by kirkmallory » Sat Aug 04, 2007 11:33 am
I did these, plus Fools Peak, last month from the Woods Lake area. The trail starts about a half-mile west of Woods Lake; is good quality to Eagle Lake (& beyond, so I've heard, but never was on that stretch). Shortly after Eagle Lake I found a good trail climbing steeply up towards Eagle Peak, marked with cairns & some weathered orange tape. When I got to Eagle, Fools looked very tempting, but I wanted to be sure I got the 13ers done before the storms, and I knew the ridge to Ribbed would be slow. It was easy from Eagle to 13100; then two hours from 13100 to Ribbed. I mostly followed wide grass/rock ledges & ramps, going up & down over multiple ribs, on the south side of the ridge. I did return to the crest after a wide grassy area to do an exposed Class 3 ledge which I later determined could have been avoided by dropping low. There was some Class 3 near the summit, but nothing too hard or exposed.
The clouds had popped up, but weren't getting any bigger, so I traversed back below everything, expecting to drop down when the weather looked threatening, but it never did! So I found myself on the summit of Fools Peak 4 hours after leaving Ribbed. The bushwhack down from there was steep & ugly in spots. It was a long, but rewarding day!