Koip Peak / Kuna Peak
Ascent of Koip Peak (East Slope from Koip Peak Pass, class 1) and Kuna Peak (from Koip Peak, class 2), August 22, 2018.
Timeline:
August 22, 2018. My alarm rang at 5:30 and I was out of the house by 6:15. I drove to the Silver Lake trailhead and set out on the Rush Creek trail at 6:55. This was to be a long day – almost 6,000 feet of elevation gain and at least 20 miles of hiking roundtrip, so I had no time to waste. At Gem Lake I saw a helicopter landing on a bluff nearby and was able to speak to two passengers who offloaded there. They were involved in fighting the Lions Fire burning in the vicinity of Iron Mountain. I continued on around Gem Lake and angled north at a fork in the trail toward Gem Pass, reaching the pass around 10:00. I then entered the beautiful Alger Lakes basin and had my first view of Koip Peak. I reached Koip Peak Pass at noon, and climbed up the East slope, meeting a lone female hiker who was on her way down (she was not very communicative, and neither was I).
Following a use trail that goes almost all the way to the top (class 1), I reached the summit of Koip Peak at 12:39, enjoying the great views north toward Mounts Gibbs, Dana and Conness, and southwest toward the Ritter Range and the Lyell-Maclure group. I was spared the smoke from the Lions and Donnell Fires that covered peaks to the south, and that clouded a clear view of Mono Lake to the northeast. I then continued on to Kuna Peak, stopping to take photos of the 1943 B-24 wreckage located between the two peaks, just above the glacier. Debris was strewn about everywhere. I reached the summit of Kuna Peak at 13:23, and easy class 2 hike from Koip. Kuna Peak is better than Koip Peak in almost every respect: it is the third highest peak in Yosemite National Park (at 13,002 feet), has better views of Lyell Canyon and the surrounding peaks, and has a more interesting summit feature (with spikes of dark rock jutting out like daggers). I'm not sure why Koip was chosen to be on the SPS list and not Kuna.
I quickly made my way back to Koip and from there back to Alger Lakes. It is at this point that I realized I had "forgotten" to eat my lunch. I took a break at 15:10 near the main Alger Lake, making quick work of my salami and brie sandwich, and continued on to Gem Pass (16:10) and Gem Lake (17:00). I had forgotten how long that first portion of the hike had been - it took seemingly forever to get back to my car at Silver Lake (I finally reached it at 19:10). (A 12:15 hour day, 5,875 feet of gain, 24.7 miles roundtrip).
The bottom line: I wanted to challenge myself with a long day and go through the Alger Lakes basin. But a much easier way to climb these peaks would be to start at the Mono Pass trailhead, at Dana Meadows in Yosemite. That trailhead is at 9,700 feet and the distance from there to the summit of Koip Peak is a bit under 10 miles, so it is easier in terms of both distance and elevation gain.