Lane Peak: GO UP THE SOUTHEAST SIDE.
When you're at the low spot after Denman and before Lane, you want to start up immediately up the southeast face of Lane Peak. Do NOT keep traversing around Lane on the almost-nonexistent path to the southwest side. (The main page for Lane Peak confirms this and advises the southeast side.)
If you go to the southwest side, you find yourself on a garbage scree slope (which is saying something considering the chossy nature of this whole traverse) with 5th-class climbing. If you're unlucky, you might wander around this slope for a long time trying to find this mythical "southwest face gully," find something that you think is Lane Peak but is in fact only a sub-peak, then get caught in the rain, then in the lightning, then give up on Lane Peak entirely. (You know... hypothetically.) Just go up the southeast side and avoid all this trouble. ;)
Red tape & timing: Note that you have to pick up your cross-country zone wilderness camping permit in person at the Wilderness Information Center. They close at 5, which means if you're trying to do this in a weekend AND follow the rules, you'll need to get an early start. (This is at least true for summer 2023; in the winter, you can still self-issue a permit. I believe they change the rules pretty regularly so it's definitely worth checking on the park website directly.)
I think 2.5 days is a reasonable estimate for all 12 peaks. If you miss the Friday window and only have Saturday-Sunday, one option is to skip Stevens + Boundary so you don't have to retrace steps. That's what we did and we got back on Sunday as the sun was going down.
Last note on logistics: If you only have 1 car, park at Longmire and hitch a ride to the start of the climb. Much easier to find people headed up the mountain in the morning than in the evening.
smcintyre - Jul 27, 2023 6:05 pm - Hasn't voted
Lane Peak correction + red tape and timingLane Peak: GO UP THE SOUTHEAST SIDE.
When you're at the low spot after Denman and before Lane, you want to start up immediately up the southeast face of Lane Peak. Do NOT keep traversing around Lane on the almost-nonexistent path to the southwest side. (The main page for Lane Peak confirms this and advises the southeast side.)
If you go to the southwest side, you find yourself on a garbage scree slope (which is saying something considering the chossy nature of this whole traverse) with 5th-class climbing. If you're unlucky, you might wander around this slope for a long time trying to find this mythical "southwest face gully," find something that you think is Lane Peak but is in fact only a sub-peak, then get caught in the rain, then in the lightning, then give up on Lane Peak entirely. (You know... hypothetically.) Just go up the southeast side and avoid all this trouble. ;)
Red tape & timing: Note that you have to pick up your cross-country zone wilderness camping permit in person at the Wilderness Information Center. They close at 5, which means if you're trying to do this in a weekend AND follow the rules, you'll need to get an early start. (This is at least true for summer 2023; in the winter, you can still self-issue a permit. I believe they change the rules pretty regularly so it's definitely worth checking on the park website directly.)
I think 2.5 days is a reasonable estimate for all 12 peaks. If you miss the Friday window and only have Saturday-Sunday, one option is to skip Stevens + Boundary so you don't have to retrace steps. That's what we did and we got back on Sunday as the sun was going down.
Last note on logistics: If you only have 1 car, park at Longmire and hitch a ride to the start of the climb. Much easier to find people headed up the mountain in the morning than in the evening.