august/september high route trip

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jpeters
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Post by jpeters »

thanks for all the input folks, one more quick question, i'm planning on taking a sleeping bag rated at 5-20 degrees F in addition to a tent. is this overkill (temp wise) can i get away with a lighter bag or should i play it safe? i'm trying to cut as much weight as possible. right now i have my base pack weight calculated around 9.5 pounds.
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StumbleBum
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Post by StumbleBum »

It's not unusual for night-time temps to drop a little below freezing... especially at 10-11K ft. If you are prepared for that, you should be fine... anything more than that may be overkill.
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sierra cyd
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Post by sierra cyd »

I thru-hiked Roper's Sierra High Route in summer 2004 and took 6 weeks (by choice - the idea was to spend as much time as possible out there relaxing peak bagging, fishing, 1-2 days off per segment, etc), so I'm quite familiar with the route and it is fantastic. For the record, I don't quite understand what the point is of speed hiking it. But that's me. With that in mind, I'd recommend, with 12 days, doing only two segments. The days would still be plenty long, with some time to enjoy the scenery along the way or in the late afternoons at camp.

But if that's what you really want to do, I would generally agree with most people's comments about the mileage- you probably shouldn't plan on an average of more than about 10 miles per day while off-trail. You can make up some time on the on-trail portions, and some off-trail days will be easier than others. Off trail, route navigation takes a bit of time, and there are a number of talus slogs and ridges and valleys which need to be very carefully crossed to avoid injury. We moved pretty quickly through the talus slopes especially towards the end of the trip, but the pace still probably doesn't compare to what you'd be able to do on-trail. I even had to backtrack a little here and there.

I can't help much with the transportation on either end because we arranged rides with friends/family. Ditto on the alcohol stove, never used one.

We do most of our backpacking in the Sierra in late August/early September, and often you have a thunderstorm pattern at that time of year, so you should plan for rain, which may be freezing or hail (even snow) and temps below freezing at night. Strong winds are possible too. Normally you get breaks of a couple days between rain storms to dry out, but this isn't always true. The sleeping bag depends on your personal sleeping temperature, but definitely assume temps will drop below 32.

I also agree with what giantbrookie says about the relief, but also would like to mention that you won't have much time to acclimate. The trailhead starts quite low, relative to the rest of the route, so even if you spend the night down there, you'll be feeling it by the time you get to Grouse Lake.

If you haven't already, definitely look up Steve Armstrong on the backpacker.com forum. He loves to talk about it, and his son has done it twice now, I think.

Enjoy your trip!
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