Deep Lake 2021

Other trips to Deep Lake:

Deep Lake 2016 • Deep Lake 2021

Category: Wyoming (Wind Rivers)Summit Elev: ~12,000 ftRock Type: Granite
Date: August 6-8, 2021 (Fri-Sun)Trip Report #: 489Partner: Nate Arganbright

2 Days at DEEP LAKE:

HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN, Railroad Tracks (5.8, ~6p)
HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN, Grassy Crack (5.7, ~6p)

Two more routes on Haystack and two more nights in the beautiful Deep Lake area.

Intro

Photos: Hiking, Camping, & Other Random Things

Photos: Pitch-by-Pitch Photos for the Two Climbs

Route: Railroad Tracks (5.8, ~6p)

Route: Grassy Crack (5.7, ~6p)

Intro

Ever since my 2016 trip to Deep Lake (where my partner and I climbed five routes in five days) I had made a note to return to Deep Lake. Five years later, when my partner Nate and I were looking for a break from the crowds and regulations of our backyard Rocky Mountain National Park, we decided to embark on a 10-day climbing road trip beginning in the Black Hills Needles of South Dakota and continuing through few climbing areas in Wyoming,. Deep Lake was our last stop. Nate had never been there before.

We climbed two routes on Haystack on this trip. Neither route was what I would call an area classic, and the climbing was a bit too moderate to make the climbs too memorable. Nevertheless, I enjoyed these two climbs simply because it is enjoyable to climb on sunny Wind River granite. Any day out in the mountains is a good day!

We also enjoyed two evenings hanging out at camp in a pleasant grove of trees between Clear Lake and Deep Lake and exploring the surrounding area. It is a spectacular area to hang out for a couple of days. It was a rare summer where there were no bugs in the Winds (the bugs had apparently arrived in late May and never returned), and this fact combined with the warm summer temperatures made for a very comfortable trip.

The following page gives a trip report for the trip.

The two routes we climbed on this trip (pink and red). This overlay also shows the five routes I climbed on my 2016 trip to Deep Lake, shown in light yellow.

Deep Lake Area Map, from 2016 trip report.

Photos: Hiking, Camping, & Other Random Things

We arrived at Big Sandy Opening Trailhead in the evening, and were lucky enough to nab one of the three sites at the campground just beside the trailhead. The next morning we nabbed a parking spot in the ever-crowded parking lot (cars were parked far down the road as usual in the summer), packed up, hiked in, and set up camp in a pleasant flat spot in a grove between Clear Lake and Deep Lake (an efficient spot for climbing Haystack, since both the approach and the Grassy Goat Trail descent start and end in this area).

The following photos are random photos from the approach, hanging out around camp, and exploring around the area between climbs. It is a spectacular area to hang out for a couple of days.

It's worth $7 to have a picnic table. Evening at the campground beside the Big Sandy Opening Trailhead.

I took an evening stroll around the parking lot, and took a tally of the license plates in the main parking lot. There were a total of 120 cars in the main parking lot (and probably just this many parked along the road and at various spots before the trailhead). Half (25) of the fifty United States were accounted for in the main lot.

The statistician in me couldn't resist making a chart of my findings. A break-down of the license plates by state in the Big Sandy Opening parking lot. Utah (32%), Colorado (25%), and Wyoming (14%) were the top three plates, with California (7%) and Idaho (7%) coming in next. Since the main lot is close to a random sampling of about half of the cars in the area, statistically, if I had included all of the cars parked along the road leading up to the trailhead, the breakdown should be similar.

Packing up in the morning. It took us just over an hour to completely pack up. Although generally I finish my packing long before my partner (I've sat at this same trailhead whittling away the morning with a book while my own partner took over 4 hours to pack his/her stuff), Nate-the-king-of-efficiency beat me by at least 10 minutes. As usual.(Sidenote: Nate designed and built the drawers and platform in his truck bed himself. We often get random parking lot sharers approaching to admire and inquire about the drawer set up. There are certainly advantages to being a carpenter.)

Hiking along the trail. There were lots of blowdowns this past winter.

A log crossing on the east shore of Big Sandy Lake.

A sign pointing the way to Clear Lake and Deep Lake.

Haystack Mountain above Clear Lake. Look at all of that alpine granite!

Granite slabs and small waterfall just above Clear Lake on the approach to Deep Lake.

Granite slabs between Clear Lake and Deep Lake. That's East Temple Peak and Temple Peak in the distance.

Haystack Mountain as seen from between Clear Lake and Deep Lake.

Our campsite in a pleasant grove between Clear Lake and Deep Lake.

The Megalight is a great tent for this sort of trip. As long as there are not bugs! (This was a rare stretch of time in the Winds when there were hardly any bugs.)

A downed tree. There were a lot of these. It was obviously a windy winter. Haystack Mountain in the background.

The downed tree is a comfortable backrest, says Nate. Steeple Peak and Lost Temple Peak in the background.

Pretty fireweed.

Enjoying dinner in a sunny patch near camp. Haystack Mountain glowing in the evening light.

Nate cooking a sausage over his stove. Yum!

My typical dinner of oatmeal, crackers, and tuna. Yum (at least I think so)!

Hanging our climbing packs to keep the rodents out. We hung our food in a more free-hanging style to keep it away from the very unlikely possibility of a bear.

Glaciers deposited these rocks on the granite slabs thousands of years ago. This photo was taken from just below Deep Lake. From left to right are Steeple Peak, Lost Temple Spire, East Temple Peak, and Temple Peak.

Glacier polish and striations. Textbook photo. Ice moved from upper left to lower right, based on the "step" facing lower right. Small pinecone for scale.

My go-to geologist contact Doug McKeever tells me this photo is "likely an example of plucking along a joint in the bedrock. Moving ice can 'pluck' (quarry) rock, especially along a weakness such as a fracture, even on a scale of mm to cm....The abrupt vertical step faces in the direction the ice was moving, again in this case from left to right."

This circular depression was perhaps formed by meltwater under the glacier circling around a pebble?

This photo was taken from the north end of Deep Lake. From left to right are Steeple Peak, Lost Temple Spire, East Temple Peak, and Temple Peak.x

Looking north from Deep Lake. The Cirque of the Towers is in the distance on the left and Haystack towers on the right.

Morning reflection.

Another photo of the morning reflection. I cannot decide whether I like the cairn on the left or right side of the photo.

Looking north over some the colorful granite slabs near camp. The Cirque of the Towers is in the distance on the left.

This photo is taken from very close to the photo to the left, just on a different evening with different lighting. This is the water source where we collected our water. We treated it since this area receives a fair bit of hiking traffic.

Major and Minor Dihedrals in the evening sun.

Hiking out. That's Clear Lake in the photo.

At the Big Sandy Opening Trailhead, just 2:52 after we left our camp.

Instead of start the 7 hour drive back to Estes Park, we camped for the night at a nice open spot just a few minutes from the trailhead. I set up my office and before I went to bed I managed to download, organize, keyword my photos and create my two overlays. The trip report would have to wait until I got home and online.

Photos: Pitch-by-Pitch Photos for the Two Climbs

Below are pitch-by-pitch descriptions and photos for the two climbs.

Route: Railroad Tracks (5.8, ~6p)

Aug 7

Haystack Mountain (11,978 ft)

This climb follows a pair of cracks diagonalling right from the base of the Grassy Goat Trail. Although a bit vegetated and largely easy at the grade, the route it has its moments of good climbing and is a decent choice for those looking for a moderate day on the rock with straightforward route finding.

Route Overlay

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

3rd

Hike up the grassy slopes to the base of the Grassy Goat Trail roughly in the center of the west face of Haystack. The route starts just off the trail.

(see photos from Grassy Crack climb below, which shares a similar approach)

Pitch 1

5.2, ~260'

Climb up a slabby crack to the parallel cracks, ending just above a small pine. This is a long pitch (some simulclimbing) if you belay at the base of the slab.

The start of Pitch 1.

Looking down from the belay just above the small pine.

Pitch 2

5.8, ~150'

Climb up the crack system. Find a reasonable belay stance.

The start of Pitch 2.

Higher up on Pitch 2.

Pitch 3

5.6, ~120'

Continue up the crack system. There is a nice ledge below some blocks that makes a nice belay.

The start of Pitch 3.

Pitch 4

5.8, ~150'

Climb up past a pair of blocks, taking the left-hand crack above. This pitch ends at a nice stance.

A nice section of climbing midway up Pitch 4.

Pitch 5

5.8, ~120'

Continue up to a nice ledge. We may have set a low belay on Pitch 4, since our Pitch 5 had some 5.8-ish moves while the Pitch 5 in the guidebook is listed as 5.3.

The start of our Pitch 5.

Pitch 6

5.easy, ~300'

Climb up on increasingly low-angled ground. We did some simulclimbing on this pitch to get to where the 5th class was clearly over.

The start of our Pitch 6.

Descent

3rd/4th

Grassy Goat Trail.

A view down from the start of the descent. Haystack's left buttress is at the end of the ridge, Clear Lake is below, Big Sandy Lake is beyond that, and the Cirque of the Towers is in the distance. The haze is from forest fires in Canada.

Another view out with better light.

A section of the Grassy Goat Trail.

Pretty fireweed. The peak in the distance is Warbonnet.

(more photos from the Grassy Goat Trail descent can be found in the Grassy Crack trip report below)

Route: Grassy Crack (5.7, ~6p)

Aug 8

Haystack Mountain (11,978 ft)

This route climbs the obvious chimney system that extends up the entire wall just left of the Central Corner route. This route is pretty cool, as the chimney is about 4-feet wide throughout the route, and is actually created by a dike that cuts through the entire mountain. The edges of the chimney are quite featured and take good gear, so much of the climbing can be done by stemming the outer walls of the chimney. Nate and I agreed that the name "Grassy Crack" doesn't represent anything about the route (it's not grassy, and it's not a crack); in interest of keeping with the theme of naming after a feature, perhaps a better route name would have been "Black Dike". But whoever did the FA gets to name it I suppose, so Grassy Crack it is!

Route Overlay

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

3rd or ~5.6

Hike up the grassy slopes under the center of the west face of Haystack. There are a couple of ways (3rd or ~5.6) to surmount the slabs below the start of the route (see overlay).

Approaching the base of the climb. The sun is just hitting the wall. We waited until 11am to approach so we could climb in the sun.

Pretty fireweed on the approach.

The 5.6 option to get past the slabs below the start of the route. See the overlay to see the location of the 5.6 option and 3rd class option.

Pitch 1

5.6/5.7, ~300'

Climb a right-angling crack system leading to the base of the chimney. This is a long pitch that involves some simulclimbing or can be broken up into two pitches.

A comfortable belay spot with a view. That's Deep Lake, with Temple Peak above.

Looking up Pitch 1 from the base of the route. With some simulclimbing, you can get to the base of the main chimney system.

A cool feature higher up on Pitch 1.

Pitch 2

5.6/5.7, ~150'

Climb up the chimney. The chimney is rather shallow here, so the climbing is a mix of stair-steppy dark dike rock at the back of the chimney and climbing the cracks on the edge of the chimney. There is a nice belay spot after about 150 feet.

Looking up Pitch 2.

Looking down Pitch 2 from the belay at the top of the pitch. As you can see, lots of features to climb and protect on the wall of the chimney.

Pitch 3

5.6/5.7, ~150'

Continue up the chimney and finish up a right-facing corner system which leads to a comfortable grassy ledge. Much of the chimney climbing can be done by stemming the features on the outside of the chimney.

Nate stemming up the chimney on Pitch 3.

Pitch 4

5.6/5.7, ~190'

Continue up the chimney. At one point the chimney gets quite deep with a roof overhead, and the exit from this part involves climbing cracks on the left wall of the chimney and doing a fun stem move out past the lip. This is probably the crux pitch but also the most fun. Set a belay on a nice ledge shortly after this section.

Looking up Pitch 4.

The "fun exit" from the chimney at the top of Pitch 4.

Pitch 5

5.easy, ~180'

Finish off the chimney and climb easy rock to where the 5th class ends.

Nate starting up Pitch 5.

Easy climbing, but what what you pull on.

Descent

3rd/4th

Grassy Goat Trail.

This notch at the top of Haystack is actually part of the same chimney system that Grassy Crack climbs. The dike extends through the entire mountain and has eroded on both sides. Pretty cool!