Peakbagger.com
Peak Lists	Climbers	Ranges	Geography	Help	Search	Log In

Ascent to Gannett Peak-Bonney Pass on 2019-07-12

Climber: Kyle Van Atta

Date:	Friday, July 12, 2019
Ascent Type:	Unsuccessful - Turned Back
Motorized Transport to Trailhead:	Car
Point Reached:	Gannett Peak - Bonney Pass
Location:	USA-Wyoming
Elevation:	12828 ft / 3909 m
Remaining Elevation:	978 ft / 299 m (7% left to go)
Ascent Trip Report Went on a trip to summit Gannett Peak, WY July 11-July 13, but was unsuccessful at reaching the top. The climbing party arrived at the Half Moon Lake Campground very late on the night of July 10 and began hiking from Elkhart Park about 0930 on July 11. After lugging our 50-60 lbs. packs for 16.2 miles we finally stopped to setup camp between the Lower Titcomb Lake and the unnamed lake just to below it. We originally wanted to camp above the Upper Titcomb Lake, but the climbing party was too tired from the hike in and it was about 1800 by this point. On July 12 half of the climbing party that was still feeling strong hit the trail at 0430 to make a summit attempt. Shortly after passing the Upper Titcomb lake the party put on crampons to deal with the icy snow leading all the way up Bonney Pass. One other party was ahead of us and summited Bonney Pass. The snow was frozen hard in many places, making it difficult for crampons to bite in, and hard to see the track of the group ahead of us. By the time we made it to the top of Bonney the sun was out, and the snow was softening quickly. The part ahead of us turned around because the snow was so soft that they were post holing up to their waists and figured the snow on Gannett would be similar. From the top of Bonney we could see that there was a large amount of snow still on Gannett. It was around 0930 when we made the top of the pass. After some deliberation about how long it would take to reach the summit and return we decided that it would probably be late afternoon before we could reach the summit and night time before we would return to camp. We also had concerns about the softening of the snow on Bonney Pass with the sun coming out. A hard decision was made to turn back. The snow was significantly softer on the descent. The descent was significantly easier than expected, but did require a self arrest with an ice axe. The party ahead of us glissaded most of the way down. After meeting the other half of the party by Upper Titcomb Lake and filling them in on the events of the day, we all returned to camp at about 1600. This ended up being a 10.5 mile day and we only went to Bonney Pass. A storm also moved in as we returned to camp, reassuring us that we had made the correct call that day. On July 13 the climbing party hiked the 16.2 miles back out to Elkhart Park. Though mosquitos had been an annoyance during the first two days of the trip, they were out in full force on the final day. The density was comparable to summers in Alaska or rainy seasons in the tropics. I recommend that anyone going into the Wind River Range during this time frame brings mosquito nets, long clothing, and bug spray. In hindsight if the conditions were a little better we could have made it. We could have pushed this trip back a few more weeks. Also 3 days of hiking was a pretty short window to bag this peak. We should have allowed ourselves 4 or 5 days, so we could have split up the distances we were hiking each day.