TR: Up High Walkabout

[commonloon]

Thanks @cgundersen. Henry was flying up the peaks. I was leading thru the off trail bits. The route played to both our strengths.

Thanks @Flamingo. Definitely a fun route. I'd like to try it with more snow. Some of those sandy bits weren't as fun.

@Rockyroad Sounds like someone else was as crazy as us on Tues. We went thru Sunday morning. We both thought that is was possible that Versteeg and Tyndall Col had deteriorated in recent years. Perhaps when Secor climbed it or who ever gave him the beta, it was in better shape with more pleasant climbing along the ridge/gendarmes. Love that Upper Wrights lake want to go back there and fish and camp sometime.

[sekihiker]

What an adventure. I see you guys are still full of energy.

[commonloon]

@sekihiker Yip, but I have to admit I was really tired after this one. Super motivated during, just love that part of the Sierra.

[astrogerly]

Great report and photos! Sounds like a fun trip! We’ll be base camping at Upper Soldier Lake this weekend, so appreciate those pics. We camped at the “main” Soldier Lake when we visited Miter Basin last year. It was great on Friday, but got crowded on Saturday. Hoping the upper one provides a little more solitude.

[commonloon]

Thanks @astrogerly. The Upper lake is really nice, has great campsites just above the lake (north of) and we had it to ourselves.

[giantbrookie]

What a great combination of off backpacking and peak climbing! Terrific trip and route. What a harsh way to lead off too: 5 pm start up the Shepherd Pass trail. Intense.

[commonloon]

Thanks @giantbrookie I'm now thinking about a fall fishing trip. Maybe LSA etc or Tehipite Valley or something. It should be slightly less intense ;-)

[levi]

Inspiring effort and report, thanks for sharing! I'd like to do something similar at some point. I'm a bit curious about how you manage multinight pack weight on the more committed scrambling, if you don't mind sharing your thoughts/strategy (beyond just stashing gear at the base of an out/back climb) commonloon

[commonloon]

Inspiring effort and report, thanks for sharing! I'd like to do something similar at some point. I'm a bit curious about how you manage multinight pack weight on the more committed scrambling, if you don't mind sharing your thoughts/strategy (beyond just stashing gear at the base of an out/back climb) commonloon

Thanks. Sure.

We did drop packs for some things: Versteeg (at Tyndall Col), Russell & Carillon (at Russell-Carillon col) and Muir (a bit up, away from trail). I have a small running belt, essentially like a fanny pack, that I used when we left our packs behind. I took a windshirt or snacks, my inreach, iphone and water in this.

We do our best to do it Alpine style aka light & fast w/ smaller packs. I was using a 35L UD fastpack and I think my total starting weight was a little over 18 lb and change with 4 1/2 days food. Weather was nice: warm and no monsoon pattern forecasted so I took bare minimum. I think having a smaller, fairly narrow and tight fitting pack is really important if you need to wear it while doing class 3 scrambling. My UD pack is also fairly abrasion resistant, very important.

Our route also was good in that the class 3 stuff that we had to do was later in the trip when I packs had lightened up a bit. The 2nd day over Versteeg to Wallace lake seemed to me, the hardest; packs on the whole day except the summit.

Hope that helps.

[levi]

It definitely helps. The running belt in particular seems like a better/faster compromise than what I sometimes do, which is stash my larger overnight gear (tent, sleep system, stove, bearcan) but still carry my pack. Gear gear gear. Thanks!