Silliman Pass, Cloud Canyon, and Lion Lake 2016
Upper Cloud
Canyon to Lion Lake
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
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A
fairly tough day today getting over Lion Lake Pass. The route we
took stayed on the west side of the river all the way up, at times we
almost got "cliffed out" and went through some dicey sections that I
would call class 3 despite this being a class 2 pass. This was in
the last "step" before the small tarn that is just north of the
pass. We came to this tarn from above. I believe the better
route is probably to stay much closer to the river. The large
permanent snow fields shown on this (old) map are no longer there,
there were only a couple of very small snow fields. Glacier Lake,
which is actually higher than Lion Lake Pass, was never visible to
us. Got my first pictures/videos of pikas near our campsite.
Journal Entry: Bit of thunder and more rain, brief hail yesterday. Cleared out early evening. Got started today about 8:30. Lots of talus and some challenges up to Lion Lake Pass—we didn’t pick a very good route. Should have gone up the middle to the tarn below the pass. Got to the pass about 11:30—spent an hour there. Dropped down to Lion Lake, traversed talus on the north shore, and found a campsite in trees overlooking the valley below. Best weather in a few days—no rain and just white clouds. Tomorrow we head down to Tamarack Lake.
 Lion Lake Pass ahead |
 view down canyon |
 lots of talus toward the pass |
 talus and view back to Whaleback |
 view down canyon |
 looking over Whaleback, Mt. Brewer in center |
 view down canyon, U-shaped valley |
 small tarn below Triple Divide Peak (pass is off right side) |
 small tarn with pass above it |
 view north from the pass |
 view south fromt he pass, Lion Lake on right Black Kaweah is the distant peak in the center |
 Lion Rock over Lion Lake |
 Steve and Ron on Lion Lake Pass |
 Lion Rock over Lion Lake |
 Lion Rock over Lion Lake |
 Lion Lake from its northeast shore |
 Lion Lake, looking east |
 view toward Lion Lake's outlet |
 Lion Lake looking east |
 view down the valley, Tamarack Lake in center |
 campsite west of Lion Lake overlooking valley |
 pika near our campsite |
 Triple Divide Peak in alpenglow |
 Lion Rock in alpenglow |