backpack late season in fall
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:45 pm
Responses to current thread "Trip advice for October" is now going beyond the specific advice asked about that was Pioneer Basin and Emigrant Basin. A general discussion on recommended late season Sierra Nevada trips has value because each fall we receive similar questions and some of the time those doing the asking have dangerous ideas. Additionally not all the advice from members is all that wise so it would be worthwhile to suggest some guidelines and provide some examples of what to and what not to do. Back in August 2010 I posted in the thread "Sierra high country in October" the following thread that I just happened to look back up because someone writing a book on the PCT emailed me about usage rights which I gave permission for.
I don't see High Sierra in October as pleasant even on fair weather days. And November is much less so. Days are short, nights tent bound are long and chilly. Every morning ice forms on brown turf and many northern exposures are shadowy all day with remnant white snow dustings from the last early front passing. The sun is at a much lower angle even at noon so it doesn't warm up that much. Smaller streams show dried watercourses often leaving long trail stretches without water. Permanent streams are at their annual minimum flows with ice crinkling and breaking during morning along any shady bank edges. Vegetation is all dried and drab brown leaving evergreen pines and firs the only green. High country terrestrial insects have all long since hatched, lived, reproduced, and died so most birds have left for warmer climes leaving an eerie silence about vast distances. Even rodents stay in their burrows nibbling unseen on their summer larder. Deer have left the high country to eat berries at mid forest elevations. Trout readily gobble any underwater object that wiggles while ignoring the lifeless lake surfaces. Experienced backpackers and climbers are scarce too while a few novices ramble up trails proclaiming how great it is that they are alone even on popular trails. Clear skies give way to growing afternoon clouds. In the evening stars appear then later ominously disappear with a whine in whitebark pines growing each hour. One awakes in the we hours and a new sound is tinkling on one's tent. One contemplates on being really alone and why this is so.
For over 3 decades I've been rambling about our mountains and for much of those years fall has been a favorite event because as a color landscape photographer the Eastern Sierra aspen groves can be a thing of beautiful wonder. For many of those years outside of Sierra locals, only small numbers of people bothered to make the long drive to those areas each year as it was not until the rise of digital cameras and the Internet Age that most photographers and "leaf peeping" visitors began to take notice with Carol Leigh's Calphoto site sparking much of that early interest. Of course the last decade those areas have seen multitudes suddenly making the pilgrimage. From about the third week of September through fourth week of October is the period where I visit those groves and after that work mid and lower elevations of Sierra western slopes for scattered Pacific dogwood, bigleaf maple, black oak, redbud, willow, and black cottonwood. And as an enthusiastic long time resort snow skier, have keenly watched early winter storms move in to start that favorite winter activity. By late October we've seen a couple feet of snow at higher Tahoe resort elevations. All this over years has given me a keen sense weather and conditions about the range during that period.
During one fall, first week of October, a dry continental cold front with just a little snow came down just as another large format photographer friend and I had driven over Tioga Pass for a few days working the groves. We spent that night down bags atop foam pads out in the open in the Mono Lake Basin near the SR167 junction that is below 7k elevation. Temperature that night got down to 3 degrees Fahrenheit and the next morning the gauge on the outside of our Subaru got down to zero out along SR120 at Mono Craters. Folks, you just don't mess around when temperatures get that low. Over the years see snow at higher elevations above 9k on most week long trips and at times down below 7k. The following feature shows a snow depth map for a storm October 10, 2013. Notice how significant areas received over 8 inches and look at some of the snowy pictures then think about trying to follow a trail in snows that deep.
http://www.davidsenesac.com/MonoFall_20 ... _2013.html
Such snowstorms are almost never a surprise for a weather savvy person in this Internet age though an average person that relies on watered down mass media forecasts is asking to be misguided. Anyone out during these periods needs to be familiar with the NWS technical forecast discussions from the Reno and Hanford offices. Some basics and believe me there is much more. In fact there are whole books on coping and backpacking during winter.
The longer one's trip the more chance a forecast will change.
Any front that is forecast to only go as far south as Oregon can easily surprise and end up moving down over the Sierra.
Check the jetstream forecasts> http://virga.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream.html
Bring warm clothes as nights and early mornings are certain to be at a minimum frosty. And that includes headgear and gloves.
Wool is good.
Bring shoes that won't soak up water from walking through snow during the day and freeze overnight, impossible to push a foot into.
If backpacking, and a storm threatens, stay overnight below 7k. If one is above 8k at night especially off on dirt roads and snow starts, get up, break camp and drive down lower, lest one might get stuck a while.
The best plans start at trailheads below 7k especially on paved roads and not dirt roads with destinations that one can directly descend back to the trailhead in just a few hours if necessary without having to climb over higher ridges or passes.
I don't see High Sierra in October as pleasant even on fair weather days. And November is much less so. Days are short, nights tent bound are long and chilly. Every morning ice forms on brown turf and many northern exposures are shadowy all day with remnant white snow dustings from the last early front passing. The sun is at a much lower angle even at noon so it doesn't warm up that much. Smaller streams show dried watercourses often leaving long trail stretches without water. Permanent streams are at their annual minimum flows with ice crinkling and breaking during morning along any shady bank edges. Vegetation is all dried and drab brown leaving evergreen pines and firs the only green. High country terrestrial insects have all long since hatched, lived, reproduced, and died so most birds have left for warmer climes leaving an eerie silence about vast distances. Even rodents stay in their burrows nibbling unseen on their summer larder. Deer have left the high country to eat berries at mid forest elevations. Trout readily gobble any underwater object that wiggles while ignoring the lifeless lake surfaces. Experienced backpackers and climbers are scarce too while a few novices ramble up trails proclaiming how great it is that they are alone even on popular trails. Clear skies give way to growing afternoon clouds. In the evening stars appear then later ominously disappear with a whine in whitebark pines growing each hour. One awakes in the we hours and a new sound is tinkling on one's tent. One contemplates on being really alone and why this is so.
For over 3 decades I've been rambling about our mountains and for much of those years fall has been a favorite event because as a color landscape photographer the Eastern Sierra aspen groves can be a thing of beautiful wonder. For many of those years outside of Sierra locals, only small numbers of people bothered to make the long drive to those areas each year as it was not until the rise of digital cameras and the Internet Age that most photographers and "leaf peeping" visitors began to take notice with Carol Leigh's Calphoto site sparking much of that early interest. Of course the last decade those areas have seen multitudes suddenly making the pilgrimage. From about the third week of September through fourth week of October is the period where I visit those groves and after that work mid and lower elevations of Sierra western slopes for scattered Pacific dogwood, bigleaf maple, black oak, redbud, willow, and black cottonwood. And as an enthusiastic long time resort snow skier, have keenly watched early winter storms move in to start that favorite winter activity. By late October we've seen a couple feet of snow at higher Tahoe resort elevations. All this over years has given me a keen sense weather and conditions about the range during that period.
During one fall, first week of October, a dry continental cold front with just a little snow came down just as another large format photographer friend and I had driven over Tioga Pass for a few days working the groves. We spent that night down bags atop foam pads out in the open in the Mono Lake Basin near the SR167 junction that is below 7k elevation. Temperature that night got down to 3 degrees Fahrenheit and the next morning the gauge on the outside of our Subaru got down to zero out along SR120 at Mono Craters. Folks, you just don't mess around when temperatures get that low. Over the years see snow at higher elevations above 9k on most week long trips and at times down below 7k. The following feature shows a snow depth map for a storm October 10, 2013. Notice how significant areas received over 8 inches and look at some of the snowy pictures then think about trying to follow a trail in snows that deep.
http://www.davidsenesac.com/MonoFall_20 ... _2013.html
Such snowstorms are almost never a surprise for a weather savvy person in this Internet age though an average person that relies on watered down mass media forecasts is asking to be misguided. Anyone out during these periods needs to be familiar with the NWS technical forecast discussions from the Reno and Hanford offices. Some basics and believe me there is much more. In fact there are whole books on coping and backpacking during winter.
The longer one's trip the more chance a forecast will change.
Any front that is forecast to only go as far south as Oregon can easily surprise and end up moving down over the Sierra.
Check the jetstream forecasts> http://virga.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream.html
Bring warm clothes as nights and early mornings are certain to be at a minimum frosty. And that includes headgear and gloves.
Wool is good.
Bring shoes that won't soak up water from walking through snow during the day and freeze overnight, impossible to push a foot into.
If backpacking, and a storm threatens, stay overnight below 7k. If one is above 8k at night especially off on dirt roads and snow starts, get up, break camp and drive down lower, lest one might get stuck a while.
The best plans start at trailheads below 7k especially on paved roads and not dirt roads with destinations that one can directly descend back to the trailhead in just a few hours if necessary without having to climb over higher ridges or passes.