- I am 99% likely to go solo.
- have heaps of experience, my fitness is good (endurance at least), and am quite good at orienteering. What I don't have is youth. I'm approaching 60. I don't want to paint myself into a corner so to speak by biting off more than I can chew thinking I'm still 39.
- Last year I was able to complete the Iceberg to Cecile traverse in AA Wilderness. It was a mix of snow, ice, and rock, with Iceberg pretty much covered in icebergs. That was the very limit of my comfort, and I don't plan on doing it again. Ask and I'll share photos.
- I had very little problem going from Budd Lake to Cathedral Lakes in Yosemite, for comparison.
- My timeline is September, maybe even early October.
- I'm not terribly worried about permits as I tend to remain flexible, and am the guy who shows up at the ranger station an hour early on the day of to get one of the 30% permits issued.
- Evolution Basin point to point from North Lake TH ending at South Lake TH. All of this would be on trail. 35 miles, aim for 4 days total.
- Onion Valley TH to Sixty Lakes Basin, continuing NE to Baxter Pass TH. There appears to be no trail north of Sixty Lakes for a long mile or so until it intersects the PCT. Is this difficult?
- Pine Creek to PC Pass, to Meriam Lakes, over Ruskie Pass to Seven Gables Lakes. From there are options to stay off trail and go NE to Vee, Big Bear and Black Bear lakes and over Dancing Bear pass to Jumble Lake, then Italy pass and back to the TH. Is this sketchy? Risky? Someone posted pics of Ruskie and that looks doable, if a bit slow for me. But the Bear Lakes and Dancing Bear Pass are a mysery to me.
• The other (longer, but maybe easier) is to skip the slow traverses over the Bear lakes/pass, and just continue on past Ruskie to Seven Gables trail, then intersect with the JMT/PCT and then back Italy Pass to the TH.
I'm quite flexible, and these are sort of bucket list places I'd like to get to someday, not something I'm bent on doing, certainly not all in 2024. I can link to larger maps if that helps, but considering how many experts there are here I think many of you will know where I'm talking about just glancing at these.
Sorry for being so long winded!