"Peak G"

Route: West Gully
Posted On: 8/6/2024, By: supranihilest
Info: Started out on an utterly soaked trail. Gore-Tex pants kept me from getting completely soaked myself and freezing to death but my feet didn't dry out for the entire day. The Upper Piney Lake trail is a bit difficult to follow once it heads southeast and there's no One Trail to Rule Them All - there are often multiple trails, just know that the trail stays to the east of Piney River the entire way up. The entrance to the rocky western gully isn't visible from below so it's hard to know exactly where to leave. On topo maps it's the more northwestern of two streams coming off of "Peak G", the one that bends coming down from between "Peak F" and "G". The gully is steep and loose but not as bad as I expected. The larger talus and boulders are more stable. The scree did suck as expected, and the dirt was wet enough to be tacky but not muddy which was a huge bonus. I slugged my way up the 2,600 feet to the summit ridge to the south of the summit instead of going to the "F"/"G" saddle like many do, then scrambled the ridge. There were some exposed spots and some Class 3, maybe Class 4 moves but overall this was also easier than expected. I descended about 100 feet down a gully directly off the summit at Class 2+, which could also be used for the ascent but there's so many little gullies and ribs it's hard to tell which is the right one from below. I continued over Black Benchmark and "Peak H" for the easier descent, which is talus and boulders going southwest towards some gullies to skier's left, then mostly steep grass going southeast towards Upper Piney Lake. The trail picks up in that area and marches in a discontinuous manner all the way down. It passes the middle lake to the west but otherwise always stays east of the river. It's not marked on Forest Service maps but if you use the MapBuilder Features on Caltopo (hit the F key) you can use the rough track provided there. It's a long, wet, winding, and not particularly scenic or enjoyable trail but hey, at least it exists! 

Route: From Upper Piney via Peak F/G Col
Posted On: 9/3/2023, By: Laxer04
Info: I set up camp at a small pond below Upper Piney Lake. The Upper Piney trail is in really rough shape. Countless downed trees and it's very easy to lose the trail. I climbed the peak via the Peak F - Peak G Col from Upper Piney basin. Steep bushwhack from Piney River to treeline. I couldn't find any sort of a trail. The col is snow fee and just some scree/loose rock here and there. Gorgeous views and a ton of wildflowers below the Col. I went up G first and then over to F. It's pretty straight forward and easily to navigate. Really good rock, solid class 3 scrambling. The summit block on G is intimidating, but you can scramble to the right of it and keep it class 3. No snow whatsoever, however there is still a good amount of snow on the east side of the peaks down to Bubble Lakes. 

Route: from F
Posted On: 9/8/2022, By: SnowAlien
Info: First of all, it would be great to know where the actual summit it. Caltopo has it in the wrong spot, it's pretty obvious once you arrive there. There are 2 higher ridge bumps which we traversed, and the Northern one appears to be the proper one. The ridgeline is narrow and exposed and not ideal in a tired state. Direct descent is not recommended (pretty sure I found some Class 4-5) and is better to traverse either to H (we ran out of time) or at least back to the saddle with F. No register to be found. 

Route: Ripsaw
Posted On: 9/27/2021, By: tdawg012
Info: Some minor snow patches on north facing slopes of ripsaw ridge but not bad. Peak G has prime views of Bubble lake and the surrounding peaks....perhaps the most dramatic of which is the Spider and Fly when descending off of "H." 

Route: Upper Piney
Posted On: 6/27/2021, By: Jorts
Info: Snow avoidable. 

Route: Minuscule Ripsaw
Posted On: 7/8/2018, By: d_baker
Info: Backpacked into Upper Piney (before Long Lake and well before Upper Piney Lake), about 4.5 miles in. BRING your best mosquito killer skills. Ascended ~2400' gully that leads to saddle with Black BM and Pk H and then ran ridge NW (very small portion of Ripsaw) to get to summit of Pk G, hitting Black BM along the way. Descended gully between Pk F and Pk G. All dry conditions on this side of Ripsaw run. The NE side of ridge has the usual snow in and around Bubble Lakes, etc., from what we could see. Upper portions of Powell had snow fields but not sure if avoidable or not. One guy we talked to coming out on Thursday said he was in Bubble Lakes and he used and needed his ice axe and crampons when he descended Kneeknocker and for the climbs he did, all accessed from Bubble Lakes side. (I think he did D, E, and maybe F.) Piney trail (after Kneeknocker turnoff) has a lot more down trees than I remember from being there 6 years ago.