Seven Gables

9 Aug 1998 - by Roger Crawley

Six of us - Charles Schafer (leader), Jim Ramaker, Landa Robilliard, Kelly Maas, Andy Skumanich, and Roger Crawley enjoyed perfect weather, a plethora of wild flowers, lovely Sierra lakes and meadows, and a great mountain climb over three days Aug.7-9. We met at the Ranger Station on the road in to Florence Lake, secured a permit, and boarded the 8:30 am ferry to cross the lake. It was hot and there was a plethora of mosquitoes on the trail to Sally Keyes Lakes and Selden Pass. Seven Gables is only about one mile from the pass. At 5 o'clock we made camp at on the east side of one of the Marie Lakes. In the morning we went around the shoulder of a ridge and dropped a little to Sand Piper Lake and the base of our mountain. There's a short, steep section up through some bushes and ledges and then about 400 yards of open sandy and rocky terrain to the saddle on the east rim. We made our way over boulders up to a ridge near the summit. We got out our ice axes for a short crossing of steep, hard snow and scrambled up easy rocks to the top. Views were the normal outstanding with very clear air and no clouds. Charles started down to try and find a route with a third class chimney and some ledges over to a pass to the south and thence over to Gemini (12,866). It didn't look like much fun and when we considered how long it would take, one by one, the rest of us became mutinous. Charles finally let us have our way. But he groused. That's a fact. On the way down we all tried to ski and glissade down the snowfield. On the way back there was ample time and in the warm sunshine we flattened ourselves on some granite and dozed and gazed at the shimmering lakes. Next morning we headed down and cooled ourselves in Florence Lake while waiting for the ferry.


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