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Eagle Scout Peak Adventure Run

PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:12 pm
by Pantilat
Eagle Scout Peak is located just south of Kaweah Gap along the Great Western Divide in a remote region of Sequoia National Park. While it's a long way to Kaweah Gap (21 miles from Crescent Meadow), the scenery is phenomenal and worth the effort. Last year on the same weekend I pursued a speed objective on the Rae Lakes Loop, and having already experienced the spectacular scenery of the High Sierra Trail to Kaweah Gap on a climb of Mount Stewart in July 2010, I figured this would be a great one to do for time this year.

I was hoping to go around 11 hours roundtrip and started at 4:20 a.m. from Crescent Meadows with Joel, whose objective was Kaweah Gap. I felt good reaching Kaweah Gap in just over 4 hours. It took nearly 2 hours to complete the roundtrip from Kaweah Gap to the summit of Eagle Scout Peak. The climb itself is straightforward with a nice perspective on the Hamilton Lakes area and Precipice Lake directly below. The run down to Hamilton Lakes from the Gap was gorgeous and at that point I knew sub 10 hours would be possible. The anomalously cool weather on Sunday helped on the return trip along the trail (which is typically hot on the exposed south slopes) and I was able to complete the adventure run in 9:38 finishing up just before 2 pm.

Time details for those who are interested:

Location: Real Time / Elapsed Time / Split
Start Crescent Meadow: 4:20 / 0 / 0
Junction with Seven Mile Hill Trail (6 miles): 5:19 / 58:33 / 58:33
Bearpaw Meadows (11.3 miles): 6:15 / 1:55:05 / 56:32
Big Hamilton Lake (16.5 miles): 7:09 / 2:49:28 / 54:23
Kaweah Gap (21 miles): 8:23 / 4:03:28 / 1:14:00
Arrive summit of Eagle Scout Peak: 9:17 / 4:56:44 / 53:16
Depart summit of Eagle Scout Peak: 9:32 / 5:11:43 / 14:59
Kaweah Gap (24 miles): 10:19 / 5:58:37 / 46:54
Big Hamilton Lake (28.5 miles): 11:10 / 6:50:14 / 51:37
Bearpaw Meadows (33.7 miles): 12:00 / 7:40:08 / 49:54
Junction with Seven Mile Hill Trail (39 mile): 12:56 / 8:36:09 / 56:01
Finish Crescent Meadow (45 miles): 13:58 / 9:38:35 / 1:02:25

Photos by Joel Lanz, more photos here.
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Eagle Scout Peak

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Eagle Scout Peak

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Precipice Lake

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