High Water

Questions and reports related to Sierra Nevada current and forecast conditions, as well as general precautions and safety information. Trail conditions, fire/smoke reports, mosquito reports, weather and snow conditions, stream crossing information, and more.
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maverick
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Re: High Water

Post by maverick »

Hi MBrown

Welcome to HST!
You are right; when hiking as a group and encountering a dangerous situation, we should accommodate the less experienced and not try to force them or bully them into a possibly deadly situation.
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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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SSSdave
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Re: High Water

Post by SSSdave »

During my early adult years, I did some rather difficult deep fords in cold water that gave me considerable incentive to avoid doing such again if at all possible. For many years, I've been notorious for jumping into cold water most every day during summer backpacking to clean off. And I've usually carried a thermometer to know how cold waters are. Anytime water is in the low 40s and below, it can be horribly debilitating if one has to be standing in it more than about 30 seconds. One swims in such water and immediately will realize how quickly a person can die by being rendered painfully numbing cold and unable to move.

One does not want to get into a situation crossing a thigh high fast moving stream where if one falls they might get stuck in log jams or tree branches on flooded banks just downstream. When two feet are on the bottom of a flowing stream one can brace against the bottom. But the deeper the water, the faster the current, the more difficult it is to lift up a foot thus loosing bracing leverage without the water carrying one away.

In my twenties I always crossed barefoot, because I didn't want to get my boots wet. Cold feet sliding between big stones on the bottom of streams can be a painful experience that may easily cause one to lose it and tip over. These days I carry my very lightweight and compact Wiggy's Waders that are good to about lower thigh depth.

Beware of estimating the depth of water near the opposite bank of a fast moving stream where water is pushing against that bank causing a stronger flow. It may look the same thigh depth one can see near your side but one will often be surprised to find after walking across, water twice as deep in part due to the optical illusion. It can be useful to have some large 2-mil plastic garbage bags to put items like sleeping bags into before gambling.

There is some equipment most of us wish to avoid taking a chance getting wet. A sleeping bag is at the top of most of our lists. A wet down bag is heavy to carry and difficult to dry out even in optimal sunny, warm, breezy conditions. On cool cloudy days, forget it. I also always have expensive camera gear. Sometimes in groups we will find a place where a stream is narrowest. Usually such places are still too wide to jump and much too fast and deep to ford. So we will toss sleeping bags and other stuff across. That can also lower the weight of gear left in a pack making crossing safer. Best to have someone on that side in case of a wimp throw. If one person gets to the other side and at such a narrow spot your bank is high and the other low, one may be able to use a rope with some caribiners to slide packs and what all across. Of course fording a difficult spot is far easier without hefting a heavy pack.
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corozco
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Re: High Water

Post by corozco »

um.... there ARE solutions, like:

https://www.alpackaraft.com/index.cfm?f ... ductID=126" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

but that requires the skills and investment
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rlown
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Re: High Water

Post by rlown »

wow. rafting a ford doesn't sound fun at all, given some i've seen. at 3.3lbs (then add a pfd), I might as well carry my wet suit, swim across, set up a line, and do it that way.

I think i'll stick to just hiking up-stream to find a reasonable place to cross.
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maverick
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Re: High Water

Post by maverick »

Rlown wrote "I think i'll stick to just hiking up-stream to find a reasonable place to cross."
Ditto
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer

I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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kpeter
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Re: High Water

Post by kpeter »

corozco wrote:um.... there ARE solutions, like:

https://www.alpackaraft.com/index.cfm?f ... ductID=126" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

but that requires the skills and investment
Wow. I had no idea. And while three pounds is a lot, it would be great fun to have along for those "bring the kitchen sink and set up basecamp" types of packtrips--particularly at a large lake with islands.

But I'm not at all sure I would ever use such a thing to ford a stream. If the water were so deep and swift that this was the only way, then I would be squeamish about trusting it. I'm thinking, for example, if there was anyplace in Jack Main Canyon last June where I would have used a raft like this to cross Falls Creek, and as I think about it, the answer would be an emphatic no.

By the way, Colin Fletcher's 8 pages on river crossings was probably the most controversial section of the original Complete Walker. He was forced to add warnings of various sorts in subsequent editions. For easy crossings he recommended the fastest stretches because they are shallowest, he used the barefoot method (although he discussed the boots on--socks off method). He crossed the Colorado by using his air mattress as a floaty and wearing his backpack with one arm yoked. Later he switched to taking an inflatable life vest and floating his pack across. Apparently people tried these techniques in the Sierras and nearly died because of the water temperatures.

I always pack a fresh garbage bag and when crossing dicey situations I simply line my whole pack with it and seal it shut. The one and only time I fell my pack floated and nothing got wet. My camera, stupidly, was on the outside and was destroyed.
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Re: High Water

Post by Cross Country »

Whenever I went on a trip with high water I knew it before I left home. My personal preference was to cross in tennis shoes. At least twice I encountered a dangerous crossing and turned around hiked out and went to an alternative destination. For potential dangerous crossings I always had alternative destinations.

This place in mid summer is normally DRY!
This is above Eleanor Lake, and it's not a named creek. Kendrick's was massive.
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Re: High Water

Post by Cross Country »

In the year of the picture above, there was not as much water as this year (2011).
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Mike M.
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Re: High Water

Post by Mike M. »

Wow! This is what we've been talking about . . .

Mike
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loach
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Re: High Water

Post by loach »

Jimr wrote:Moving water is always twice as fast and twice as powerful as it looks. It's much better to over-estimate the force than to under-estimate the force.
Mirror Lake SEEMS calm, but these two, fortunate, tools could use some basic knowledge that is contained in this thread :soapbox:


http://youtu.be/JsTk6tRXDFo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://youtu.be/ruKgQknl9sY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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