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Fortune Peak and South Ingalls Peak

I parked at the Ingalls Lake trailhead and hiked the trail to Ingalls Pass. At the pass I dropped down into Ingalls Basin, countoured west at around 6,600', then ascended the easy east slopes of Fortune Peak.

Looking back, the east ridge of Fortune looks like a real rocky scramble, but ascending Fortune from the south side of Ingalls Pass via Lake Camp Fire Girls looks like a good shorter route.

I spent a long, leisurely afternoon and evening on the summit of Fortune Peak. Fortune is one of the tallest peaks in the immediate area and it has excellent views. I bivvied near the summit.

The next morning I descended to Ingalls Basin, wishing I had brought my crampons. I was supposed to meet a group of Mountaineers in the basin, but I got word from another party that my group's leader had tweaked his back and had canceled the climb. This was the fourth time in a row that a trip I was on to the Ingalls Basin failed to make the intended summit.

So I headed for South Ingalls Peak. I ascended the south slopes of South Ingalls to the SW ridge. The route directly up the SW ridge is full of 2nd to 3rd class scrambling on rotten, loose, crumbly rock, but little exposure. It looked like many routes up the SW ridge exist, my route started at a wide gully marked by a cairn about 50 feet to the west of the ridge.

For my descent I followed the NE ridge until it got rocky, then I descended a short gully on the NW side of the ridge. I encountered a small amount of ice in the gully, this was the only time I saw icy rock on this trip, on a previous attempt on South Ingalls we had to turn around because the gully was completely iced over. At the bottom of the gully I ascended northward to the pass between South Ingalls Peak and Ingalls Peak. This descent route was much nicer than my crummy, rocky ascent route.

At the pass I ran into Peter and Susan climbing the first pitch of the south ridge of Ingalls Peak. They were also members of the canceled Mountaineers trip. I sat and watched them for a while, it looks like a pleasant climb.

From the pass I descended SE down easy snow slopes and met up with the trail a bit south of Ingalls Lake.

It was a great, leisurely trip with perfect weather and spectacular views.


Copyright © 2006 Gabriel Deal.