High Sierra Topix

Have a GREAT time! I will miss you by a couple days going over Kearsarge Pass, I leave that Friday to just do a loop. My goal if I make it to retirement age is to do the JMT, then?

If I were in your shoes, I would consider packing all my food on my back for the entire 17 day trip. With careful planning, you can easily keep your pack weight at about 50 lbs. at the beginning of the trip -- I have done this many times over the years. The benefits are many. For one thing, it will save you killing a day hiking out for resupply. For another, it allows you to spend the entire trip immersed in the wilderness, without a hint of civilization impeding the experience. I value this above all else. It is quite possible you will not see a single person for days on end.

Enjoy your trip and let us know how it turns out.

Mike

You shuld have no problem with any of the passes this year. We (my 11 year old and myself) just came back from a weekend trip to Kaiser and got a view of the minarey/ yosemite backcountry as well as the high mountains around lake edison. hardly any snow patches left at all.

good for you for going down bubbs creek.

the north wall to granite lake will be long and hot - you veer off at the saddle anyways and start the x-country. it's all easy to horshoe lakes, over gray, white,red pass. marion lake's loaded with fish and is as beautiful as lake basin. i did not do frozen lake pass into upper basin. instead, i headed north over dumbell pass and then cataract creek pass (a long rock hopper around the west side of the lake) to amphitheater lake & then down to catch the pct... but if you come over mather pass, go to lower palisade lake and go x-country up north up to glacier lake. this is a pice of cake as is potluck pass into dusy. there are some granire ramps on the south side of potluck but there's nothing much more than class 2 anyways if you carefully find a good route. from potluck, head down to barrett lakes and then over any of the three passes. thunderbolt's a rock hopper - i have done knapsack many times and it's ez.....

as for the rest of the route, i have not done except in bits n' pieces.

did not get to the mt. humphreys/desolation lake area.

hve done feather pass to get into bear lakes basin and the pass to get to jumble lake/lake italy is not bad either. gabbot pass is ez.

that's about all i can report on.

too bad you are limited to 17 days. i would prefer 30 days to do something like that and take my own sweet time to smell all the roses.

Thanks for the excellent comments! I'm giddy nervous, now in the last *and really only* week of planning. I have indeed considered hauling the 17 days of food. I've never done anything like that. Generally, I prefer to go ultralight, and for a hard trip like this, that's where my mind goes imediately. But, I do haul heavy packs (70 pounds at work) on a regular basis. Just seems like a ton to carry over steep terrain. I'm definitely considering it though! At this point, driving up to South Lake TH to drop a food drop and hiking out to it is a major PITA.

Thanks for all the beta on routes.. Really doesn't seem like I need an ice axe this year. Right?

Ice axe not needed. What little snow I've come across has been soft enough to kick step as long as you don't try to do it early, and even then its not bad. Good luck!