Wind River Range- Itinerary help for next summer

I’ve been thinking about this one for a few days now and waiting to see if some of our more Winds experienced members would offer some suggestions.

You have 3 issues early (Mid July) though the problems with these issues can vary depending on the amount of snow and there’s just no way to really know that until maybe as late as @ Memorial Day for sure. Even then the weather between Memorial Day and Mid-July will also make a difference. Couple of hot spells at the right time and lots of stuff may be melted out which brings up stream crossings and bugs. Anyway there are 3 inter-related issues.

1. Snow

2. Run-off from snow and impact on stream crossings

3. Bugs

For an example of snow issues Knapsack Col typically or often has a cornice. Not as dramatic as the one in that link but still very difficult to cross. This is the type of problem no one can guess about when considering a route that involves portions of either Dixon or Skurka’s high routes.

The snow is typically more of a problem on slopes facing northeast since any southern exposure and most western exposures tend to aid in melting. But still depends on the snow year and also the late spring/early summer weather. You can study a lot of these problems using the slope angle and sunlight exposure settings and even get up to date satellite imagery with a Caltopo premium subscription which isn’t all that expensive but the sat photos still won’t really be relevant until just about the dates of your proposed trip.

Just bringing or having microspikes might not mean much. Do you have experience actually using them? Any ski areas near enough to go up and practice? Not something to “learn on the job” though to be fair some of the more permanent snowfields in the Winds are not that steep but you can hardly follow portions of either high route without crossing passes where crossing/ascending/descending somewhat to very steep snow could be a problem. I’m picturing Sturka’s Douglas Pass with icy snow. Yowza! I’d hesitate to venture what would be a guess about what a particular pass I may have crossed between mid-August and Mid September might be like in Mid July since I’ve never seen it in Mid July.

You might just have to play this one by ear and have a fall-back plan but hey I appreciate your gumption. Work on it and learn what you can and hone your skills. You never get anywhere without taking the first steps. It’s just hard for me to presume to give you any solid advice based on my experience.

There are far more expert Wind’s people here, but I have spent quite a bit of time there.  Attempting anything close to the high route without experience  in that type of environment there is a bit chancy with few bailouts.  The winds are painted with a romantic brush, but they can be very unforgiving.  Snow, nasty thunderstorms at high altitudes, big hail, rain, bugs, high streams, altitude sickness,  bouldering and endless talus fields, sketchy passes early in the season, big altitude changes on the first day,  the list goes on.  I would plan your high route next year, with this year doing a hike with some of the components you talk about but with bailout. It will still be epic.  On a 5-7 day trip, your practical resupply would be an outfitter. Just do one of the classic Circ loops or some things out of Elkhart, bite the bullet on the crowds, and enjoy the warmup trip.  When people talk about crowds in the winds, they are nothing compare to the Sierras, Colorado, or the many trails back east.   Be sure to mix in a little off trail bouldering and talus fields this year, you will get a good dose of that if you do one of the high routes.  A shuttle forces you to cover certain terrain and distances, making a loop safer at first.   Forgive my preachy approach.  Have fun.

You’ll love the Winds. There are so many good options. A route thru the Cirque and up to Raid Peak would be nice. You could easily add a few nice side trips or loop around Grave Lake and Baptiste. A trip into Titcomb Basin is hard to beat too. I think Skurka has some recommended shorter sections to do on his high route; you might look at his stuff. I did Allen Dixon’s high route. It’s mostly off trail and is much slower going than trail walking; some 8 mile off trail sections are like a 20 mile day on the AT. That being said, I did the high route on my first trip to the Winds.

Thanks guys! Very helpful info. I’ve got some time, and plan to check snow conditions before making much of a plan. I like the idea of a loop hike that includes Titcomb Basin, Island Lake, Porcupine Pass, Green River Lake and try and tackle Knapsack Col as our off trail/technical part of the route. The High Route would be a goal for down the road.

I have done that very trip a number of times and it is a nice section.  Going in at Green Lakes, up Cube Rock pass, past Dale and Peak Lake, over Knapsack Col, through the basin anddown and around Island Lake and back up along Jean Lakes.   Then head out around Elbow Lake up past Summit Lake, No Name Lakes, off trail across the Plateau between Hidden Lakes and Glover Peak, back down to the Lozier Lake trail, which will drop you down to the cutoff to head backup over Porcupine Pass and out to the Green Lakes.   All very easy to navigate with the exception of the Lost Lakes Plateau.  Well, and some get a bit off track going west to east over knapsack but you’ll get there even if you end up working harder than you needed to.  The plateau west of Glover Peak is a bit tricky but a great place to camp if you wander around a bit and have to navigate more than you’d hoped.

I don’t mean to be a jerk but why couldn’t you carry seven days worth of food at one time?

I’ve done trips to WRR in ’12,’14,’16,’18, and ’21 and have yet to have a bad trip there -it’s a great place.

I’ve never been in July, and from what I hear you’ll encounter swarms of mosquitos.  You could see snow too depending on the snow year we  have this winter and spring.   I’d call in with the Great Outdoor Shop in Pinedale for reports before you go and adjust accordingly.

I did the Wind River High Route (Wilson-Dixon) in 2018 and it was amazing, and re-did some of that this year going the opposite direction.  Lots of those off trail sections now have some sort of use trail at least intermittently – I don’t remember much of that in ’18.

This year I bypassed Alpine Lake Basin by going over Angel Pass and Wall-Island Pass and that was a great alternate – beautiful area.  Note that I had about a 150′ crotch deep wade around a cliff on Wall Lake that could be a swim if the water was high.  I imagine you can get across up high with a couple of class 3 moves but I was already low and just decided to get wet.

A good reminder of how quickly the weather can change is this year I took a break at the base of Wall-Island Pass at the inlet of Wall Lake – it was beautiful warm and sunny.  Near the final push to the pass I noticed some clouds building and about 15 minutes later it was a thunder storm with strong winds and snow that lasted for about four hours and came back as a wintery mix on and off through the night.  In 2014 we got 10″ of snow in August at 11,500ft – amazingly at 10,000ft it had been all rain or at least didn’t stick to the ground.

I’ve been by Wall lake a dozen times or so, but not down by the water.  Was it snow/ice covered rock that put you along the shoreline?

No, it was a low snow year so no issues there.  I noticed the cliff band on the map and thought I might could rock hop along the edge as you often can, and I couldn’t.  I figured I could climb and find a way past the cliff, but decided it would be faster just to wade through.  It was easy, I just didn’t expect it.

If you like the idea of a high route but want to avoid off-trail travel, consider the Lizard Head plateau, which has a trail over it that stays at high altitudes for hours. You could do a counterclockwise loop from Big Sandy TH including Texas or Jackass Pass, Lizard head plateau and then Hailey Pass, for example. This loop would be 100% on trail, though the trial is rough and steep over Texas Pass and Hailey Pass and becomes a little faint in places on Lizard Head Plateau. There’s some video of these areas from a trip report I did from a late July trip here.

If you’d like to include some easier off-trail as part of your trip, check out the route from Middle Fork Lake to Hay Pass going Northward past Halls Lake, Lake 10542 and then Long Lake. You could loop back South via the North Fork / Hay Pass trail to the Freemont Trail. This section can be cut short midway by taking the Europe Canyon trail down the the Fremont Trail. Another moderate off-trail section is from Island Lake South to Wall Lake where you pick up the trail again at Cook Lakes.

Come in by Scab Creek and go to Middle Fork and pick up Lester’s route which is also part of Dixon’s route as described above up to @ Hay Pass. Take the Hay Pass trail towards lake Victor and fork off onto the use-trail route over to Timico which shows on a lot of maps as a trail. From there follow the Timico Trail to the CDT and go north over Baldy to Pole Creek and go over to upper Cook and take Wall-Island Pass to Island Lake (no wading around Wall! ;)  Then after a Cirque Tour hike out to Elkhart.

If the snow looked OK you could alter the beginning and take the right fork of the Scab Creek Trail and the Dream Lake Trail over across the CDT to the use trail out to Bonneville Lakes and go over that little pass by the Sentinel between Bonneville Lakes and Lake Sheila to Middle Fork to add a section of Both High Routes. That’s a really scenic stretch with Lake Donna and Pronghorn, Nylon and Mt. Bonneville.  Then hitch on to Lester’s route from the Middle Fork to the Dixon route to Hay Pass.

At any rate either way there should be a minimum of steep snow/passes, lots of the high routes and use-trail/off trail routes and terrific scenery.

I won’t repeat the cautions of the others. The Winds is my favorite place to go so far. I’ll link to 3 of my trips that should be relevant to give you some ideas:

North central Winds 2014 (from Elkhart Park – this was supposed to be a couple nights longer, heading briefly off trail to Wall Lake, but my young son wanted to get back home)

Northern Winds 2016 (from GRL – recon for my 2017 eclipse trip. Went up Tourist Creek drainage and over Osbourne Mtn. back to GRL)

Southern Winds 2020 (from Big Sandy – 11 days unsupported, which you could easily shorten)

Don’t forget a fishing pole as the fishing is excellent…… even for novice “fisher” men/women!