8 replies to this topic

[ScottO]

Greetings Everyone:

Well, this is the last of my trip reports from 2010. On this day, Kristin, Sandy, and I started off from the Lawn Lake TH. Sandy split off on her own at the Ypsilon Lake trail and hiked to the Fay Lakes. Meanwhile, Kristin and I continued on the Lawn Lake trail. Our plan was to climb Mummy Mountain via its long southern slope and descend the Mummy-Hagues saddle to Lawn Lake. Depending on weather and motivation, we also considered the possible extension over to Hagues Peak.

There are a few panoramas in this report. If you have trouble seeing the whole image, try right clicking on it and selecting view image or view image in a new tab or something like that.

We took our first break at the Black Canyon trail junction about 6 miles in. With an early start and a good pace, we managed to arrive there while the trail was still in the morning shadows. Looking north, we had a good view of Hagues Peak. Lawn Lake is beyond the trees in the left middle of the picture about half a mile away. The Lawn Lake trail spends a lot of time next to the Roaring River. Here you see some of the destruction caused by the failure of the Lawn Lake dam in 1982 which also resulted in the creation of the Alluvial Fan.



After our stop, we continued on the Black Canyon trail for a few tenths of a mile where we left the trail. The bushwhack through the woods, up to the open slope of Mummy Mountain, is fairly short. The woods are very open and easy to get through. But the last bit is very steep. Once you clear the woods, it's a long climb up open tundra. The views from the southern slope a very nice. This is a stitch of 3 photos stretching from Twin Sisters on the distant left all the way to the summit of Fairchild Mountain on the right.



Another look south from a little farther up. The slope was a bit steeper here than the spot of the last picture. In the foreground, near to far, is Potts Puddle in the cloud shadow, Mount Tileston, and Bighorn Mountain.



Facing west, you can get a feel for the angle of our climb. It's about 2,400ft of gain from the trail to the summit. The three visible summits, left to right, are Mount Chiquita, Ypsilon Mountain, and Fairchild Mountain. The Fay Lakes, where Sandy was headed, are roughly between us and Ypsilon below the south face of Fairchild. The sky was clear earlier, but clouds were increasing as we climbed.



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ScottO

[ScottO]

There's a false summit a short distance before the true summit. I stopped to take a few photos while Kristin continued on to the summit. Looking down the rough west face of Mummy, I got my first view of Lawn Lake far below. You get a good view of the scoured path left by the flood. The Black Canyon trail junction is near where the Roaring River makes the sharp turn and starts heading towards the top of the picture.



Another angle.



A view of the summit from the same spot.



This is a stitch of 4 pictures from the false summit. Twin Sisters on the left across to Ypsilon, with Kristin making her way to the summit on the far right.



We were on the summit by 11:00AM about 2 ½ hours from our break at the Black Canyon trail junction. There were more clouds and they were darker, but it was still a nice time on the summit. This is another stitch of 3 photos bounded by the summit cairn on the left and Fairchild Mountain on the right with the Crystal Lakes below.



2 of 4

ScottO

[ScottO]

As the weather seemed to turn for the worse, we quickly decided Hagues was out and a fast descent was in. Here's a view of Fairchild, Hagues, and the lakes in a brief burst of sun through the thickening clouds. Our descent was an arc from the lower right of the picture down to the center to meet with the trail from The Saddle (visible in the center to the right of the lakes).



We experienced a brief spell of wind and freezing rain as we left the summit ridge. Here you see the rain moving in to the west. I don't recall that we got any close lightening. And most of the descent was dry and breezy.



The final bit of our descent to the trail was down the gully in the center.



As always, I found some flowers to shoot.



And another.



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ScottO

[ScottO]

Bits of blue sky were showing up to the west and north. Here's the view west over Fairchild's southeast ridge. The Crystal Lakes are just in the shot, on the lower right.



I saw this one bleached stem in the brush and thought it was an interesting contrast.



As we continued on the trail to Lawn Lake, the sun came out again.



Unfortunately, by the time we got to the lake, it was back in the shadows of the clouds. On the bright side, it wasn't raining and it was warm enough that we still dipped our feet in the lake while we refueled for the rest of the hike.



We were near the south end of the lake. Here you can see the outlet where the flood began. We had some rain on our return to the TH but finished in a hot afternoon sun.



Thanks for coming along on my 2010 hikes.

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ScottO

[GLENNinPA]

Nice report and great picts as always. Thanks for taking us along on your adventures. They were great.

[Rhonda]

Wonderful report of a hike I'd never try. Thanks for the great pictures and narrative. Boy, that Lawn Lake flood sure left a scar. Interesting.

[iceberg]

You got some great shots Scott! This was the most cardio exhausting hike I did all summer - even more so than Longs. That south slope goes on forever & it's very steep. Plus by the time we got to that point we had already hiked 6 miles to get to the Black Canyon turnoff. I'd had Mummy on my list for quite some time, & wanted to do the south slope, but was always a little nervous about finding the route at the beginning that's still in the trees. Thank you Scott for humoring me yet again & agreeing to do this hike. The views from the top were fantastic. I love looking down on Lawn & Crystal lakes. I didn't get to enjoy the views heading up the south slope as much as I wanted to because I was trying to keep moving as fast as I could to beat the weather. The higher we climbed, the more clouds rolled in from the west. This year I'm heading straight to Hagues, since we weren't able to get it on that trip. Here I am on the summit, totally spent after climbing 4885ft!

[jflo]

Super awesome report!!! So glad you all were able to get as far as you did before the storm moved in.

Loved all your reports Scott!!

[renate1]

Great report and pics as always.