Amazing solo trip. Drove up to Bishop and made camp at Midnight lake. Little swim and beautiful dawn. Headed up to Blue Heaven climbing out of Midnight’s basin over benches and talus into the Blue Heaven basin. Aimed for the left side to come out high which was a good choice. Lots of talus around Blue Heaven. Skirted left then descended to a beautiful sapphire blue tarn from which an easy approach to the col can be seen. The chute to the col is steep and very loose scree, so I stayed to the right on solid rock where possible. The top of Darwin has magnificent views back east over the tarn and Blue Heaven. The west side approach from Darwin lakes is much less steep. Mount Darwin with its snow field is pretty incredible. On the descent, a little scree skiing got me down in no time. I called an audible and decided to visit Hell Diver Lakes. Lots of talus and cross country walking. The terrain is very hard to read with lots of talus and benches, with one canyon you climb out of between – as I recall – the second and third lakes descending. The descent from Hell Diver is pretty rough with lots of non obvious routes and its very easy to get cliffed-out. It ended up being a long and arduous return after Darwin, but a fun fairly wild adventure. Spectacular long day!
