mind since I came across it on Leor Pantilat’s blog about a year ago. Info on it seems pretty scarce, aside from Leor’s description and a topo map I stumbled across on Caltopo. Has anyone here tried it? Leor did it in 2 days, but he’s in far better shape than I, and so I was thinking 4 days with overnights at Smith/Morris Lake, Grizzly Lake, and Boulder Creek Lakes. My only other concern would be how technical the climbing is around all of those peaks. I guess that I can bypass any of the hairier climbs, but it would be awesome to summit all of those peaks in 4 days. I’m looking at early September to minimize any potential issues with the snow this year.

[Aaron Madsen]

https://caltopo.com/m/1E4P

https://pantilat.wordpress.com/2015/09/30/trinity-alps-high-route-part-i-little-granite-and-sawtooth/

[Clue M]

An epic route.    I thought that all posts on it were scrubbed from BPL in 2008 and  it’s now forbidden to mention it, lest people Google and see those incredible photos.

[Ken Thompson]

I’ve been interested since Deems Burton posted the map and photos years ago. Only a handful have done it. You won’t need climbing gear. But you will need excellent navigation.

[Jeff Cadorin]

This is the trip I want to complete by summers end as well! Last summer I did grizzly to east fork lakes going up and over the saddle next to Ceaser peak. You won’t need climbing gear but you will need to visit the area and do some scouting from one or 2 of the drainages to confirm routes IMO. If you can’t do some pre-trips then I would bring a rope and a few anchors to help if you do go the wrong way. It is steep and all rock. When on the backside of ceaser peak, a huge rock slide let go on the other side, the place is alive, raw and beautiful. I have some pics and videos and such. I plan to do a little more scouting on a few trips soon to help piece it all together. The trek between papoose and Grizzly looks very slow and I couldn’t pick a great line out. Going from ceaser peak down to mirror lake looks very tough from the pics and Intel I have found. I couldn’t find the right place to poke through the ridge. I plan on going up that drainage first this summer to see it from the bottom up.

 

I have no idea what your skill is or what kind of pace you can keep but this route is certainly not for the faint of heart. The trinitys are steep and miles tick off slower then most places. 4 days is certainly doable but really read those maps and contour lines, the elevation gains and loses can slow you down. Water wasn’t a problem last summer in the drought for me so Atleast that’s one thing you certainly won’t have to worry about this year.

 

Where do you plan to start from?

[Aaron Madsen]

I plan to start at the canyon creek trailhead. Day 1 would be up to Alpine Lake and then over to Smith and Morris Lakes. Day 2 would involve summiting Sawtooth and Ceasar, and then down to Grizzly for the night. Day 3 would be Thompson, Wedding Cake, and Hilton with the last night spent at Boulder Creek Lakes. That may be a little ambitious, and so I could spend an extra night at Alpine Lake, Kalmia Lake, or Mirror Lake. That would shorten the days at the beginning of the trip, but that still leaves a long day from Grizzly to Boulder Creek. I don’t see a great way to break that day up at all.

[Ken Thompson]

http://www.pbase.com/losthiker/talps_high_route&page=all

http://looseleafpictures.com/?cat=16

[Aaron Madsen]

I am planning on a trip up to Grizzly in June, and then probably will have two or three other short trips into the Trinities before I attempt the whole route. Hopefully that will give me some time to scout out part of the route. The part that concerns me the most is going from sawtooth to grizzly. I also need to find someone crazy enough to try it with me as this is not the kind of trip that I am comfortable tackling solo.

[Jeff Cadorin]

The climb from canyon creek trailhead to alpine I have heard is brutal. If I was doing it tomorrow I would go day one to Alpine. Day 2 I would get to Kalmia. 3rd night would be at Grizzly. 4th at papoose lake and 5th at boulder creek. You still have about a 9 miles trek all down hill from boulder creek on the last day.

 

Your itinerary is doable but those are some long days back to back.

[Jeff Cadorin]

In may I want to go to mirror lake and scope it out. I may go up and over to Kalmia for a night as well to get an idea of how long it will take to traverse that section. June for grizzly should be great weather. Maybe I can join you on that one if timing works out. I already have plans for the first part of the month but the 3rd or fourth weekend I may be free.

When I did grizzly last summer it was during the fires and the haze killed a lot of the view. Be nice to go back when I can see everything all day and not just in the morning when the smoke was cleared out.

 

[Aaron Madsen]

Jeff, how difficult does it look going from the ridge down into Papoose and then back up? It looks like about 1500 ft down to the lake. I guess whether I plowed ahead to Boulder creek, or went down to papoose for the night would depend on the difficulty of the route and how tired I was.

[Jeff Cadorin]

I haven’t seen it in person, only pictures and talking with a friend. I think that is one of those calls, that late in a trip, that would have to be on the fly like you say. The walls out of grizzly on the way to Thompson are very steep and it will be a long morning climb for sure. Looking from Thompson over to wedding cake from canyon creeks looks like a “granite highway” and not boulder fields like climbing out of grizzly.

 

Ok now I want to head out this weekend lol :)

[Jeff Cadorin]

Hey Aaron, email me please. I am messing around with a route and it’s to big to upload the map here. Rock golfer at Gmail dot com. Take all spaces out when retyping it.

 

Basically go up to Smith from canyon creek for the first night and bypass alpine. Peak bag sawtooth and make it over to Kalmia for the night. From Kalmia drop to mirror then up, around and bag Thompson peak. Descend to lois lake instead of all the way down to grizzly. Next day bag wedding cake on our way to either boulder creek lakes or down to upper canyon Creek.

[Joshua Felts]

I am gonna attempt tackle this route next week and already had good set of maps from Cal Topo, but was wondering if anyone had specific gps pts so I could easily load these onto Gai for backup. Unfortunately I couldn’t find this info online, perhaps I’ll just have to draw the route out myself.

 

[Aaron Madsen]

Josh, I still haven’t done it, but it’s still on my list. How’d it go? Trip report?

[Ken Thompson]

Wonder if fire was an issue? 299 closed. Been a mess.

Still want to do this trip myself.

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