UN 13546 & UN 13541 by Brian Schultz    July 17- 18, 2016

Total miles: ~18.0 miles from the Willow Creek trailhead
Total elevation gain: 6,500'
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

Sunday: UN 13546:

Backpack mileage: Willow Creek trailhead (elev 8,880') to our Willow Lake campsite (elev 11,710'): 5.3 miles
Elevation gain: 2,830'
Hike time to Willow Lake: 3 hours

Roundtrip mileage from campsite to UN 13546: 2.95 miles
Elevation gain from campsite to UN 13546: 1,835'
Start to finish from campsite: 5 hours 10 minutes (lots of long breaks)

Tim and I overnighted at the Willow Creek trailhead on Saturday night. The parking lot was full of vehicles and several people were setting up tents in the area, which couldn't have been much fun with the hordes of attacking mosquitoes. I remembered how bad they were on prior trips and nothing's changed since then. They were absolutely relentless.

We started up the trail at 6:00 AM and only stopped a couple times to visit with some descending backpackers, visits kept short because of the vicious mosquitoes. We were told they were just as bad up at the lake. One of the couples we talked to suggested camping north of the lake, which is prohibited, but they said the mosquitoes weren't as bad up there. They also said trail restoration workers had taken up lots of the camp areas and that we wouldn't be cited or told to relocate if we set up camp up there. We made that camp area our primary focus when we arrived at the lake at 9:00. We found an outstanding site north of the lake and sure enough, there were far fewer mosquitoes.

After setting up our tents and taking a nice break, at 10:20 we headed up to UN 13546. We hadn't traveled far before the mosquitoes found us again. As we gained elevation, we hoped the thin air would take care of them but it didn't. When we gained the saddle between Mt Adams and UN 13546, at 11:40, they were still buzzing around us but much less in number. The beautiful weather allowed a nearly 30 minute break at the saddle.

The ridge's terrain to the summit was steep but easy and we gained the summit at 1:00. A few of the hardiest mosquitoes made it to the top as well but they weren't a bother. I looked over to UN 13153, which I considered climbing while Tim waited, but instead we sat back enjoying the views (photo 1, photo 2) for the next hour before leaving at 2:00 for the descent.

We stopped for another long break to filter water in the large basin below the saddle before arriving back at camp at 3:30. Evening light on the peaks drew us outside the tents for photos before we turned in.

Monday: UN 13541:

Roundtrip mileage from camp: 4.35 miles
Elevation gain: 1,830'
Start to finish from campsite: 6 hours 35 minutes

We departed our campsite at 6:05 AM and followed the excellent trail above Willow Lake south into the valley. As the trail turned to the right toward Challenger Point, we continued ahead through willows, until stopping at a point where 13541 was above us.

The terrain didn't look too friendly and we tried to figure out which was the correct gully above the steep slopes. We didn't have the vantage point that Ryan Kowalski had when he looked over to the peak from Kit Carson and Challenger so we made our choice to head up some slabs with narrow cracks and immediately got into class 4 climbing. We stashed our poles to retrieve later and I set a waypoint to be sure we'd find them.

I didn't like the climbing one bit and as we got higher I dreaded the thought of coming back down this way. We had to contour to our left on more steep terrain before the difficulty finally eased. We continued to the left below the summit ridge and eventually found the gully that leads to the top. Too bad we didn't find it to begin with but we were happy when we topped out at 9:40. And glad we didn't have any mosquitoes bothering us on this climb.

We had the benefit of another good forecast and stayed on top for a half hour enjoying the views under clear skies. Our descent would've been much easier if we hadn't stashed our poles but we found a manageable way back to them with minimal elevation loss and regain. The GPS waypoint was helpful and we avoided the class 4 areas on the way over.

We arrived at our campsite at 12:40 and took a break before packing up and leaving Willow Lake at 1:35. We put on rain jackets, not because it was raining, but to protect our arms from the mosquitoes. Lots of people were heading up the trail as we descended and we arrived back at the trailhead at 4:50.