Alpine Lakes High Route, WA. Part 2 (19 photos, 3 videos)

Day 2, 8.7 miles to Tank Lakes

I was up decently early and hit the trail running. Today was the day! All the bussing, road walking, and crowded campsites were behind me. Off to the true adventure full of route-finding, snow field crossings, and sketchy scrambles. Little Heart Lake was a cute little thing and then the trail shot up in steep elevation with some snow tossed in. I was glad I did not try to hike this last night at dusk, when I was dead tired. The day heated up quickly and I changed out of my pants and into my Space Jam shorts. A trio of guys with day packs and ice axes strolled by as I was taking a snack break and they were doing the whole loop in a day. Must be nice to not have a 30-lb pack to haul around.

25-minute Extended Movie of Day 2

Malachite Peak on the right, unnamed peak on the left.

I popped out at the bottom of Big Heart Lake and was blown away by the campsites there. It was my originally scheduled campsite and I immediately changed my mind about being happy that I stopped short. I now wish I hitchhiked some of the road walk yesterday so I could have arrived here early enough to enjoy it the previous night. Oh well. I soon got the the narrow ridge that separates Big Heart Lake and Angeline Lake and the high alpine views grew even grander. Some spots were vertical cliffs dropping 100 feet to the pristine lakes below. I snapped many photos and then passed a separate trio of day hikers who said they lost sight of the trail and decided to turn back. They must have set camp a few miles back.

Better angle of Big Heart Lake where you can see how it got its name.

Angeline Lake, a narrow and tall ridge separates it from Big Heart Lake.

The ridge drops down to a saddle and sure enough, that was the last time I saw a trail. Snow fields became more common and I just kept following the topo maps that I had printed out. The climb up the other side was steep and sketchy. I had no real snow hiking/mountaineering experience, no ice ax, and the snow was slushy enough that my microspikes were useless. So I tried to boulder hop wherever possible instead of hike on slippery and unstable snow. The heat kept beating down and I stopped for a swim in a small unnamed lake but it was so cold that I only managed to do a push up into the water to dunk my belly and face before running out of the water like a lunatic. Next up was Chetwood Lake which was still covered in snow and ice. I slipped while crossing the log jam at the outlet and was very upset that I’d be hiking with a wet shoe for the rest of the day.

Angeline Lake as I climb up the bowl to the western ridge of Iron Cap Mountain.

The maps from All-Trails went one way, some GPS data from other hikers went another, and I had to choose. I went straight up a big bowl to get the Iron Cap Mountain’s western ridge instead of hiking around it and across the outlet of Iron Cap Lake. I figured crossing the lake’s outlet would be sketchier than the ridge, thanks to the rapidly melting snow. It was an exhausting climb up but the western most peak on the ridge was breathtaking! 360 views of snow capped peaks as far as you could possibly see. I took a quick break to let my socks dry out, have a snack, and soak in the views.

Onwards to Iron Cap! Three saddles along this ridge got progressively sketchier (SEE VIDEO BELOW)

Iron Cap western ridge was sketchy. There was a few times I had to downclimb 6-12 feet of a 5.9 grade rock wall with sheer drops on either side of the landing area. All while having a 30lb pack on my back and without having the knowledge of the locations of footholds from first climbing it upwards. Not even gonna lie, I was scared. But I made it to the summit, took lots of photos, enjoyed a summit beer, and watched a plane circle me. I also found a summit register booklet that was just filled up with entries. The first page explained that it was placed there in July 2016 to replace a book from 1996. I reveled in the fact that it took 25 years to fill up two little log books. That is how few people have made it to the top. I just happened to have swiped a notepad from my hotel so I left it in there to serve as the next summit register.

Summit beer on top of Iron Cap Mountain!

The redline from Alltrails was complete bullsh!t. The eastern ridge is completely un-hikeable and would have required ropes and mountaineering gear to get down. So I took the north ridge and had a crazy hard time finding a route down the steep rocks. I had some more snowfield crossings but the setting sun was casting shadows over the snow and hopefully it was hardening it up. A few marmots screeched at me before hiding away. I got off track a few times and wished I printed out some higher resolution topo maps which would have saved a lot of wasted energy. When I finally topped out at Tank Lakes I was beat. I felt about as tired as when I hiked my 50-Mile Day on the CDT…except today I only clocked a measly 8.7 miles.