Glacier Mountaineering Society

Sat, Jul 12 2014 - DeSanto Pass Traverse (View Original Event Details)

Coordinator(s):		David Schuler, Greg Kushnak
Participants:		Greg Kushnak, Phalen Schuler, Tim Horan, Ginger Flesch, Horan,

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Write Up:
This hike almost turned out to be one of those famous “all-nighters”, but arriving at the cars at 11 PM was not even close to the record. The first stop on the route from Lubec was adorable Lena Lake, and then up a goat trail to Lena Pass. Those beautiful spots consumed considerable time to relax and “take it all in”. The traverse to DeSanto Pass took more time than expected, as the goat trail was partially covered with steep snow, forcing us to climb loose scree in spots. We took another scenery break at DeSanto Pass, where plans for a group photo beside the DeSanto sign were nixed by a deep snowdrift that buried the sign. We crossed the beautiful “rainbow scree” over to Midvale saddle, which is a kaleidoscope of alternating stripes of red, green, yellow and other colors. The goat trail across the scree had a section of “ball-bearing” rocks, where we almost lost the coordinator over the cliffs below. It was getting quite late by the time we reached the Ellsworth saddle above Aster Park, so instead of continuing the planned route over to Appistoki Cirque, we took a shortcut by dropping into beautiful Aster Park to catch the South Shore Trail. The pleasant stroll thru Aster Park eventually required some alder-bashing and side-hilling at the lower end. We opted to cross the gorge and slippery rocks of Aster Creek to catch the Aster Overlook Trail for a pleasant moonlight stroll back to Two Medicine. Pictured on Midvale saddle with the “rainbow scree” and DeSanto Pass in background, L to R: Greg Kushnak, Ginger Flesch, Phalen Schuler, Jan Horan and Tim Horan.

Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Tim Anderson at twamontana@gmail.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.