
Andrew Skurka’s Wind River High Route
8/30/25—9/5/2025
Lynn Froetscher and I hiked Skurka’s 100 mile high route across the backbone of the Wind River Range in WY over the course of 7 days. We had uncommonly perfect weather and only dealt with smoke from nearby fires on our final 2 days. We stayed true to Skurka’s route except on two occasions—we took TX Pass instead of NY Pass and took the Dixon Camp Lakes Alt around Douglas Pass.
We carried eight days of food, which weighed heavily on us at the start, especially as we negotiated the class 3 downclimb in the West Gully off of Wind River Peak. From beginning to end, the way was fraught with nebulous moraine fields, loose scree, and boulders the size of cars. We utilized the waypoints provided by Skurka, his guidebook, and his annotated paper map set; we did not use a pre-established gps track and chose, instead, to do our own route-finding.
I’d love to return to these mountains and complete the route again one day, perhaps when I hike the CDT!
Rocky Mountain Motel in Dubois, WY
Bruce's Bridge Trailhead
Wind River Peak
West Gully
Vibes after the West Gully
Lonesome Lake
Cirque of the Towers
Texas Pass
Raid Peak Pass
Bonneville Lake
Sentry Pass
Lee Lake
Our first view of Photo Pass
Ivey consulting the map on Photo Pass
4:30AM start for Europe Peak
Nebulous terrain slowed us down in the beginning, but we reached the first saddle by sunrise
Lynn choosing a line for us to the summit of Europe
Class 3 scramble near the summit
Sweet catwalk on Europe Peak
Gold Lakes
View of Douglas Pass
Dixon Camp Lakes Alternate
Class 3 down climb beneath the "precariously perched boulder"
Smoke rolling into Alpine Lakes Basin
Climbing around the bluffs at Alpine Lakes Basin
Alpine Lakes Pass
View of the Knifepoint Glacier
River valley beneath Blaurock Pass
Blaurock Pass
Descending the grassy ledges
Camping below West Sentinel Pass
Apocalyptic sky at dusk
5:30AM start to climb West Sentinel Pass
Gannett Glacier
Lynn filtering water from a runnel
Ivey next to a crevasse
Grasshopper Glacier
Crevasses on the Grasshopper Glacier
Downs Mountain Summit
View looking back at Downs Mountain
Goat Flats
The 8 mile trail out to the parking lot
Trail Lakes Trailhead and the end of our hike!