Nature's Playgrounds: Wrong Turn, Three Brother Teanaway Loop

Sam, Sarah, Derrick and I decided to kick off the backpacking season with a weekend in the Teanaways. After Sarah and my last great adventure in the Teanaway, we were pretty excited for some peak bagging and ridge camping. This time we set our site on the Stafford Creek basin. We drove up Friday night to car camp and get an early start on the trip.

Lower Stafford Creek Basin

After several miles on the trail we eventually began to reach the upper basin and break through the tress and on to the snow. At Navaho Pass, Sarah and I ditched the guys and head up to Wrong Turn peak, a quick climb ridge climb up the saddle to the left. The views were splendid although not quite as stunning as some of the neighboring peaks.

Snow covered Earl

Stuart

Panorama from Wrong Turn

Navaho from Wrong Turn

Back at the saddle we regrouped and set our sites on Navaho's south eastern ridge. We originally thought we could take the trail to the saddle, but struggled to find the trail even with relatively low snow. So instead we began a long, steep, scree-filled traverse. After getting completely sick of traversing, we found a less steep slope and headed up the scree to gain the ridge. It was a rather unpleasant climb that put us at our destination a bit later than we had intended. We quickly made a pizza dinner and set up camp. Unfortunately, Sam was suffering from some stomach issues and Derrick was at his limit of off trail route finding adventures. But Sarah and I were in high spirits and enjoyed a lovely sunset over a special landscape.

Sun setting on Earl

Rainier

The next morning Sarah and I set out for Three Brothers. The weather was starting to take a turn but we decided to go for it anyways. We found a section of the ridge without cornices and dropped down into the bowl on Navaho's southeast face. From there we fairly easily connected with the Three Brother's saddle and proceeded up the ridge. By time we made it to the top the wind, rain and snow had picked up and the views were lacking. We made quick time back to the bowl and then up the snowy slope back to camp.

Busted up cornices east of Navaho

Snowy side of Navaho's ridge

Miller

Three Brothers

At camp, we met up with the guys and began descending the ridge towards the saddle between Navaho and Freedom. Once in the saddle we debated whether or not we were going to go for Freedom. The guys were not motivated to climb anything in the deteriorating weather and Sarah and I decided we were content with our two summits. We then began to descend from the saddle back down to the Stafford Creek trail. The descent was fairly straight forward. We stayed on a slight ridge to the left of a gully. Once on the trail we made good time back to the car.