Distance: 50 mi.
Elevation Gain: 10500 ft.
Vanessa and I had been to the Wind River Range a few years ago when we had the fortune of making it up Pingora but ended up getting rained out on our other objectives. We needed to be in Wyoming again for the wedding of our friends Rodrigo and Erin, so we thought it would be a great opportunity to get back into the Winds and ascend the highest point in Wyoming.
We took the whole week prior to the wedding off so we could leave town the previous Saturday (7/20). We drove all day and camped near West Yellowstone at a campground I could reserve a site at for $28 (Rainbow Point Campground). We chose the site for a bit of acclimating at 6,500 ft. We arrived just before dark and set up camp. We awoke with the sun and headed into West Yellowstone for some breakfast and for some last minute shopping before driving the last 4 hours (through Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP) to the Glacier Trail trailhead near Dubois, WY. The signs off the the main highway here are for Whiskey Basin Trailhead, but just keep driving this road past Torrey, Ring, and Trail Lakes to the road’s end.
We arrived at the trailhead and did some last minute repacking before starting up the trail just before 1 PM. It was a clear afternoon without much threat for afternoon storms so we took our time making our way up and over Arrowhead Pass. (Note: there was a thorny shrub flanking the lower parts of the trail that caused major skin irritation, so you might want to wear pants!)
We did pass a handful of groups on this portion of the trail; people we would see a few days later, while descending from the summit. The ascent was mostly pleasant and we made our way down through the Dinwoody Lakes area. This is where the mosquitoes began and pretty much never ended. As we approached Phillips Lake around 7 PM they got really thick and we became desperate to find a place to set up camp. We went past the outlet stream where some others were camped and searched around some granite slabs for a flat spot that was less buggy. We eventually worked our way back down to the creek a little ways away from the lake and were a bit secluded.
It was pretty buggy all evening and morning but our bug headnets were a godsend. We packed up and were moving again by about 8:30 the next morning. The travel past Double, Star, and Honeymoon lakes was uneventful except for the bugs. The descent to Dinwoody Creek was quick. We crossed the washed out bridge for Downs Creek, which still nicely spans the deepest part of the creek and was in pretty good shape. Ankle to knee deep wading was required on either side of the bridge and across a few more creek branches. Overall they were not very difficult crossings.
We continued on past Big Meadows and then reached Klondike Creek, where we followed a way trail north up the slope until reaching an awkward log crossing that we scooched across. After descending back to the main trail we decided it would just be easier to wade through on the return trip (which went fine in cheap plastic sandals). We continued on to near the end of Wilson Meadow where we set up camp just before 4 PM because we thought we might get rained on shortly due to building storm clouds and distant thunder. It didn’t end up raining on us but we did end up in the tent early, hiding from mosquitoes.
There were brief thunderstorms overnight but we awoke at 3:30 to clear skies and were on the trail a short while later. We managed to cross all of the Gannett Creek crossings in the dark by log or rock hopping (thanks campsite buddies for the beta!). We continued up the trail until its end at a glacial lake and lots of boulders below the Dinwoody Glacier (it’s all glacier on the USGS map…sad). We saw several less-buggy campsites along this boulder field. We traversed west on snow and rocks around a buttress to about 11,800′ where a path up a talus field takes you to the Gooseneck Glacier. We followed the ridge up the edge of the glacier to just below the Gooseneck Pinnacle, where we traversed out onto the glacier and roped up to ascend the finger of the glacier that goes south back onto the ridge above the Gooseneck Pinnacle. It is sometimes difficult later in the season to pass this portion of the route, as there is a nasty bergschrund, but it was still well covered this time of year and most folks seemed to be solo’ing up the glacier.
Once on the ridge it was easy scrambling and snow travel to the south ridge of Gannett Peak. We were however above 13000′ at this point and the altitude was getting to Vanessa, not to mention there were multiple transitions on and off snow, so it was slow going. We were leapfrogging along the way with 3 gentlemen from California that would be our only other summit company on this day. The final snow slopes up to the summit were not particularly difficult but they did include a fair amount of exposure, as there were precipitous cliffs to the west and steep sloppy wet snow on the east side that you certainly wouldn’t want to fall down.
We finally reached the summit at about 10:45 AM and enjoyed the views. The bugs were not a problem at least, but there was no wind, no shade, and it was pretty hot. We started heading back down about a half hour later and were relieved once we were back off the glacier and on easy terrain back to camp. We went through more water than anticipated on this cloudless day, so we found a snowmelt stream to filter water at ~ 12800 ft on the south side of Gooseneck Glacier and chatted with another party that had decided to turn around because they ran out of time. This climb will probably take most climbers longer than they anticipate. We didn’t make it back to camp until almost 4 PM (12 hours after leaving camp, which was 4 miles from the summit…that’s at least 150% our normal travel time) and we weren’t really up for moving camp back toward the trailhead. We of course retired early again due to the bugs.
We slept in until almost 9 and awoke to light rain and a brief reprieve from the mosquitoes. We packed up and set a really good pace down the trail, leapfrogging our California friends and then making good time back up the hill to the Dinwoody Lakes.
We had given ourselves five days for this trip and intended to camp at Double Lakes. After reaching Double Lakes, Craig decided to do some fishing but it was too windy to entice any fish. It was about 3 PM and we decided to push for Phillip’s Creek and campsite on the south side of Arrowhead Pass. We reached Phillip’s Creek at 4:15 PM and decided to continue to the stream and campsite we had seen just below treeline on the other side of the pass. We reached the final campsite at 5:30 PM and realized we only had 5 or 6 more miles until we could hike out and spend a night away from the mosquitoes!!! We decided to go for it.
When we had 3 miles left, we realized that this would be very tiring and our pace slowed down to a crawl. But we managed to make it back to the car with a bit of daylight left at 8 PM. Miraculously there was a room available that evening in Dubois and even a couple restaurants open until 10 PM!
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Recommended brew: Culmination Brewing Multnomah County Stout 2018…not a local one, but what I carried up the mountain with me. Delicious!
Gear Used:
- Aluminum crampons
- Aluminum ice axe
- Backpacking tent
- Bear canister
- Fishing pole
- Gaiters
- Glacier glasses
- GPS
- Harness
- Helmet
- Ice screw (not used….silly to bring)
- Locking carabiners
- Mountaineering boots
- Picket
- Prusiks
- 30m Half Rope
- Sleeping pad
- Summer sleeping bag
- Stove
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
- Water filter
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