High Sierra Topix

Whats your favorite/least favorite pass(trail and x-country), and why?

Passes with trails, I like Bishop because of the quick access it gives
me into SEKI, and Taboose because of the scenery from the top.
Sawtooth is probably the least fav because of the sandy ascent, but
it is the funest descent for the same reason.
X-country passes are all a challange which I enjoy partaking in so
I have no real least favorite.
Favorites are too numerous but a few of mine would be Milly's Foot
Pants, Russell-Carillon, The Keyhole, Vennacher Col(SEKI), Jigsaw(InyoNF), North Notch(Ansel), Polemonium(Northern Yosemite).

My favorite cross country pass is East Cottage Dome Pass. Because it is about the easiest one I know from a road that provides access to worthwhile destinations. In that case a major shortcut versus the formal trail on the other side of the river to all the river areas below Tuolumne Meadows like Glen Aulin and the cataracts below. Finding the pass is however a bit tricky because one needs to ramble a bit in dense lodgepole pine forest dodging swampy mosquito infested ponds with some topo map saviness. ...David

Is this the route starting from a small clearing(maybe enough for
2 cars to park) west of the T Meadow on the northern side of the road
which heads down to the small pond and then skirts the rivers western side till you hook with the trail at the crossing?

The first pass I hiked over was Franklin Pass in 1970 when I was 5 years old. It is still my favorite...

The Franklin Pass area is really beautiful.

Maverick, I'm interested to see you listing Milly's Foot as a favorite. I haven't done it, but its sister -- Lucy's Foot -- ranks as my least favorite. All the loose garbage, and the fact that a huge boulder came loose and nearly killed me the one time I went over it.

I've always been partial to McGee Pass, because it's far less crowded than most, and I find the scenery wonderful on either side. Although I have to admit I cut switchbacks on the west side (going both up and down!).

maverick wrote:Is this the route starting from a small clearing(maybe enough for
2 cars to park) west of the T Meadow on the northern side of the road
which heads down to the small pond and then skirts the rivers western side till you hook with the trail at the crossing?

Yup. One is likely to pass deer grazing down in the lower meadow and run into backcountry rangers or those working at the Glen Aulin HSC since those peops don't like wasting effort hiking the main trail either. ...David

McGee Pass is one of my favorites too! I came out of Tully Hole via McGee Pass about ten days ago and thought again how lovely the area is. The trail on the west side is showing signs of people short cutting the switchbacks though, and so is not as easy on the eye as it once was. To me, cutting switchbacks is a sign of immature impatience, regardless of the perpetrators age.

Sawtooth is my least favorite and the East side of Franklin Pass is somewhat of a sandy bummer also... I like the South side of Forester Pass because of the scary (to me) switchbacks constructed of rocks that appear to be laid on top of steel bars driven into the rock face. The view from the top is no slouch either. I would really like to see Milly's Foot Pass.

Mungoat Pass may be my x-c favorite: easy approach from Grouse Lake, fantastic view (Arrow Peak & the Muro Blanco) from the top, tricky but not too scary routefinding on the other side.

Finger Col is pretty awesome, with the interesting routefinding from the east and the towering rock column on the west side.

Hi Maverick,
Nice thread here; glad that TT rejuvenated it. I like Lundy Pass, because its the only pass I've ever been over where I did not realize I'd crossed the pass till I was another mile down the trail..........hmmmm, was that a pass back there?

As for your cadre of favorite off-trail passes, most of those are way high on my list of sphincter tighteners, and I'd only include them as favorites because I was glad to have most parts intact at the end of the day (sorta echoing Quentin's sentiments). I'd add Echo col to that list, because even though it makes for a quick way to get into/out of Ionian basin, it does so with a certain degree of risk (especially, west to east, at least in my experience). But, on days ya need an adrenaline jolt, any one of those will do the trick, even if you're just out for a day hike from a base camp.
cgundersen