Black Peak, Heather - Maple Pass Loop & Wing Lake — Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021

Beautiful day going up to Black Peak. Ngie summited Black Peak as I only made the false summit as I was uncomfortable with the exposure on the last 55 vertical feet up to the summit . We met fellow trip reporter greystreet up at summit block, as they summited.

When pulled up to the trailhead a little past 9 am, there were cars already parked along Highway 20 on this brisk Thursday morning. It was well below freezing and the road into the parking area was slick with ice. It was quite slippery, so beware of that.

 It was quite brisk out as we started out for our hike up to Heather Pass. By the time we got up a ways we were shedding layers, as we got out of forest and into the sun. 
Once we got to Heather Pass we took a right on a side trail toward Wing Lake and Black Peak. The trail is roped in places to keep hikers off the side trails. Area is pretty fragile, so please stay on the main trail. After this beautiful meadow the route drops down about 600 ft on a huge talus field. There was a few inches of fresh snow here on the rocks, that made the boulders slick. This part was very tedious, as nearly every step had to be placed correctly. Now that it is fall, this part does not get any sun, as it is in the shade all day, so unless the area gets some rain, the snow is likely here to stay until late spring.

Once at Lewis Lake there is a trail that skirts around the lake, before heading steeply up around 1200 ft up thru some larches up to Wing Lake. This part was absolutely beautiful. This is where pics 1 and 4 were taken from.

Once past Wing Lake, it was pretty much a straight shot up the left side of a creek and then straight up a pretty steep scree field up to a saddle. I thought it was pretty straight forward, however one must be aware of rock fall. We experienced one of these, as a rock came loose about 50 ft to the right of me and came barreling down toward Ngie, who was below me. Luckily I saw it and yelled “ROCK”, and Ngie was able to scamper out of the way. Pretty scary situation. We both had helmets on, so bring one, and put it on, as you never know!!

At the saddle the views we took a right toward Black Peak and followed a climbers trail that went up the spine of the ridge to around 8400 ft where we ran into some steep rock gullies. I veered to the left and took this gully up. The rock was great and it was a pretty straight forward route up to the first false summit area. Views here were excellent. To get to the false summit which is around 55 vertical ft down from the main summit, you can either scramble up some super steep rock, or go around to the right(east), and head up that way. There is a nice flat spot here, with some amazing views. It was cool to look down the Fisher Creek valley to the north and see where I was earlier in the week, at Kitling Peak and Easy Pass.

I had seen pictures of the summit block when I had done research on this climb, and had though it was only about a 20 ft scramble. My GPS had the false summit at 55 ft below the top, and if you look at pic 2 with ngie on top, you can see how massive the summit block is. The get to the top, you can follow a path to the right with some exposure to ramp( Pic 3) that leads you up to the final summit scramble. I got up to the base of this ramp, but decided to turn around here. The scramble above the ramp looked exposed, and I don not like exposure, so I turned around here. The ramp looked to have a little protection from the sheer drop off to the right, but for me, it was not worth it, and besides the whole hike / climb so so fantastic and the views were just gorgeous.

Coming down was pretty straight forward, so we blasted thru this section all the way down to Lewis Lake. Going back up the 600 vertical ft over the snow covered talus to get back up to Heather Pass was no fun, We donned headlamps at Heather Pass and hiked out.

We got back to the lone car parked along Hwy 20 a little after 8 pm. 13.4 miles with 5600 ft gain. 

Gorgeous views this day.

Will write more later

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://caltopo.com/m/5AF4M