Planning for 2015

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RoguePhotonic
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Planning for 2015

Post by RoguePhotonic »

So it's early but I have most of 2015 already planned. AlpineMike plans to join me for the first 48 days. Not sure what others that may end up along with me have planned yet.

Like last year I am scaling back once again. At most I will add another 2 weeks at the end of this and end in mid September.

More fine details are below.

VVR to South Lake:

July 3 - 1- Drive to VVR
July 4 - 2 - Stay at VVR
July 5 - 3 - Hooper Lake
July 6 - 4 - Lake 11,000 (Climb Hooper)
July 7 - 5 - Blayney Hotsprings (Climb Senger)
July 8 - 6 - Humphreys Lakes
July 9 - 7 - Climb Mt. Humphreys
July 10 - 8 - Lake 11,200
July 11 - 9 - Lake 11,840
July 12 - 10 - Layover
July 13 - 11 - Climb Charybdis
July 14 - 12 - Ladder Lake
July 15 - 13 - Climb Mt. Mcduffie
July 16 - 14 - Dusy Basin
July 17 - 15 - Climb Giraud Peak
July 18 - 16 - Parchers
July 19 - 17 - Layover


Palisades:

July 20 - 18 - Dusy Basin
July 21 - 19 - Barrett Lakes (climb Columbine Peak)
July 22 - 20 - Climb North Palisade
July 23 - 21 - Lake 11,840
July 24 - 22 - Climb Norman Clyde Peak
July 25 - 23 - Finger Lake (climb Palisade Crest)
July 26 - 24 - Climb Middle Palisade
July 27 - 25 - Layover
July 28 - 26 - Second Lake (climb Temple Crag)
July 29 - 27 - Day hike Lakes
July 30 - 28 - Thunder and Lightning Lake
July 31 - 29 - Climb Vagabond & Cloudripper
August 1 - 30 - Parchers
August 2 - 31 - Layover

South Lake to Cedar Grove

August 3 - 32 - Lower Dusy Basin trail
August 4 - 33 - Lake 10,565
August 5 - 34 - Climb Peak 11,738 & Shakespeare
August 6 - 35 - Climb Peaks 12,185, 12,203, 11,762
August 7 - 36 - Climb Peak 11,290
August 8 - 37 - Island Bird Lake
August 9 - 38 - Climb Peak 11,988
August 10 - 39 - Layover
August 11 - 40 - Lake 10,565
August 12 - 41 - Marion Lake
August 13 - 42 - Horseshoe Lake
August 14 - 43 - Kid Lakes
August 15 - 44 - Kid Lakes (climb Kid Peak)
August 16 - 45 - Roads End
August 17 - 46 - Layover

Cedar Grove to Lodgepole

August 18 - 47 - Rowell Meadow
August 19 - 48 - Lodgepole

Lodgepole to Lodgepole

August 20 - 49 - Bear Paw Meadow
August 21 - 50 - Lion Lake
August 22 - 51 - Climb Triple Divide Peak
August 23 - 52 - Lake 10,725 (climb Lion Rock)
August 24 - 53 - Climb Mt. Stewart
August 25 - 54 - Climb Eagle Scout Peak move to Big arroyo
August 26 - 55 - Climb Lippincott Mt.
August 27 - 56 - Lake 10,410
August 28 - 57 - Layover
August 29 - 58 - Climb Mt. Eisen
August 30 - 59 - Columbine Lake
August 31 - 60 - Climb Sawtooth camp at Spring Lake
September 1 - 61 - Buck Creek
September 2 - 62 - Lodgepole

The plan for the start is to get a ride to the Hooper Diversion Dam and begin up from there.

Cross Alpine Col from Humphrey's Basin. Take Black Giant Pass. I will copy my route across Ionian Pass , Black Divide Crossing and Ladder Pass to Ladder Lake.

Going to take Knapsack Pass since I have not done it to the Barrett Lakes. Taking Leconte Route up North Palisade. Will take Chimney Pass over to the lake there in order to climb Norman Clyde peak from that side. Hoping to bag Palisade Crest while crossing Scimitar Pass.

Will take Contact Pass to Second Lake.

The South Lake to Cedar Grove is a combo of climbing all the remote peaks around Lake 10,565 and Island bird. I hope I can climb them all. Most likely will be 2nd or 3rd ascent on all of them.

The second half of this section I mostly planned for AlpineMike. He has not seen any of it and he really wants to do Kid Peak so we will probably cross what I call Kid Pass that I did in 2011 to get in there. I figure no harm in going back to such a beautiful area although I likely wont climb Kid Peak again myself.

Cedar Grove to Lodgepole is me attempting to get there as soon as possible while still doing something I have not done so I figure I will take the Don Cecil trail and cross Marvin Pass.

The last section I have listed here is picking up where I left off last summer. Not sure what I would do for the last 2 weeks just yet.

Any thoughts on this summer of hiking?
Last edited by RoguePhotonic on Mon Jan 05, 2015 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Planning for 2015

Post by SSSdave »

Once again you have the most impressive summer itinerary. By this point your planning with these extensive plans due to experience must be more realistic. Best of luck.

Each year most of my planning is in the fall after summer hiking and backpacking are complete but before I move into my winter skiing mode. Thus will review a list of plans I've already sized up in detail on spreadsheets looking over maps and move some of the ideas to the top of my queue. And all that is complete.

I will have 6 weeks of accrued PTO to use this year by September. If our Southern California deserts get some big storms in the next couple months would certainly spend a week down south and that is most likely late February through early April. Our wildflowers landscapes can be utterly spectacular if that happens and it just takes a single big Pineapple Express storm at the right time to make all that happen. Just a couple three times each decade so one needs to jump on those situations when they occur. Then am likely to use 2 weeks early to mid May meeting up with a photog friend who now lives in Colorado out in remote Utah plateau areas that have mind boggling places no cameras have ever pointed at.

So that leaves maybe 3 weeks for the Sierra summer. Given weather never set dates and decide on trips till I'm more confident of being out in areas at times they are worthwhile to visit. For example the last 3 years of drought has considerably affected what I ended up doing and that includes not backpacking into to areas that were on the top of my queue in the fall. I won't do trips into strenuous places like if conditions are mediocre like they were last year. Backpacking over decades, my sensitivity to variations of plant life each summer is rather high which has a direct relationship to photography aesthetics.

This year I have a 10-day solo trip planned over Shepherd to the Upper Kern I hope to do in early August and note that is after the board's Kaweah Peaks Ridge group trip. Rather excited about that which I've put tons of Google Earth hours on. But will once again remove that trip if the rest of our winter turns out to be disappointingly dry. A week before that trip am leaning towards a 9-day trip out of Mammoth Lakes with my bro to upper Fish Creek areas including the Plateau of Ponds. But again that trip requires at least normal storms the rest of the winter. Otherwise will defer to other plans. And then will do at least one short warm up trip late June into early July.
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Re: Planning for 2015

Post by giantbrookie »

My 2015 High Sierra plans are not remotely as ambitious.

For 2015 I hope to continue to increase my kids' backpacking radius and get them to a truly premium backpacking-fishing destination---my favorite west flank set of lakes are earmarked for a 3-day trip. I want to follow up on a good 2014 in which I did my first non-family backpack since 2008 (the Kuna Pass-Lost Lks-Crest Cr L-Alger Lks trip). For 2015 my plan is do a 5-day shuttle trip from Little Lakes Valley to North L going in via the north shoulder of Bear Creek Spire and Gabbot Pass to Upper Mills L. for day 1, then retracing over Gabbot on d2 to Bear Basin. D3 and much of D4 targets the Pinnacles Creek drainages and Turret Creek drainage, with a climb of Gemini thrown in early on D3. D4 may end up at Ramona L. and D5 will be spent visiting various places on the way out over Piute Pass.

Regardless of what sort of winter we get I will probably get a late start on backpacking for 2015 owing to various academic commitments that have me booked until the end of June. I plan to slip in a few dayhikes to stay tuned up going into July, though.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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JWreno
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Re: Planning for 2015

Post by JWreno »

Looks like a fantastic summer. Hope to retire in about 9 years so I can do more than 3 weeks of hiking in a summer.
Jeff
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RoguePhotonic
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Re: Planning for 2015

Post by RoguePhotonic »

So thinking about maybe this idea for the end of the hike:

September 4 - 64 - Sugarloaf Creek
September 5 - 65 - Cement Table Meadows
September 6 - 66 - Lake 11,540
September 7 - 67 - Climb Milestone
September 8 - 68 - Climb Midway
September 9 - 69 - Climb Centennial camp in Milestone Bowl
September 10 - 70 - Lake 11,800
September 11 - 71 - Climb Table
September 12 - 72 - Lake 11,520
September 13 - 73 - Climb Kern Point
September 14 - 74 - Lake 12,040
September 15 - 75 - Climb Williamson
September 16 - 76 - Independence

Picks up where I had planned other years but makes the adjustment to go do Williamson. I feel worried about the last day though. It's about 16 miles into Independence with about 8500 feet of altitude loss. I have done 8000 feet and last year I did a day of 7000 but I know It will be brutal regardless. I kind of like the idea of hiking down out of the mountains though. I have never done that before to end a hike.
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Re: Planning for 2015

Post by ERIC »

Some of the date ranges are head-scratchers, but the itinerary is awesome no matter how it's spread out.
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sparky
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Re: Planning for 2015

Post by sparky »

Have you been to Siberian outpost area? I wouldn't say it is spectacular, but different and lightly traveled.
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RoguePhotonic
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Re: Planning for 2015

Post by RoguePhotonic »

Where exactly is that again?
Some of the date ranges are head-scratchers
Did I mess one up again? I did notice I left out a layover at Lodgepole on the 3rd of September.
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sparky
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Re: Planning for 2015

Post by sparky »

It's south of the cottonwood pass trail, there's a few lakes back there
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Re: Planning for 2015

Post by RoguePhotonic »

Yeah that's about where I thought it was but no I have done almost nothing in Golden Trout Wilderness. Only one work trip to Jordan Hotsprings and the start to my 2011 hike at Lewis camp to the Kern and over Coyote Pass.

Seems like a place to go mainly for nice forest hiking and some nice meadows. No grand Sierra scenery.
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