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The original was posted on /r/Ultralight by /u/pgowdy13 on 2024-08-13 04:43:11+00:00.

Overview

Howdy! This details a 6.5 day (8.5 originally planned) trip report of the primary route of the ~Wind River High Route~ (WRHR) from south to north by Andrew Skurka. The trip started August 3rd and ended August 9th. 

Group Profile

The group, individuals best identified by their trail names, consisted of Toto (me), Grizz, and Gaucha. We’re a group of friends that met on our southbound through-hike of the PCT in 2016. Grizz and Gaucha are married and live in Reno, NV. I currently live on the road in my van but formerly lived outside of Phoenix, AZ. All of us are quite experienced backpackers. Grizz and Gaucha spend much of their free weekends exploring routes around the high Sierra and have spent significant time traveling South America as well as New Zealand. I’m primarily a climber, but I love to partake in the occasional backpack trip. I completed Skurka’s Pfiffner Traverse in July of 2020.  

Logistics

Logistics came down to two big things: planning how we’d do the shuttle and minimizing our food weight. 

For our shuttle I originally tried to post on some local WY Facebook groups to arrange a ride, offering $150 for the task. I gave up on this after a week, and instead we decided to use ~Wind River High Route Shuttles~. I’d recommend this shuttle company to anyone. Matt, the owner, showed up promptly on time the morning of August 3rd and had tons of great information on the area, including food recommendations for the inevitable gluttony that bookends any good backpacking trip. 

For our food while on the hike, Gaucha, a natural planner/obsessor of small details, outlined, purchased, and packaged everyone’s food before the trip. The final weight for the 8.5 days of food was 14lbs. 3oz – or about 1.5 lbs of food per day. 

Food Spreadsheet:

As far as planning actual distances for each day of the trip… we didn’t really. We knew that weather often plays a big factor in the decision on how far you make it/where you stay each night, so we wanted to stay flexible. We figured 8.5 days was more than enough time to complete the trail and would offer us a small buffer if we needed to wait out any particularly severe weather. 

One other matter to contend with is permitting. The WRHR crosses about 5 miles of reservation. These might be 5 of the most expensive miles I’ve ever hiked. Each person needs to obtain either a day permit or a week permit from one of the local gear shops in Lander. A single day costs $60. A week-long permit costs $90. We opted to get the single day permit and guess on which day we’d be doing the 5 miles. We figured we’d beg forgiveness if we ended up being off by a day when passing through. 

Gear

One major consideration was what snow gear to bring. After talking with some of my best friends that had done the Dixon route back in 2018, along with some thorough perusing of past trip reports, we decided that we’d take microspikes but opted to leave our ice axes. It seemed we’d be trying the route late enough in the year that any pass/slope with any extreme steepness would likely be melted out or have some nearby rock option available. 

As far as layers, we each took a rain jacket, a puffy, and a sun hoody. I also took an incredibly lightweight wind shirt that actually ended up being my most useful layer. 

For shelters, Grizz and Gaucha shared a Zpacks Duplex. I took a SMD Deschutes. 

Bears were a consideration on this trip as there are reports that grizzlies roam down into the northern range of the Winds and black bears populate all areas. Grizz and Gaucha shared an XXL Ursack and I used an XL Ursack. They also used an Opsack for some food that they couldn’t fit into the XXL Ursack at the beginning of the trip. We carried two cans of bear spray – one for each shelter. 

Grizz also opted to bring a fly rod and a spinning rod for some of the stellar fishing (more on that later) that is rumored to be available in some of the alpine lakes. I volunteered to take some of his fishing gear to split up the weight (and because I also love to fish). 

Day 0 - 0 miles | 0 ft | 0 hrs 

Grizz and I had recently finished a trip into the Northern Pickets in Washington to climb Mt. Challenger (a trip report I’ll save for another place and another time), so we were already together and simply needed to intercept Gaucha on her way to Lander. We hopped on a plane at 5:30am from Seattle to Salt Lake City. Gaucha, driving from Reno with all of our food and much of our gear, picked us up and we made our way to Lander. After grabbing our permits, checking our packs, and slamming a final hot meal, we made our way to Trail Lakes TH to spend the night and await the shuttle in the morning. 

Day 1 (August 3rd) - 18.24 miles | 3,923 ft UP | 8hr 45mins

Note: My Strava tends to pad my distance by 1-1.5 miles. Keep this in mind for all future distances.

Mike arrived at 8am sharp. We crowded into the van with some of the other WRHR hopefuls. There was a couple (with names I unfortunately did not catch) and a solo hiker, Braeden. We chatted about past trips, Wyoming wildlife, strategies for the trail, what we were going to eat when we were done, and by the time we knew it the couple of hours to the Bruce’s Bridge TH had passed. We all stumbled out of the shuttle around 10am and plodded our way up the first miles of our journey.

Day 1 of the high route is relatively easy. We were loaded down with the enormous weight of our 8.5 days of food, but the trail from Bruce’s Bridge meanders slowly up, never getting too steep or rough. Furthermore, this is the biggest continuous section of trail you get while on the WRHR – so we knew it was important to enjoy it while we could. Mostly, we were hot. The trailhead starts low relative to the rest of the route (a mere 7,142ft.), so we figured we’d need to make it to the core of the range before temperatures cooled. Around 6:30pm we made it to the first of Deep Creek Lakes and spent some time searching for suitable tents sites. 

The lake was surprisingly busy. Eventually, after speaking with a really sweet couple, Matt and Livy, offered us advice on where to camp, we settled down at a spot near the shore. Grizz and I, excited by the number of fish jumping around the lake, took a half hour to try to catch a couple. Unfortunately, after a couple hits, a couple hooks, and one really close catch, the fish stopped biting. We comforted our bruised egos with some of Skurka’s famous beans and rice, finally crawling into our tents around 9pm. 

Day 2 (August 4th) - 11.55 miles | 3,321 ft UP | 11hrs 07mins

Day 2 began uneventfully. We were fresh and full of confidence. We knew it would be a big day as we were tackling, debatably, the most formidable peak and descent on the entire route, Wind River Peak and the West Gully. We packed up our camp and started up the last quarter mile or so of trail. On our way up we ran into Matt and Livy who graciously gave us 4 or 5 flies they had success catching fish with. They also gave us a couple of packets of instant miso and olives for seasoning any fish that we might be lucky enough to catch. We also ran into a group of 3 very friendly forest rangers. They were on their 7th day of a 9 day trip to clear fire rings and educate people on LNT principles. We had a nice 10 minute chat. 

The climb up Wind River Peak wasn’t bad and scenery wise it was spectacular. An enormous, triangular notch cleaves the cliffs of granite to the north east of the peak, and the enormity of the range is on full display at the summit. We kept a steady pace and enjoyed the relatively reasonable grade of the trek. As we approached the top, clouds were beginning to form in the distance, and we figured we’d better start making our way down as quickly as we could – we’d seen a 30% change of T-Storms in the forecast. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t end up being as quickly as we’d liked. The couple of miles after the summit of Wind River Peak are arguably some of the worst/most annoying on the entire route. The West Gully is a steep descent gully on small, marble rocks and talus. Everything you touch is quite loose and quick to give way to a small slide. Worse yet for some, it can feel somewhat exposed. We crawled our way down the gully, doing our best to stick to solid pieces of rock or ground.  

Gaucha, shaken by two unfortunate spills on the loose rock, was starting to struggle. Grizz and I each took some of her food to lighten her load, but by the time we made it to the tarn beneath the west gully, the clouds had come on darker and socked in most of the valley. The sky opened up, and it began to rain. We scurried beneath a behemoth of a boulder perched against the cliffside that created a kind of cave and waited 20-30 minutes for the storm to pass. 

The remainder of the day saw us skirt the side of Black Joe Lake and finally make it to the shores of Big Sandy Lake where we set camp. The lake, as Skurka mentions it might be in his guide, was a tad crowded. We found it hard to find a decent site where we weren’t on top of someone else. The solo hiker we’d rode with in the shuttle, Braeden, had been leapfrogging…

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