Alpine Scramble - Fortune & Ingalls Peaks

We arrived at the trail head and starting hiking about 8:30AM.  The parking lot was quickly filling up with a never ending line of cars and hikers to see the larches with fresh snow.

We decided to use the trail to get into head light basin and then walk up to Fortune peak on the North eastern side of the ridge.  Our route would go clockwise around the basin and descend to Ingalls Lake.  Approximately 2 to 4 inches of snow had fallen. While the trail was wet and slushy, it was fine to walk on with micro spikes.  We crossed over the pass, followed what we could see of the upper trail until around 6500.  We then left the trail and went due west along scree and boulder fields.  With the freshly fallen snow our progress was very slow.  We had to take a lot of care to avoid stepping into voids in the boulder fields and it was quite slippery even with micro spikes.  It was just enough snow to make things difficult, and not enough to make things easier.  We arrived at the summit of Fortune about 12pm.  About one hour short of my expected arrival time.  We enjoyed the views until clouds starting enveloping us and the surrounding peaks and the temperature dropped.  Looking towards the North, we could no longer see Ingalls.  We followed the ridge for a time but when we reached the first "knob" between the two peaks, it was snow covered, and slippery.  Looking past it we saw more of the same conditions so we decided to play it safe and forge a route down through the basin to the lake.

Arrived at the lake, enjoyed the views and crowds, and took the lower trail back.  We left about 2:30 pm.  We arrived back at the trail head about 5pm.  

On leaving, cars were parking a long the road for about a half mile back.  A busy day for Ingalls Lake.