High Sierra Topix

norcalhiker wrote:Tom, which Obelisk to trail route did you end up doing? The third one? Slab? Cavalry?

I'm actually toying with the idea of heading up there this weekend from Happy Isles.. In January

From Obelisk to the trail I did pretty much the solid red line route [EDIT: see my map earlier in the thread] (over the saddle north of Obelisk, drop to ~8700, traverse west into Clark Canyon, drop to the trail below Echo Valley). It went beautifully, for the most part; if you find the right level for the traverse (which should be fairly obvious going up), everything else is pretty clear.

Thank you all for bringing up this thread! Every time I went over Red Peak Pass, I looked longingly over to that imagined route to Adair Lake (and the lake to the east), and poured over maps countless times wondering if it was do-able, and not cut off by cliffs or something. And here I find out it is possible! That's outstanding! And pictures here to boot. Awesome. Old Ranger, if you have mapped that route I sure would like to see it. It looks obvious, but verification is always nice. Great thread!

it's not intuitive where to look for "trail not maintained". If you use the search feature, you get jack.

You have to know where the map pointers are:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6960" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The other map SW is on the compose message page, but not the HST map..

you have to go to http://www.highsierratopix.com/high-sierra-map/map.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and then do your "search map"..

just to be clear.. Mark, at least you gave a pointer.

Russ

markskor wrote:Drew up our successful route on our own HST Map here...Old Ranger, TT, and myself -Look under "Trails not maintained routes"

I checked that out and it does have possibilities, but it is not the same route that oldranger used in about post 12 with pictures in this thread, the one I am interested in, which comes in above Adair Lake (while the above map route comes in from below). No matter, I have a very good idea of the route anyway, and really, the lower route may be better. Thanks!

(It just occurred to me: my picture avatar to the right was taken at Red Peak Pass.)

Doyle,

The high route in for me involved taking the Red Peak Pass trail down past the first couple of tarns and then beginning a traverse to the north. If you go too low you deal with cliffs and too high it gets nasty, too, but just right and it is a piece of cake. At the end of the traverse you curve around the n. side of the big red cone (if I was home I could show you a pic from the n.) then down a little to a basin then n to a small pond and over a rise to the n. There is a big gully leading down to Adair which is easy at the top but was full of steep snow then nasty talus down lower so we worked our way over a little e. to a ridge consisting of benches with short steep drop offs. Then eventually worked over to the shallow valley to the e. that leads to Adair. There was a bit of easy talus at the bottom. These words will make more sense if you have a map as you read. The bottom line is that if you can read a topo and can read the terrain you can negotiate this route without relying on my description. It was done by an old man and his two adult daughters!

The lower route is the one I would choose if i were going up the Red Peak Pass trail from the e.

Mike

As always gentlemen, truly solid first hand accounts of obscure places in the range. Thank you. I just finished packing and I'm off to the store to buy some bagels. Not confident that I'll make an attempt on Obelisk as I've developed a cough. Likely we'll take Tom's route. It looks interesting. I'll head up the valley and see how I feel. A friend and I leave 5pm sharp tomorrow.

Nice user generated map! I don't remember it from the last time I lived in California. Is it new? Who built it? I'll have to play around with it next week.

Thanks!

oldranger wrote:The high route in for me involved taking the Red Peak Pass trail down past the first couple of tarns and then beginning a traverse to the north....

Thanks for the description! I have attached below a map with the route drawn in that is a combination of what I thought was the best way, and your description. The only question was on which side did you turn the little tarn NE of 11371 (red cone), to the left (blue line) or to the right (black line)? Whichever way, I bet you had a good reason to go that way. Thanks!

Doyle

I began the traverse n from the Red Peak Pass trail at around 10500. We took (roughly) the blue line. That little lake is in a nasty little cirque so you will stay above it. Honestly the terrain will tell you where to go. I would pretty much stay out of that gully just over the hill from the last tarn you pass dropping down to Adair. It is not bad at the top but gets progressively more nasty as you drop down.

Mike

Thanks! It is about what I expected. Hopefully conditions at that lake are as good as it looks.

Has anybody got up to Adair Lake by following the Gray Peak Fork? Im looking to save some time on my way up from the valley, thought I could avoid the Triple Peak Fork altogether. I know the water will be low in the coming month and I am really only concerned about how thick the Manzanita crowd the creek and whether the falls at the beginning will be too steep to climb with forty pound pack. Any info would be appreciated.