Steve on the summit of Alta
The forecast for Sat. looked good so we decided to hike up Alta Mountain. We left the Rachel Lake trailhead at 10:15 AM. We were familiar with the first couple of miles of the trail, having traversed it earlier this year for a climb of Hibox Peak. On this day, we continued past our previous turn-off point and made our way to Rachel Lake. The trail was very muddy and wet in places with patches of snow above 4000'. When we reached Rachel Lake, we took a short break and I switched from trailshoes to boots. We continued on the trail up towards the ridge that connects Rampart Lakes to Alta Mountain. After we gained the ridge, we continued on the trail to Lila Lakes. This trail did not follow the ridge proper and we missed the summer trail turn-off for Alta, so as we neared Lila Lakes we headed up snow to the ridge proper. We made our way along the mostly snow-covered ridge. The snow was quite soft except in isolated patches which we avoided since we didn’t have crampons. We ran into a hiker on her way down from an aborted attempt and were warned about the multiple false summits ahead. We’d been very slow up to this point (I’d been feeling sluggish), but decided we’d better move a little faster if we were to make it to the summit and then out to the car before dark. Clouds periodically rolled in and reduced visibility significantly, but for most of our traverse of the upper ridge, we were above the clouds and had great views of the surrounding peaks and lakes. We reached the summit around 2:30 PM. We took a few quick photos (couldn’t find the summit register) and headed back down the ridge. We made good time back down to Rachel Lake where we filled up on water and I switched back to trailshoes. We reached the car at just after 6 PM.
Steve on the summit of Alta
Elain on the summit of Alta
Hibox Peak
Descending the ridge
Looking back at the summit of Alta already hidden by clouds
Rachel Lake from the ridge