Wind River trip planning

I've done the S. Buttress. It's good, but not nearly as good as the nearby E (?). Ridge of Wolfs Head. Don't miss that one! There are some little fish in the creek, and there are some curious bears (at least there were in 1990). Have fun.

You can do a great number of variations on Pingora's South Buttress & South Face, the latter of which will be more problematic. Take extra sling material for the rappels.

<b><i>Overhanging Tower</i></b>: we climbed an obscure-but-obvious system of cracks, chimneys, gulleys and faces for six pitches, starting from below Shark's Nose / Overhanging Col. If you would like beta, email me. We descended the so-called Standard route, one rappel and a coupla hundred feet of downclimbing.

If I had it to do over again, I woulda gone for the K Cracks on Pingora. Long story there.

Agreed. I've done 3 variations of the S. Buttress alone. One of them actually was 5.6 and the others about 5.8. The easier version was slightly right of the plumb line when at the obvious start atop the approach.

The 5.5 route on Shark's Nose is a fun classic.

I think most people call that finish the Hourglass Cracks. It's 5.8 but it's an easy 8 with bomber pro everywhere you want it. Excellent quality pitch. Great summit.

Warbonnet is a fun 3rd class summit if you want a hiking day. I've tried but never found the key to that 5.7 route on the NE face.

Thanks for all the info. Sounds like I'll have plenty to do. I definately want to hike a couple peaks while i'm there, so thanks for that as well. Also, if I had an extra week to spend in the Wind Rivers, anybody have any pointers on a different area to get in some scenery and routes of similar difficulty (5.6-5.9) that's less frequented? I'm a glacier virgin (we tain't got none uh them in kantuckee), so Gannett is probably out.? Oh, and anybody have any experience with using pack animals (horses/lamas) to hump in the gear. I'm all for carrying it all in on my back, but if there's a cheap way to get to carry in better provisions, I might cheat.

Thanks for enduring...

If you are going into the Cirque, you could bring extra food and stash it at (?) Lake (someone help me out, I've forgotten the name) before heading up towards Jackass. They've got boxes there, I believe. Then, after you've had your fill of the Cirque, retrieve your food and head down to the Deep Lake area. Looks like a lot of good stuff there.

Or, you could hike into the Upper East Fork Valley (Green River?). The trailhead for this is Big Sandy, same as the Cirque. It is 12-14 miles in, but it is absolutely gorgeous! Plus, you can do a loop hike by coming out a different way. We stayed there and _no one_ else was around. It was almost eerie. Some good options for climbing...Midsummer's Dome, a cool looking 5.6 (chimney crux, the rest is 3rd-4th) route right above our campsite in the upper valley, a 3rd class traverse of Mt. Hooker. Check out the Kelsey guide and all this will make sense. I don't have it handy, otherwise I'd be more specific.

Have fun, Dave.

I think the first big lake is Big Sandy, then the upper one is Arrowhead Lake.

The snow/ice conditions vary widely on Gannet depending on snowfall, when you go, etc. Certainly, glacier virgins have done the route but I don't know how advisable that it. When we did the Gooseneck Pinnacle route, the normal bergschrund crossing was a wide, gaping hole. We crossed downhill from it, then had a long, easy 5th class rock pitch to get to the ridge above Gooseneck Pinacle and an easy ice traverse above there.

Regardless, there are many excellent routes in your range around Gannet and within a few miles to the south. The most popular access to the area leads up through Titcomb Basin. Very pretty, if overused. We went in from the north, near Dubois and saw very few climbers until directly below Gannet.

Near Dubois, Wild Rose Ranch is an experienced outfitter. They mostly guide folks in to fish, but will work with climbers. There is a llama outfitter and I think they are near Pinedale. I've met the guy that runs the llama ranch out on the trails a few times - he is pretty cool. Call the Great Western Outdoor shop in Pinedale and ask them for beta.