Is It Too Early To Plan For Next Year?

[David and Karen]

sekihiker - I already had your site bookmarked, but the 2nd one is new to me - thanks

Wandering Daisy - A lot to digest, I look forward to delving into your suggestions in detail. Thanks everyone for all the advice.

PS - I changed the 'Sierras' in my original post and checked to make sure I didn't have that in my website. I'll need more photos before I can complete the upgrade for my Sierra pages, but I'll post a prototype of some sort this weekend and each one will have a link to HST and any of the other pages I used for sources.

[rlown]

sekihiker - I already had your site bookmarked, but the 2nd one is new to me - thanks

Wandering Daisy - A lot to digest, I look forward to delving into your suggestions in detail. Thanks everyone for all the advice.

PS - I changed the 'Sierras' in my original post and checked to make sure I didn't have that in my website. I'll need more photos before I can complete the upgrade for my Sierra pages, but I'll post a prototype of some sort this weekend and each one will have a link to HST and any of the other pages I used for sources.

main page:

Capture.JPG

Not that you're doing a bad job.. I applaud your work!

[ERIC]

Hate mixing business with pleasure, but the link back policy shouldn't be ignored. It's been politely pointed to more than once in this thread, and while other suggested site edits have been made, not finding a link back to HST (yet)?

[David and Karen]

Sorry, I just saw this now, as I thought this thread was dead.

I did in fact add the link to all my prospective Sierra pages right away but I didn't publish them because I'm still immersed in research and as you can see it is still a work in progress http://members.shaw.ca/karenanddavid/Yosemite.htm

I take this project very seriously and I'm trying to do the best job that I can. I have to ask friends for photos, and I can only work on it nights & weekends so it is going to take time. I probably won't have a fully researched prototype until mid to late October. Obviously I can't pretend to know this range to the extent that I know the Cascades/Rockies & Coast Mountains. I would love the support of the community but I don't expect to get something for nothing. Thanks for your patients you will hear from me soon.

[rlown]

so, these aren't your hikes but a compendium? You lost me at that point. We here are about what we did, and balzaccom's site is about what he and his wife actually did.

I'm getting lost in your purpose for your new site.

You might be getting lost because you were trolling for info for your own site. dunno. Just don't go that direction. What have you actually done?

My 2 cents.

[Tom_H]

The reason several said it is Sierra is because the Spanish phrase Sierra Nevada is already plural. In Spanish: The Snowy Mountains.

As far as planning for next year, I completely agree with Russ' first post-you can plan all you want, but you need to have plans that span a ton of conditions for drought or deep snow, and the possibility of mosquitoes in any month-depending when the snowpack melts.

Tree rings say this was the driest winter in 500 years. Meteorologists tell us the largest El Nino in history is forming BUT there also is an immense high pressure system that may push it to the south. Or the HP system may collapse from the El Nino. We sometimes begin the summer with most snow gone. OTOH, in mid-July of 2011 I hiked the PCT in Desolation Wilderness in snow that still averaged 6-8' deep and hiked over a drift that was 40" And the mosquitoes hatch after the snow melt, so there's no way to know when that will be. If we have snow, you'll have water sources. If it's like it was this year, in late season you'll only find water in lakes; streams will be dry.

So one may plan, but (s)he should plan for a wide range of eventualities.

[David and Karen]

I apologize in that I addressed two distinct topics in one thread.

1. We fully intend to return to the Sierra in 2016, and your suggestions were helpful. While researching them I came across another thread on this forum that discussed a direct route to Evolution Basin via North Lake and I'm exploring various loops in that area. Thanks for the advice about the weather, I won't need to book anything that far out so I can wait until I know what the conditions will be like.

2. Yes I'm proud of the work I've put into my website. The reason the website looks as it does now is that a lot of people kept asking me the same questions about where to go, and what to do, and it was easier just to send them to a page on my website. Up until this year 100% of the content was first hand accounts and photos by my wife and me. However I climbed Half Dome nearly 20 years ago, all I had at the time was a cheap point & shoot camera. Recently a friend of mine did the trip so I replaced my photos with the ones he took with his SLR. I don't think that is dishonest or cheapens what I am doing, if anything it makes the site more balanced & accurate. Researching places for myself or the website is really one and the same. If for some reason I can't or don't want to go somewhere I believe that research is still valid and could be useful to someone else. The Sierra is really far away from where I live and it has a short alpine season that it shares with all the other mountain ranges. I know I can't be an expert on all of them, but I don't think that should dissuade me from trying to create the website that I've always wished someone else had made. 8^)

[rlown]

As far as point 2 goes, You should probably just be directing them here or the myriad of other Sierra focused sites rather than replicating it. If you can't answer their questions, this group can!

Still good work..

[Tom_H]

I agree that you should direct them here. No matter how good a secondary source is, the primary sources from which it came are still superior. You can ask follow up questions here. If people ask follow up questions on your site, that is not possible.

Your site can list things you personally are familiar with. For things you aren't, you do a greater service for people by steering them to the best source.

Just my $.02

[markskor]

Interesting...
Working hard (diligently?) you say on your own site, time enough to write/add more here about your Sierras (ARGH!) website too...
But too busy to include any link pointing back to HST - which we require if adding a link here.
Been a few months now and nada? You mentioned the phrase "something for nothing?"

My respect meter for you wanes.