For this years Golden Larch trip, Yoko, Brooke, Jim, and I did the classic traverse from Carne Basin to Leroy Basin. We added in a side trip to Ice Lakes. Last time, Jim and I camped in Ice Lakes we experience the worse blizzard in our backpacking careers. We were both hoping to avoid a repeat adventure.
We headed up the trail to Carne Basin under beautiful blue skies. Our weather forecast was 3 days of full sun albeit freezing nighttime temps.
Carne basin gave us a glimpse of our first fall colors and golden larches. We looked to be slightly early for catching the larch trees in their yellow prime.
We took a long break at Carne Pass to hike up Carne Mountain and enjoy a preview of our upcoming traverse.
The rest of the day we hike through groves of yellow larch trees. This is truely a beautiful time of year to be in the North Cascades.
We setup camp next to a creek in a basin with a view of Buck Mtn. The night was super cold and we woke to frost on both sides of our tent flies.
We were under way soon after everyone’s toes froze. We couldn’t wait for the sun to crest the ridge above. Our morning hike took us through numerous fall colored basins.
We took our first break in the sunshine on a snowy bench.
Our traverse toward Freezer Pass was constantly interrupted by the need to take photos of the golden larches lighting up in the snow and the blue sky.
Before long, we had reached Freezer Pass and were looking up at Mt Maude and down at Ice Lakes. Our plan was to climb Freezer Peak this afternoon and then climb Mt Maude in the morning on our way to Leroy Basin. We now wondered if there might be too much snow on Mt Maude for our group. Everyone was in trail boots instead of climbing boots. Opps.
The climb of Freezer Peak gave us our answer. There was far too much snow for us.
We dropped back down to Freezer Pass, gathered our gear, and then dropped into Ice Lakes Basin. We were eager to setup camp. There were quite a few other people hoping to camp in the lake basin as well.
We ended up with a great camp with a view of the lake, easy access to water, and nice exposed rocks for a kitchen. Most importantly, we were surrounded by golden larch trees.
After another chilly night, we all agreed to try and hike out and drive home today. At a minimum, we would camp in the valley floor were we would have the protection of the trees from the clear night sky.
The hike up to Freezer Pass was a bit chilly and we were in snow up to our mid-calf. We were all glad to not be post-holing up Mt Maude today. At Freezer Pass, we took a quick break to take in the beautiful view.
Dropping off Freezer Pass on our way to Leroy Basin proved to be a bit trick. Lots of ice on the trail. Traction devices would have been a good idea.
We arrived Leroy Basin in early afternoon.
We had plenty of time to take in the view and enjoy one more break before dropping down the Leroy Basin trail. Seven-Fingered Jack and Mt Maude were extra impressive with a couple feet of snow on them.
Mt Maude is super scary looking from this side. No wonder everyone takes the trail from Freezer Pass. We now had a reason to return to this area. Jim never needs an excuss. He has now completed the traverse 6 times.
