Decided to go east this weekend with my buddy to get a good weather in the mountain. The Gardners seemed to fit the bill and the weather in the area looked pretty decent.
We started late just before 12 PM on Saturday from Wolf Creek TH. TH was empty with only 2 other cars at the parking lot. Bathrooms were open and were very clean (one of the cleanest pit toilets I've seen).
As expected, Wolf Creek Trail was a mix of ups and downs. First 5 miles was decent and last 5 miles was littered with blowdowns. It took us around 5 1/2 hours to reach Gardner Meadows with leisurely pace. Since we were the first ones there, we got to choose the best site next to a creek with benches and a sort of campfire setup. We then set up camp, made dinner and went to bed early.
After breakfast, we left for Gardner at around 7 AM. The route was pretty straightforward. First part was like a grassy meadow followed by patches of snow that became consistent at around 7,300ft. At first, we put on spikes but then as the slope became steeper and the snow became firmer, we decided to swap them with crampons.
Snow conditions were mixed as we got higher and there were multiple terrain transitions of bare rocks, scree and snow but we still kept our crampons on until the summit. Took us around 3 hour and 15 minutes to get to the summit with a leisurely pace.
After a snack break, we decided to do a traverse to Point 8784 and then to North Gardner. Previous trip reports advised to stay high on the ridgeline, keeping climber's left but we thought staying low on climber's left was a better option that day. It was a good option except for the exposed traverse in the snow. We decided to go a little higher to use the moat for a more protected traverse.
After that section, the rest of the traverse was more on bare rocks. We took off our crampons and made it to Pt 8784 by 1 PM and then made our way up to North Gardner.
There were mixed conditions with soft snow on our route, so tractions were not needed but there were some routefinding around the gendarmes. We stayed high on one of them and dropped down, mostly to the left side, around the others. After that, we pretty much followed a climber's path all the way to the summit.
Made it to the summit by 2:17 PM, signed the register and had a lunch break. After the break, we made our way back to Pt 8784.
Below Pt 8784, we plunge stepped the scree for few hundred feet, followed by a nice, long glissade to the basin and a short hike back to camp. We were back at the camp just after 5 PM.
This trip is better done in 3 days but I just couldn't take a day off from work so we knew we had to leave on Sunday. After dinner, we broke camp and left camp at around 6:45 PM. Made it back to the TH at around 11:30 PM.
Overall, it's a gorgeous day in the mountain and we were happy to tick these two off of our list this weekend!
Stats: A little over 25 mi, a little over 7,100ft gain (total gain was somehow way lower than expected)
Brought and used: crampons, ice axes, spikes, 3 season boots, approach shoes.
Comments
Sweet -- that gives me an idea of what I'll run into next weekend up Wolf Creek area! Thanks :).
Posted by:
SoundWalker on May 19, 2026 02:56 PM