Mount Pinchot, Mount Wynne

24-Jul-93

By: Barbara Cohen

Our group of 5 left the parking lot at 6:30 an on 7/24 for the long trek up to Taboose Pass. The amount of water in the trail this year is amazing. The two major stream crossings required some fancy footwork in order to maintain dry boots. We camped at lake 10,800, four lakes north of Lake Marjorie and enjoyed a well-deserved happy hour. On Sunday, we started for Pinchot Pass at 5:45 am. Going up the class 2 west ridge of Wt. Wynne got us to the summit at 8:30. Our next goal was to figure out the easiest route over the class 3 ridge between Wynne and Pinchot. We tried to stay high, first on the east side of the ridge and then on the west, finally moving back to the east and up the easy slope to Wt. Pinchot, arriving around 10:15. We were the first people to visit these peaks this year. The next adventure was to follow R.J.'s book and descend via the northwest face. It went fine for a while, but eventually led us to cliffs which were not so easily bypassed. Ultimately, we made it to a steep snow field. If the snow had been any harder, it would have been much more difficult to make our way down using two rocks in lieu of an ice axe. Ultimately, we made it back to camp at 1:30, to the pass at 3:30 and to the cars at 7:30pm. The participants were Jeff Kent (who got his first 2 SPS peaks), Tanya Ericson, Don Croley and the leaders. Merci mille fois to Randy.