Mt Darwin
Notes by piero scaruffi | Travel resources | Other California destinations | California hikesPictures of the hikes
One can reach Mt Darwin (4215m, N37.16690 / W118.6706)
in a day hike either
North FaceThe North Lake trailhead is located near Lake Sabrina, west of Bishop off 168. It requires about 3kms of driving on unpaved road. The only way to leave the car at the North Lake trailhead is to take a campsite. Otherwise you have to leave the car at the hikers' parking lot 2kms before the trailhead. The North Lake trailhead splits almost immediately: the main trail goes up towards Piute Pass, the left for goes to the Lamarck Lakes. Take the left to the Lamarck Lakes. In less than one hour you reach the lower lake. Continue following the trail. After crossing a creek, the trail heads towards the second Lamarck lake. Unfortunately the trail is not easy to follow. You need to know where it continues. If uncertain, just climb the hill that you are ascending and you'll find it on the other side. From there on that use trail is usually easy to follow. It enters a canyon and follows it to the plateau of Mt Lamarck. To the southwest of Mt Lamarck is a snow field. Depending on the season, it might be easy to coast it to the south. Lamarck Col is the prominent chimney west of it.
When you reach the top of
Lamarck Col (almost 4000m) you are welcomed by the sign of the Kings Canyon
national park and you have a great view of the lakes of Darwin Canyon,
You want to head for the ridge to your left (east) so you don't lost elevation, coasting the moraine that comes down from Darwin. If you stay right on the ridge, you'll have good views of the lakes on the other side, including Lake Sabrina in the distance. Eventually you'll be forced to lose elevation and head for the glacier. When you enter the glacier, the northeast ridge is on your left, the prominent rib of the north face is on your right. In the middle is a very steep glacier. If you have crampons, you can try and climb the glacier, although it is truly scary. If not, the rib is class 3 and 4, sometimes with exposure. My 2009 time:
Coming down you have the option of using one of the many "passes" on the eastern ridge to descend to Blue Haven Lake or (easier) the lakes above Lake Sabrina. Or just return to Lamarck Col. Western FaceThis is the easiest way to get on Mt Darwin, but unfortunately it is very far from every trailhead. As a day hike, it is extremely long.From North Lake (see Evolution loop for more details from North Lake to Evolution Lake):
Lake Sabrina is located at the end of 168, west of Bishop, about 1.5 hours driving time south of Mono Lake, i.e. 6/7 hours from the Bay Area. >From Bishop, take 168 west, aka West Line St, all the way to the end. After coasting Lake Sabrina (2780m) for about 1.5 km, the trail climbs steeeply to Blue Lake. Logs help you cross the creek that drains Blue Lake. Take the right turn towards Dingleberry Lake. It is very easy to make a mistake here, as the trail disappears and only cairns mark the route: you should be turning 90 degrees west away from the lake if you are on the right trail. This devastatingly stupid trail goes up and down. It drops elevation to Dingleberry Lake. After this lake, one has a choice. One can go left to Hungry Packer Lake, or right to Midnight Lake (3300m). Mt Darwin's northeastern ridge requires climbing skills. Mt Darwin's south-eastern approach is much easier and also represents a sort of "pass" to enter the Evolution region. This approach is via the crest between Mt Darwin (easily recognizable because its top looks flat with two horns and is already visible from Lake Sabrina) and Mt Haeckel (even easier to recognize because it looks really steep, like a gothic spire). Getting there is not terribly easy. Hungry Packer Lake is locked by a huge waterfall. The only way to bypass it is to climb the ridge to the right (north). You have to get almost to the top before you found ledges that take you to the other side of the waterfall. Alternatively, one can go to Midnight Lake and climb a chute on the left (south) of the lake that comes down from the same ridge. Once at the top of that chute one can follow the ridge to where it stops being a ridge (which turns out to be the other side of the waterfall). At this point you are entering a plateau (actually up and down) with several small lakes. Downhill one can take the chute that connects directly this plateau to Midnight Lake (on the very north-eastern corner of the plateau) but this is full of scree and loose boulders and is therefore virtually impossible uphill. From this point (whether you came from Midnight Lake or Hungry Packer Lake) it is just a matter of climbing one ridge after the other of the "plateau" (while proceeding west) and coasting a series of small lakes. Eventually the wall connecting Haeckel and Darwin becomes very visible. There is one last lake (3762m). Coast the lake to the right and head for the easily climbable part of the wall, near the Darwin side of the crest. At the top of this wall you have a view of the other side: Mt Spencer, the lake southwest of Mt Spencer, Sapphire Lake in the distance, and, to your right, the southern ridge of Mt Darwin. You can descend two ways: 1. you can head west until you find a chute that drops you down to the lake (avoid the granite slope right below the pass because they are extremely dangerous) and then walk down to Sapphire Lake where you pick up the John Muir Trail; 2. you can head west on the ridge that heads towards Mt Spencer until you find the chute that coasts Mt Spencer to the west and north, and then continue down the slope that takes you to Evolution Lake where you pick up the John Muir Trail. Whichever way you take, turn right (north) when you hit the John Muir Trail until you reach Evolution Lake. My 2007 time:
East FaceMost people reach the East Face via Lake Sabrina. See above how to get to Lake Sabrina and to Dingleberry Lake. From Dingleberry Lake you have two options: 1. The straight way is to climb up one of the creeks that come down from the western ridge (both of them have a lot of trees) until you get to a sort of line that goes up diagonally towards Mt Darwin, emerging in the plateau with a few tiny lakes; 2. If you prefer to stay on trail as long as possible, continue on the trail past Dingleberry Lake, and turn right to Blue Heron Lake, from where you head northwest towards the plateau before the East Face. At the northwestern corner of Mt Darwin find a chute that takes you to the northeastern ridge. When you get to this ridge, you will have a view of the Darwin glacier to your north and (further north) of Lamarck Col.The other way to get to this ridge is to take the Lamarck Col route from North Lake. See above. You need to climb the northeastern ridge until it becomes possible to move left/south towards a prominent rib. Climb to the other side of the rib and head for the next rib. Climb this one too and you should see the central chute that goes towards the summit. The main difficulty of this route is the northeastern ridge, which has a class-4 section.
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Pictures of this hike
The classic southeast face route Evolution loop via Lamark Col, Darwin Canyon, Evolution Lake Southern Evolution loop via Wallace Col and Echo Pass Weather forecast for Mt Darwin A possible northern route from Lamarck Col: 
Topomap of Darwin: 
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