Vennacher Needle, Observation Peak, Mt. Prater

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Loren and I slept on the ground at the 5,400' Taboose Pass trailhead on Friday night after driving over from SLO. Our planned route for the next day was Taboose Pass - Vennacher Col - Dumbell Lakes Pass - Observation Peak - Cataract Creek Pass - Amphitheater Lake. It would be a ~23 mile day with more than 11,000' of elevation gain, so we were up and hiking by 5:00. The weather report for the weekend was great, so our overnight packs didn't include tents, rain gear, or a change of clothes. My pack weight was less than 18 lbs without water. 

The first mile or so of the trail meanders through the desert. We were up above that within 30 minutes and into the Taboose Creek canyon and thankful to have already gained a few thousand feet before the sun came out. The trail itself and the terrain reminded me a lot of Shepherd Pass only without the random 1,000' of downhill halfway along. Loren moved really fast and I pushed myself to keep up. We made it to the pass in 3 hours. It was my first time and Taboose Pass. The views of Cardinal Mountain to the north and down to Arrow Peak and the Bench Lake area of the JMT to the west were great. 

Not Vennacher Needle

We started down the west side of the pass keeping an eye out for the old trail that reportedly branches to the north from the main trail in a meadow about 1 mile from the pass. We must have missed the official turn-off but spotted the old trail and cut cross-country over to it. Though tough to follow in spots, we followed it most of the way down to the South Fork of the Kings where we crossed on a log and found the JMT. 

Until that time there was some uncertainty as to whether we'd use Cartridge Pass or Vennacher Col to access the Lakes Basin. The Col would be much more direct but could also have some snow to contend with. We didn't carry crampons or ice axes. We had spotted the Col from the old Taboose Pass trail and decided that it looked passable, so we followed the JMT north from the creek crossing for a mile or so before leaving for Vennacher Col. The first part of our cross country route followed a creek drainage below treeline but eventually we popped out onto some slabs, then some talus/snow just below the Col. We stood at the Col 6.25 hours from the trailhead. The scramble to the summit took only about 20 minutes. 

At Vennacher Col.  Route up Vennacher Needle
is in the background.

We hustled back down to the col where we paused to plot our route across Lakes Basin and into Dumbell Basin. It was a shame that we'd have to pass through the Lakes Basin so quickly. It would be a nice place to pass a weekend. As we plotted the route, we ruled out crossing basins via one of the random unnamed crossings I picked out on a map; they all looked really cliffy and class 5-ish up close. The most sensible route would be Dumbell Lakes Pass which looked ridiculously far away (one of the furthest gullies on the right-hand ridgeline inthis photo). We checked and double checked maps and GPSs hoping that the pass would move one gully closer, but it never did. So we descended the loose western side of Vennacher Col knocking one or two extra large rocks as we went. We picked our way down the talus past the upper lakes and eventually just below treeline to the base of Dumbell Lakes Pass. The ascent of the pass was class 1 or easy class 2 the entire way on the south side. We were on top of the pass 10 hours from the trailhead. 

Palisades

Southwest toward Cartridge Pass

South Fork of the Kings

Observation Peak from Dumbbell Lakes Pass

We identified Observation Peak across the basin below and planned our route up it. The peak itself wasn't all that impressive from our vantage point but the views from its summit were reportedly great. The north side of the pass still had a considerable amount of snow. We switchbacked across the top section on top of the snow then descended a bit on rock before returning to the snow for a glissade to the finish. We talus-hopped our way around the east side of the lake then ascended grassy slopes below the south side of Cataract Creek Pass (low point on the ridgeline here). At that point we dropped our packs, prepared for the final 800' summit push, and then inspected the cornice that we figured might block the descent route on the opposite side of the pass (we planned to go that way down to Amphitheater Lake after summitting Observation). It certainly did block most of the way, but we picked out a spot where we could bypass it by some easy class 3 moves. That resolved, we turned back and headed for the summit. It took about 30 minutes to reach the summit from the pass. 

Near the Summit of Observation

Signing the Observation Peak Summit Register

Camp at Amphitheater Lake

The views at the top were as advertised though some smoke from a fire to the south had rolled in. Views toward the Palisade Crest were the most impressive. Loren had thoughts of traversing to Mt. Shakspeare but abandoned those on account of the fact that it was already 6:00 p.m. and we had a lot of semi-technical descending to do before dark. We signed the register and headed back to Cataract Creek Pass. From there we bypassed the cornice then descended down to Amphitheater Lake and around its north side. The south side of the lake seemed to be the standard way to go from my online research, but it was blocked by snow. The north side was fine also, except for this awkward move. We made camp at one of the upper Amphitheater Lakes that was on the way to Upper Basin Crossing. We'd use it to access Upper Basin and eventually Mt. Prater the next morning. 

The next morning we were up and moving by 6:00 with Loren setting a blistering pace. My legs were tired from the 23-mile, 11,000'+ day we had just done. Nonetheless we made it to the top of Upper Basin Crossing in about an hour and a half. There was a short class 3 section at the top. Split and Prater were clearly identifiable. An original, probably over-ambitious (for me at least) plan included bagging Split, Prater, and Bolton Brown this day. At this point I figured I'd be lucky to get Prater, so we made that our main goal for the day. We had both done Split previously. Loren held onto some hope of doing the traverse to Bolton Brown as well, but I was much less hopeful. 

It took us a few hours to descend to the JMT and ascend grassy slopes to the saddle between Split and Prater. By that point Loren was well ahead of me, so I took a long break while I dropped my pack and grabbed my camera and GPS for the final summit push. 30 minutes and 1,000' later I caught up to Loren sitting and looking at this narrow rock bridge, which was the final obstacle between us and the summit. It's hard to tell from the photo, but there is quite a bit of exposure. We ended up crawling across and using some cracks off the east side of the ledge for extra footholds. We paused at the top to sign the register, enjoy the views, and decide to forego Bolton Brown. 

Descending back to Upper Basin

We eventually crawled back across the exposed rock, descended back to Upper Upper Basin, then cut cross country to the southwest to the JMT. We passed lots of hikers heading north. From the log crossing over the South Fork of the Kings we mostly retraced our steps back up the old Taboose Pass trail, though we were able to follow it for longer before intersecting the new trail. At the pass we met a woman named Christy who was out for a dayhike and about the turn back for the trailhead. She kept a good pace so we all walked together back to the trailhead together. As we got within a mile of the car, I was surprised and disgusted at how low in elevation the trailhead was. I didn't recall that it was so far out into the Owens Valley when we left the previous morning.

Back to the Car

Day 2 ended up at about 22 miles with 4,500' of elevation gain.