Larrabee and Winchester Loop

Mount Larrabee and Winchester Mountain Loop: 8-31-08

A great hike. We started at 8:30 am about 1 mile from Twin Lakes. Hike up to the beautiful Twin Lakes and then on up towards Mount Larrabee. It was very cold and foggy, and it started snowing shortly after. We kept pushing past Low Pass, High Pass and then overshot the point to leave the trail for Larrabee's south west ridge. Traversed across from the southeast ridge to southwest, over snow, rocks and to a gulley. Went up the gulley to Heather covered slopes, back on a trail for a bit and then to 2 steep, rocky gullies. Took the right gulley and climbed 3rd class up loose and crumbly rock to the summit. Lots of rocks kicked loose. The views from the summit were amazing but short lived, the fog rolled in just after we soaked up the views of the rugged glacier north of Larrabee. Totally cravasses and mean looking. Swallow a hiker in a second. Then we descended, dodged more rock, took the western gulley down (they both go) and back to hook up with the trail to High Pass. Descended to Low Pass and weighed our options, decided to ascend Winchester via the knife edge north ridge. Very exhilarating. Mainly class 3 with some 4th. On to the summit of Winchester was easy, we ascended to the final summit on the east side. Checked out the lookout and headed back to Twin Lakes. Back to truck 1 mile down the road at 3:00 pm. Total 7 hours. Great Hike. And it snowed and hailed the majority of the time, but it was light and we were still dry.

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