Southern Eagle Cap Backcountry Trip: Summer 2016

[Brando]

I had an incredible opportunity to spend five days in the Southern Eagle Cap Wilderness this past summer with some great friends. We scrambled up some summits, got soaked in with thunderstorms, shredded some glaciers and all things considered had a great adventure. The Southern Wallowas were more beautiful than I could have ever anticipated, and I can't wait to be able to explore the entire wilderness more extensively in the future.

I made a video from the trip. I'm sure you will recognize the area if you've been there before, and if you havn't, I hope you find some inspiration to head east from Baker instead of north when you travel to the far northeastern frontier.

Here's the link to the trip video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7epkZfaito

Enjoy!

[Bosterson]

Very nice. I saw "The Horn" (aka Traverse Peak) and Traverse Lake, and most likely Echo Lake as well. I'd guess maybe Tombstone Lake was also in there? Those don't make a loop though, so I'm interested to hear where you actually went.

If you liked the West Eagle/Main Eagle area, I recommend visiting the area just east of that (from Cornucopia). I made a nice loop up Cliff Creek to the S. Fork Imnaha and climbed Cusick Peak, returning via Norway Basin.

How was the fire damage down there from the big fires in 2015? I haven't been back to check since that happened, but heard a lot of the southernmost area burned.

[texasbb]

Yep, I saw lots of Traverse, but not much else I recognize. That was some amazing glacier shredding, though!

[Brando]

Was shredding a bit of an exaggeration maybe mild sledding is better description!! The original plan was to do a loop similar to that described here https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DO ... 415763.pdf but considering it was my buddies first backpacking trip ever we decided on heading up to Tombstone for two days then backtracking to the junction before making our way up to Traverse for two additional days. The high elevation shots not from Wonkers Pass were taken by scrambling up the peak adjacent to the final pass on the trail to Tombstone Lake.

In regards to fire damage, the initial climb on the trail up to Tombstone saw charred trees but overall I thought the area was doing pretty well (a lot better than say the east side of 3FJ). The vastness of the upper Imnaha and Cusick Peak has always captured my imagination, and I really do need to break from my habit of lake-centric trips

[texasbb]

Was shredding a bit of an exaggeration maybe mild sledding is better description!!

"Shredding" was no more an exaggeration than "glacier," so it's all good!