This was the second trip up there in two weeks. Finally some nice weather and gorgeous fall colors. Hiked in the from the Snow Lakes trailhead (learning to love it) and reached the Lakes basin about 8 hours later. I overnighted near Sprite Lake and headed back down once the light had turned. Officially this is the 8th toughest hike in the country. Its about 6000 feet of vertical climb. The snow starts around the Upper Snow Lake and gets really deep past Lake Viviane. I was postholing up to my thighs. I carried two primes: zeiss 50mm and 28mm and my gitzo GT0540 tripod.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
...off to go grab another handful of Aleve.
in the middle of this its hard to contemplate the other 7 
