relative difficulty of HST?

[bobby49]

The climb up from Junction Meadow to Wallace Creek at the PCT is worse in the heat because it is so dry. It would be good to do that early AM.

Agreed. Last August I started at 6 a.m., and it was a piece of cake. You need to watch out for the Wright Creek crossing. In early season, it is a mess. By the time that I got there in August, it wasn't bad, and the water was only a foot deep.

[Dmasten]

Hey sparkler,
I see no reason you couldn't do it in 3 or 4 days. But if you are coming out from the East Coast and want to spend quality time hiking, then perhaps a few side trips will be in order.
- Before you even start, take a lap around Crescent Meadow, maybe visit Tharp's Log. Enjoy the majestic Sequoias.
- head up the steep trail to Alta Peak so you can get a good overview of the Tablelands and great view of the Great Divide and Kaweahs.
- Go off trail into Nine Lake Basin
- Detour over to Little Five Lakes?
- Turn the opposite way at the JMT/Wallace creek trail junction and visit Bighorn Plateau
- Check out Crabtree Lakes
- instead of exiting at Whitney portal, head back down the west side of Whitney, follow the PCT south to Rock Creek, then head over New Army Pass and exit via Cottonwood Lakes (perhaps the side trip to this side trip of walking up Mt Langley).

Anyway, other than altitude you should be fine with even a four day hike.

Hope this helps.

[sparkler]

Just one minor note on altitude. You mentioned the Grand Canyon and Yosemite Valley> South Rim of GCNP is about 7k. Yosemite Valley is about 4K.

i said "around yosemite valley" ie, not in the valley, but glacier point, the mist trail, little yosemite valley.

and the north rim of grand canyon is more like 9K

[sparkler]

The question this begs, and everybody eagerly sounds off about, is whether you should, in their minds at least, walk that fast or walk slower. It's an age-old debate in backpacking that ultimately comes down to personal preference. But it inspires a kind of religious fever from many.

i dont know why it is so difficult for so many people to understand that walking from 7am to 7pm and covering 17 or 18 miles in that time is not remotely close to "rushing through" or "just trying to make miles." i enjoy hiking. i dont enjoy swimming, fishing, sunbathing, having picnics or whatever else anyone else does mixed in with their hiking. that doesnt make me rushing.

i enjoyed the comment someone else made about how a "fast hiker" could do it in 4 days. if i can do it in 4 days, and i am tending to think i can, the fast hikers i know would be in lone pine by noon on day 3.

[sparkler]

And for those of us who have not been on the AT, my understanding is that it is more brutal than the PCT with regard to elevation gains. Evidently few switchbacks.

it depends on where. the south is, at least now, heavily switchbacked, but for most of the hiking season the humidity is unbearably oppressive.

the north has much more pleasant weather but the trails in most of NH and all of ME, and some parts of VT just go straight up rocky fall lines. you almost cant call them trails in the usual sense except that theyve been walked by so many people theyve been ground into the rock.

i honestly prefer the north.

[sparkler]

Hey sparkler,
I see no reason you couldn't do it in 3 or 4 days. But if you are coming out from the East Coast and want to spend quality time hiking, then perhaps a few side trips will be in order.
- Before you even start, take a lap around Crescent Meadow, maybe visit Tharp's Log. Enjoy the majestic Sequoias.
- head up the steep trail to Alta Peak so you can get a good overview of the Tablelands and great view of the Great Divide and Kaweahs.
- Go off trail into Nine Lake Basin
- Detour over to Little Five Lakes?
- Turn the opposite way at the JMT/Wallace creek trail junction and visit Bighorn Plateau
- Check out Crabtree Lakes
- instead of exiting at Whitney portal, head back down the west side of Whitney, follow the PCT south to Rock Creek, then head over New Army Pass and exit via Cottonwood Lakes (perhaps the side trip to this side trip of walking up Mt Langley).

Anyway, other than altitude you should be fine with even a four day hike.

Hope this helps.

thanks. and thanks to everyone else who made side trip suggestions. i'll keep them in mind and look into them.

[longri]

i enjoyed the comment someone else made about how a "fast hiker" could do it in 4 days. if i can do it in 4 days, and i am tending to think i can, the fast hikers i know would be in lone pine by noon on day 3.

Well that was my pace and I'm not a fast hiker. I averaged about 2.3 miles per hour on what were excellent trails. That's a pretty middling pace. I just didn't do a lot of sitting around except when in camp. I walked about 10 hours a day, except for the first day where I kept moving for 13 hours. That still left me half or more of each day to eat, sleep, and do nothing in particular.

[sparkler]

i enjoyed the comment someone else made about how a "fast hiker" could do it in 4 days. if i can do it in 4 days, and i am tending to think i can, the fast hikers i know would be in lone pine by noon on day 3.

Well that was my pace and I'm not a fast hiker. I averaged about 2.3 miles per hour on what were excellent trails. That's a pretty middling pace. I just didn't do a lot of sitting around except when in camp. I walked about 10 hours a day, except for the first day where I kept moving for 13 hours. That still left me half or more of each day to eat, sleep, and do nothing in particular.

thanks thats helpful. i guess my question can really be seen as one about obstacles in the trail. there are, without question, trails i can only manage 10 or so miles a day on, but they're very hard and not commonly found. i didnt think the HST was that sort of trail, but you never know and i wouldn't make any assumptions. unfortunately while it would be great to just go "well whatever ill start walking and get there whenever" thats just not the reality i work within. theres plane tickets to book, days off from work to take, in this case, bus and train schedules to coordinate etc.

and perhaps i shouldnt view things this way, but i'd consider getting somewhere 2 days early with no plan of what to do with those 2 days to be wasting time.

[CAMERONM]

A last consideration worth mentioning is that on any day of the year the weather in the Sierra can take a brutal turn and you might have to sit out Whitney for a day to avoid lightning, or might find yourself doing some serious postholing that can be slow-going. It is unlikely that it would add more than a day, but it certainly could happen. So having that extra day available before flying out is advisable.

[sparkler]

A last consideration worth mentioning is that on any day of the year the weather in the Sierra can take a brutal turn and you might have to sit out Whitney for a day to avoid lightning, or might find yourself doing some serious postholing that can be slow-going. It is unlikely that it would add more than a day, but it certainly could happen. So having that extra day available before flying out is advisable.

well sure, but i would say things like that are true of most backpacking trips to anywhere really worth going to.