Ice Lake to Razz Lake OT route- kmzs
Posted: January 14th, 2020, 9:20 am
Hey-since the threads about this topic are 8-9 years old I thought I'd start a new one. Last summer (early Aug 2019) myself and my 14 and 15 year olds backpacked in the Wallowas, which were stunning. From the Wallowa River TH we wanted to visit Ice Lake and the Lakes Basin area and Glacier Lake then return to TH. The OT shortcut from Ice to Razz sounded appealing given this itinerary since it would cut off ten miles or so. There are good posts out there about the route over the ridge between Ice and Razz but here are some Google Earth kmzs I drew of our route. These paths are not directly from waypoints, just from my memory, but I remember the details well and it's not a super complicated route. However, be aware that the paths are not from waypoints. From down below at Ice Lake the ridge looks sketchy, and it is definitely a steep hike going up and there is some scrambling around the main tooth, but no significant exposure.
Once we reached the ridge we skirted around the north side of the main tooth, maybe 25 feet below the top. The south side looked too steep and exposed to traverse. Once around the main tooth it was easy to follow the ridge to a notch (Bosterman's? I see it referenced as this in a previous discussion). A long couloir reaches down on the north side from this notch. This looks like it would work fine as an approach (see :straight up couloir kmz) instead of our route and I could see mtn goat tracks on it, and another trip report from Oregon Hikers describes descending it. From below we had opted against coming up this couloir to the notch because I was a little worried about rock fall and we had no helmets- probably would have been fine but I had my kids along and kinda sensitive about their heads.
At the notch we headed just about 100 feet down a south-facing couloir and then traversed onto a treed ramp that leads to Upper Razz. From Upper Razz followed game trails along outflow stream to Razz Lake.
I think it was about 3.5 hours from Ice Lake, maybe more as we took it slow.
From up on the ridge there are several couloirs on the south side that lead down directly to Razz Lake. The furthest west one may be make-able, however from the vantage of Razz Lake at the end of descent it looked like there are maybe some waterfalls in the couloir where you might get stuck with a 20 foot drop. But I don't know for sure. Anyway the descent we took to Upper Razz is very scenic, in a beautiful cirque, so that route is worth it for the views, and the trail from Upper Razz to Razz is easy.
When we got to Razz, no one there, and it was so nice we stayed the night. The next morning we took an unmaintained trail leading from the northeast end of Razz down to the Lakes Basin. About 45-60 minutes down.
If you don't mind some quite steep ascending/descending and a little careful scrambling on the ridge this route makes connecting Ice Lake to Lakes Basin straightforward and efficient.
Once we reached the ridge we skirted around the north side of the main tooth, maybe 25 feet below the top. The south side looked too steep and exposed to traverse. Once around the main tooth it was easy to follow the ridge to a notch (Bosterman's? I see it referenced as this in a previous discussion). A long couloir reaches down on the north side from this notch. This looks like it would work fine as an approach (see :straight up couloir kmz) instead of our route and I could see mtn goat tracks on it, and another trip report from Oregon Hikers describes descending it. From below we had opted against coming up this couloir to the notch because I was a little worried about rock fall and we had no helmets- probably would have been fine but I had my kids along and kinda sensitive about their heads.
At the notch we headed just about 100 feet down a south-facing couloir and then traversed onto a treed ramp that leads to Upper Razz. From Upper Razz followed game trails along outflow stream to Razz Lake.
I think it was about 3.5 hours from Ice Lake, maybe more as we took it slow.
From up on the ridge there are several couloirs on the south side that lead down directly to Razz Lake. The furthest west one may be make-able, however from the vantage of Razz Lake at the end of descent it looked like there are maybe some waterfalls in the couloir where you might get stuck with a 20 foot drop. But I don't know for sure. Anyway the descent we took to Upper Razz is very scenic, in a beautiful cirque, so that route is worth it for the views, and the trail from Upper Razz to Razz is easy.
When we got to Razz, no one there, and it was so nice we stayed the night. The next morning we took an unmaintained trail leading from the northeast end of Razz down to the Lakes Basin. About 45-60 minutes down.
If you don't mind some quite steep ascending/descending and a little careful scrambling on the ridge this route makes connecting Ice Lake to Lakes Basin straightforward and efficient.