Gannett Peak - Wyoming - USA

Day 5 & 6 - Down Bonney / Pothole

View from John's tent... note climbers close to the top (top center of picture).

Day 5:  Going down Bonney Pass.  We only got up at 9am.  We could see a large group of about 15 people headed for the top.  It was a crispy clear, warm day but the wind was still blowing.

There were two guys hanging around on Bonney Pass waiting for one of their group to summit and get back down to them again.  The three of them had set out with the intention of all summiting but because the one guy was much faster than the others, the two of them decided to stay behind on the pass and wait for him.  They had set out from Upper Titcomb Lake in the wee hours of the morning.  The guy who went to the top summited and got back to where we were camped on Bonney Pass in 9 hours with 45 minutes on top.  We set out down Bonney Pass at 10:30am with the three of them just ahead of us.

Robert (left) and John (top right) glassading down Bonney Pass.

We were able to glassade for quite a bit of the way down Bonney Pass, which was great fun.  It sure gave us cold asses but it was well worth it as it cut a lot of time off our descent.  Once we got to the bottom of the pass we took our crampons off and trekked across soft, slushy snow.

We got to where we had stashed our extra food and found that a marmot had got into John's food bag.  He had helped himself to a bit of a power bar, some cereal from 3 vacuum sealed packs and two packs of tuna.  While John took stock of the damages and took several photos of the marmot we made tea and had a long rest.

Looking back across the Titcomb Basin.

After we had rested we trekked through the rest of the Titcomb Basin through wet snow and boggy marshland and many colorful wildflowers.

Our camp at Pothole Lake

We got to Pothole Lake at 7pm and set up camp on the NW side near some low trees.  The mosquitoes had not been a problem until we got there.  The marmots were also around and one grabbed my plastic spoon and ran several feet with it until John caught up with him and persuaded him to let it go.  The other three guys who had set out from Bonney Pass before us had camped on the other side of the river.  The one guy had gone from Upper Titcomb Lake to Gannet Peak and to Pothole Lake all in one day.  He sure had some stamina. We found that the marmots can not climb vertical rock. In the picture above, the pack on top of the rock to the left of the tents was unreachable by the bold marmots so we stored most of our food there.

Day 6:  Pothole Lake.  We decided to stay at Pothole Lake for day 6 as we were tired and felt like having a whole day of rest.  We still had 3 days before we had to be back at the car so there was no rush to go anywhere.  After a day of lazing about, doing some laundry and taking a VERY cold bath we went for a walk at 5:30pm over to Island Lake.  The views were spectacular!  The weather was warm enough for shorts and short sleeves, and fortunately the mosquitoes weren't too bad.

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