High Sierra Topix

Don't be hard on yourself JW, chalk it up as a learning experience, if everything goes smoothly all the time where would the adventure part be in the whole thing. Once you have gained sufficient crosscountry experience/techniques and worked thru many route finding challenges, you will get to a point will you will have the confidence to let go of guidebooks or on-line descriptions of routes, and then you truly become free to roam the wilderness on your terms and not someones else's.

Don't be hard on yourself JW, chalk it up as a learning experience, if everything goes smoothly all the time where would the adventure part be in the whole thing.

Agreed - no one got hurt, everyone made it down fine.

1st hand experience with star col is that it is pretty rough coming down the north side (towards star).

JWreno wrote:We actually felt comfortable sticking to the grassy area going down White Bear pass.

I think the way you went is pretty much the route described by Dave, which is to say that from the pass one traverses at or nearly level before descending the grassy spots. Last year when I went over, I had the advantage of ascending so I could see the breaks in slope and it was no problem following the greenery and then cutting over (ie ascended the way you came down). Sounds like you hit the optimal route descending White Bear which isn't so easy to do descending instead of ascending.

On the route I followed last year, White Bear was the mellowest of the four main passes we crossed (all class 2) during the trip, and it was the third pass of that particular day (Peppermint, shoulder N of Bear Creek Spire, White Bear).

rayfound wrote: 1st hand experience with star col is that it is pretty rough coming down the north side (towards star).

Did Star col as a change going down once. Agree it's not for the faint of heart. There are cairns.. and then they stop at a cliff. Fun.

Had to drop pack down on rope a couple times and lots of air at Star.

Not to take away from your trip JWreno. You did a good job. So many boot prints to follow. So many choices to make for you and yours.

Heh, wish I'd seen all this lively discussion of Carol Col before my own trip last week. Count me as one more who missed the "wall" and headed straight down the big talus at center, then wondered why "Class 2" seemed so much more difficult than I remembered. I did see a couple who were doing a SHR section waltz right down the same stuff with full packs & trekking poles.

Star Col (right above Star Lake, I assume) looked like fun but I passed it up for Steelhead, also an adventure...probably picked the wrong line there too, more huge Class 3ish talus.

Friday 26th was an awful day for smoke in that whole area...