Jim and I took the last 2 days to return to climb Gunn Peak. We were there in early June with George but there was too much snow enroute to reach the summit. Since Jim had never been to Gunn Basin in the summer, he wanted to see if we could follow the ridge route to the basin and find the infamous Infinity Tarn.
With no goal except reaching the basin on Day 1, we left home around 9am and hit the trailhead at 11:30am. With the spring runoff completed, we were able to rock hope across the river. On our June trip, we had to bushwack 200 yards upstream to find a log crossing.
The climbers path straight up the ridge was quite a bit easier than June mostly due to the number of climbers that had created new trails avoiding all the down trees. The scramble along the cliff bands was same as always. Interesting terrain in a no fall zone.
Once we cleared the cliff band, we hit the brush. Wow! So much brush. So humid. Very different that June when the basin was full of snow.
We followed the creek bed until it turned and headed up the ridge. Ferns, slide alder, and small brush trees covered the slope. Jim took sometime to do trail maintenance to ease our trip back to the car.
There was a crux on the ridge climb which involved squeezing between two trees and you climbed a very steep and lose dirt slope. As with most of this climbers path, there was no work around. You had to go through the trees.
In the end, we took 20 minutes to cut down one of the trees using Jim’s 3 inch saw blade.
From time to time, the ridge climb would break out on to cliff bands which had to be scrambled. These cliff bands also provided the opportunity to take a break from the brush and enjoy the view.
Eventually we broke out of the brush and hit the heather slopes but not until I found a bees nest and received 3 stings.
Our goal was to camp at the Infinity Tarn. Jim had read and seen many pictures of it. The pond was perched on the side of the ride offering amazing views. We spent the next hour trying to find the pond. Gunn Basin is not that big. We couldn’t believe that we couldn’t find it considering so many trip reports mentioned it. In the end, we settled for a high camp on the ridge of Gunn Point in the middle of Gunn Basin.
The night was cold so I was in no hurry to get up until the sun hit our tent. I was hoping it would bring great warmth but it was accompanied by a cold wind. Looks like I would be climbing in my sleeping tights.
After the snow we had in June, Jim and I were sure to pack our crampons. When we reach the upper slopes on Gunn Peak, we found easy walk arounds for the snow patches.
The summit ridge of Gunn Peak was our turn around spot in June. The skinny ledge on the summit ridge was full of steep snow. Today, it was completely snow free.
After the ledge, it was an easy class 2 scramble to the summit.
We took our time and enjoyed the summit. The wind had stopped.
As we enjoyed the summit views, Jim spotted the Infinity Tarn. Way out on the ridge in Gunn Basin. We decided this is how most climbers find the tarn. It isn’t located in an area anyone would find naturally. We decided to stop there for lunch on our way out.
The way back to camp was quick. We did decide to rappel the class 3 gully.
We quickly packed up and headed off to find the Infinity Tarn. So beautiful even though the clouds were rushing over the ridge blocking our view of Mt Baring.
We enjoyed our lunch dreading our return down the long, hot ridge.
We reached the car in just over 3 hours.
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