TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

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windknot
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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

Post by windknot »

Chuck Yeager famously used his day job to aid in scoping out the status of the thaw on his favorite High Sierra lakes in the spring. If you get the chance, check out his autobiography Press On! from the library and read through the chapters where he discusses his annual backpacking trips to the Whitney area. Fun reading, and there are some great pictures of big goldens in there!
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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

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Mike M. wrote:Is that because Chuck Yeager and his buddies used to buzz the area with their fighter jets?
Those cowboys had all sorts of fun, from requisitioning military resources to transport Goldens to New Mexico, to losing a helicopter in pursuit of High sierra trout. As WK mentions above, check out some accounts of their exploits here:

In about 1964 (I was 16) my dad, a neighbor and his son (the neighbor was a United Airlines captain) flew into Tunnel Meadows with Bob (it was the first time I had ever been in an airplane) and backpacked from there to a few high elevation lakes to fish for Golden Trout. At one of the lakes we found the shell of a USMC helicopter on the bank. When we returned to TM for Bob to fly us out we asked about the helicopter and he informed us a couple of USAF officers had flow in to fish and crashed into the lake oh take off.

Twenty-two years later my dad called me one day and told me to go to the book store and read the chapter titled "Operation Golden Trout" in Chuck Yeager's autobiography. Sure enough, Chuck and a USAF general had been drinking in the officer's club at Edwards AF base and after getting pretty smashed decided to go on a fishing trip for a few days. They got dropped off with all their camping and fishing equipment at the lake where we found the helicopter, but when the pilot returned to pick them up a few days later the altitude along with four passengers instead of two, plus all the equipment, was more weight than the chopper could lift. It crashed into the lake but Chuck, the general, pilot and co-pilot got out before it sunk. They hiked out and the general sent a recovery team back to salvage what they could - rank has it's privileges.

http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/sierr ... age40.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by Hobbes on Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

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quentinc wrote:I was just there this weekend, traversing around to the Hitchcock Lakes.
Did you go over the pass & down through the watershed and back up past the ranger station? The boys asked me what lakes these were - I told them the Hitchcock lakes, but no one ever goes there. Looks like I was wrong - LOL. Did you return from whence you came, or go out over Whitney?

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Mike M.
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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

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So who named it "Yeager Basin"? Or is that just what a few locals call it?

Just imagine what would happen if those Right Stuff guys pulled that frat boy stuff today.

I was on top of New Army Pass a few years ago and came across a large U.S. Forest Service group, with horses and mules. I mentioned being buzzed by a few fighter jets earlier in the trip, and they were all ears, wanting to know details and ready to call in a complaint. Apparently it's a persistant problem.

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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

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Hobbes: I left the "trail" by lower Crabtree Lake and tried traversing around the eastern shoulder of Hitchcock. It was somewhat successful, although I had to drop elevation at one point. Then I went up the shelf on the south side of Whitney Creek, which fortunately dropped down to Timberline Lake. Otherwise there was a deep gorge to cross to get to the other side of Whitney Creek.

I didn't do Whitney, figuring it could survive without having me on top for the 26th time. I went back out along the PCT, although I did as much hiking off the trail as I could to avoid the hordes.

Mike M: I was buzzed continually in Miter Basin last October. I wasn't sure if the pilot could see me giving him/her the finger. :snipe:
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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

Post by windknot »

Mike,

Unless I'm vastly mistaken, I believe "Yeager Basin" was coined by Hobbes for this report, as I've never heard the Crabtrees called by this name either. Usually it's "Yeager's favorite lake" or something like that.
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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

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quentinc wrote:Hobbes: I left the "trail" by lower Crabtree Lake and tried traversing around the eastern shoulder of Hitchcock.
This shoulder?



Have you ever gone up via Discovery Pinnacle from #3 or contoured around under McAdie?
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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

Post by quentinc »

More like where marker B is, assuming I did this right. (This would have been more apparent if I knew the difference between east and west -- I should have said west shoulder!)



There was a guy at Crabtree Pass who was planning on going over Whitney Pass. Looked like an awful lot of scree crawling to me. Of course, so was climbing Mt. Hitchcock, when I did that a couple of years ago.
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Mike M.
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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

Post by Mike M. »

Unless I'm vastly mistaken, I believe "Yeager Basin" was coined by Hobbes for this report, as I've never heard the Crabtrees called by this name either. Usually it's "Yeager's favorite lake" or something like that.
I think you're right. It messes with my mind when people change the names of (already named) places to honor friends/villains or their own little universe -- Secor and his L.A. climbing buddies do it too often. (Puppet Pass is an example.)

Funny, back in the day, I always called Crabtree Pass "McAdie Pass" not knowing others had already given it the Crabtree moniker.

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Re: TR: A Tale of Two Peaks

Post by Mradford »

When i was in miter basin a while back there were jets flying over every few hours, i kept wondering why they were flying over.
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