Wyo Road Trip: 4of4 Southern Wind Rivers; The Cirque of the Towers

We finally made it! With no intentions to climb, Sam and I set out early with light packs to hike into the cirque and check things out. We left the truck with long johns on, stocking hats, warm gloves and puffy jackets! It was no more than 10 degrees when we departed and stayed that way until the sun came up high enough to reach the valley floors between the massive mountains. I did over 5 miles with a down jacket on; I think thats happened while ice climbing in the middle of winter before but never in the middle of September! At Big Sandy Lake the trail forks to either Deep Lake or Lonesome Lake and the cirque. We contemplated hiking the Grassy Goat Trail up Haystack mountain to get a summit but due to the snow we opted out. The Grassy Goat trail splits this huge cliff face on Haystack and I think if there is any chance of it being wet, you stay away. I cant wait to get back and climb it when its dry... spooky! No biggy, we really wanted to see the cirque anyway. A couple of rough miles later we reached Lonesome Lake and the cirque. Wow. We would walk 50 yards and gape at the mountains for 10 minutes. Walk another 50 yards and gape again. It took forever to get anywhere because we couldn't peel our eyes off the mountains. Big, beautiful, scary, climbable, treeless granite spires and buttresses everywhere you look. A climber's dream! It was pretty easy to see the classic East Ridge route going over Wolfshead but we wanted a closer look at the NE face route of Pingora. We traversed Pingora from the base of the South face all the way to the North ridge then traversed over to the start of the route. We were able to watch climbers the whole time. One group was in the process of bailing and Im positive it had to do with the fact that they got a late start and were in the shade and got cold. It was freezing cold in the shade even though there was nothing but sunshine, no wind and no clouds. Any aspect of the mountains that had not received sunshine was covered in verglass. Verglass is a thin coat of ice. I have never seen verglass like this before. A few of the NE face pitches had ice on/in them. After a glorious 17 mile day we finally got to drink the bottle of champagne Sam brought from MT. A great way to toast an epic road trip. No car problems, health problems or law problems.

50+ miles of dirt road to reach the trailhead.

Fat, little legs, long ears, eats all day.... Manfred's previous life!

Preparation MUU style

Big Sandy Peak from the North shore of Big Sandy Lake. 

Our first glimpse of Pingora. 

The Cirque of the Towers!

Pingora is the prominent peak in the middle with Wolfs Head sharing the ridge to the left. Far left is Warbonnet?

Walking up to the South face of Pingora.

Climbers on the NE face route (skyline)

Lonesome Lake and Mitchell Peak from Pingora.

Climbers bailing from the first pitch. The silhouettes made for great photos that I failed at taking. Warrior 1 (?) in the background. 

I might have Warbonnet and Warrior 1 mixed up. 

More ice than snow actually. Verglass.

The cirque to the N of Pingora and Wolfs Head. 

The route traverse to the left skyline and on to the top. 

The NE face route essentially goes up Pingora's right skyline. 

Pingora and Wolfs Head.

Whether its called Warbonnet or Warrior 1 (or 2) I want to climb it.  Definitely the most intimidating but doable climb out there. 

On our way back; Haystack, East Temple and Wind River peaks visible. 

A little bubbly will make anyone smile.