Ingalls Peak/South Peak, Fortune, Headlight Basin, and Ingalls Pass

Trip Report

Trail Ascent

Departed parking lot at 7:45, it was mostly full.  Was 45 degrees  with mostly clear skies.  The trail out from Esmeralda Trailhead was well established on this popular route.  While there was water flowing down the middle of the trailhead in a couple so spots, the trail up to Ingalls Pass  has a fair amount of elevation gain, some rocky sections, and a couple of traverses with a narrow portion of the trail.

Ingalls Pass

Upon reaching Ingalls Pass, scrambers are given pause with the first views for Mt. Stuart, and the valley before them.  On this trip, we were given pause by the presence of two Mountain Goats, mingling among the trees at the Pass.  We gave them a wide berth, and they mostly ignored us. 

Descending from Ingalls Pass, there is a small amount of rocky path/boulder field crossing before you reach the flats of Headlight Basin.  Where there are number of smaller flying insects here, the Mt. Stewart views are gorgeous, and you can filter water from the Mt. Stuart infinity pool as well.  We did filter here, beautiful spot to do it.

From Headlight basis we followed the trail with a couple detours for snow covered spots to the turn up to Dog's Tooth.  There are a couple of streams crossing the trail before the turn up to the Dog's Tooth that one can also filter water from.  The trip up to the Dog's Tooth involved a fair bit of route finding, easily climbed snow fields, some slabby sections, and some boulder fields.  While we checked our position relative to prior tracks several times, there are several ways to get to the pass that go.  We passed a Mounties climbing team from Everett on the way up.  They were in good spirits and had some students who were finishing up the Basic Course.  Great to see them!

Once at the Dog's Tooth there were some route choices to make.  There was a leftward leaning small gully with a fair bit of yellow lichen running left, a small gully in the center that was also left leaning, and a traverse to the right that would have involved ascending steep snow for a part.  While our saved tracks went the left route, as well as the steep snow route on the right, we chose the middle route.  It has a fair amount of exposure, and the first move to get into the gully may involve an alpine knee to get into, but the remainder of the gully is straightforward scrambling.  This route is a bit committing as it would be challenging to down climb this route.  Once over the start, the scrambling gets less steep and reaches a portion with a straightforward walkup.  

Looking back at the climbing route on Ingalls Peak

Attaining the summit is relatively straightforward from here.  Downclimbing to the saddle and to Fortune is more challenging.  We choose the dirty gully route.  There is a fair amount of exposure, and we went one at a time to minimize the risk of kicking rocks on one another.  There is a fair amount of loose rock in this section that is hard to avoid kicking down.

Once down from the summit, we went East of the steep ridge high points.  At some points we dropped down to where the snow was still in and traversed across.  After navigating the steep traversing sections, following the ridge to the Fortune summit is straightforward.   Gorgeous views all around from the Summit of Fortune.  Descending from the summit involved a bit of route finding, but paid attention to prior downloaded prior tracks, and mostly followed the gullies down.  Nothing was too challenging and involved both plunging stepping snow, as well as downclimbing on slabs and boulders.  Once down, we connected with the main trail and followed it back to the trailhead.  We passed several fields of beautiful wildflowers on the way down.  

Map