Trip Report
Basic Alpine Climb - Mount Lincoln
Basic Alpine trip up Mt. Lincoln's NE couloir with an overnight stay at Mildred Lakes
Dean Taylor
- Fri, Jun 6, 2025 — Sat, Jun 7, 2025
- Basic Alpine Climb - Mount Lincoln
- Mount Lincoln
- Climbing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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The Mildred Lakes trail was easy to follow until we reached the viewpoint above the lakes, where we intentionally bushwhacked a "shortcut" down to the head of the lower lake. Not sure that was worth it. The snow was firm and patchy starting around 3200ft of elevation. The trail from lower to upper Mildred Lake was difficult to follow and therefore included yet more bushwhacking. The entire approach to camp included a handful of creek crossings across downed trees, a few with legitimate consequences if a fall occurred. We found enough established camp spots near the upper lake accommodate our seven tents on bare ground between patches of snow.
We waited for daylight and left camp at 5am the next morning. Although we wanted to leave early enough to minimize the time spent on mushy snow later on in the day, we knew the first hour or two would involve plenty of bushwhacking. We used a series of benches to traverse above the north side of the upper lake which we got to by ascending pretty quickly after exiting camp on a bearing that led between the middle and upper lakes. There was a nice covering of consolidated snow on what would otherwise be boulder fields, making the trip easy going in several areas separated by sections of brush bashing. Eventually we made it to a fairly open valley (4450') at the base of Lincoln. We could have made a beeline directly toward the NE couloir but that route looked to contain numerous tree wells, rock moats and other hazards, so instead we ascended to the 5000' ridgeline southeast of the peak. Once there, we geared up (helmet, ice ax, crampons, harness) for our assault on the northeast couloir.
At the base of the couloir we discussed our ascent, agreeing upon on a running belay system with 2 rope teams of 4 and 3. We left the pickets in place on the way up, knowing we would use them on the descent. There were two hazards to contend with in the couloir, which steepens to an estimated 40-45 degrees. The first was an area of exposed rock at the base of the couloir's fall line. The second was a deep, horizontal hole near the top where the only passage was via a sketchy snow bridge on climber's right between the tapered end of the hole and the moat next to the couloir's rock wall.
After reaching the top of the couloir it was a matter of finding the best gully up the summit block. Some peakbagger tracks show groups using a gully on the western side of the summit block, but that gully appeared technical and topped out with what looked like a crawl underneath an imposing chockstone. We kept circling and ascended a flagged/treed class 3 gully on the southern side to gain the summit ridge. From there we squeezed through a narrow "slot canyon" between massive rocks and carefully stepped over a yawning gap to access a series of slabs that got us to the true summit at 9:30am.
At 10:15am or we reversed our route and arrived back in camp at 1:45pm where we packed up and left at 2:30, emerging at the trailhead at 7pm.
Trip gets 4 stars out of 5. Couldn't give it 5 stars because of the bushwhacking!