High Sierra Topix

Hey Rouge!!! Good to hear from you, I just missed ya, as I was at VVR with the family on 8/16. Glad to hear all is well and am looking forward to your pics later on. Good luck and be safe!!

RoguePhotonic wrote:...I am 49 days into the trip ...

I hate you

I'm with Mr. Ledge Rat, you are one lucky man Rogue. I'm green with envy. Enjoy!

Wow,an incredible test of endurance and persistence. You're the man.

Took me 6 and a half hours to do 1.8 miles when I crossed Alpine Col because I took the wrong side of the lake which turned into the worst bolder slog I have ever done

Was that Goethe Lk or the lake SE of Alpine Col? I can't imagine you traversed the W side of the unnamed lake S/O the col, so It must have been the E side of Goethe. If so, I feel for you. I did that slog last year from N to S. Spent 3 1/2 hours in the boulder field. What a B@ll buster that was. There was one precipitous snow slope on the E side of the unnamed lake S/O the col we had to up climb around and pass at the top through the sun cups. I can't imagine the snow you had to traverse this year. Keep safe. I look forward to future posts and pics. I'm probably one of the few who are not envious. As much as I love the Sierra Nevada, I'm done with the back country after about two weeks.

I wonder how many people know how to pronounce the german name "Gueta".

I thought it is closer to "Ger-ta," but not quite

Resting in Mammoth now at the Sierra Nevada Lodge. This is my major luxury part of the hike that wont come again. I'm mixed on the next section as I know the snow is major. I may have allot of trouble dropping from Cecille Lake into Iceberg Lake but I guess I will find out!

It's been both great and hard. At this point the cross country is never a pleasant thought as it just takes so much out of you mentally but push on I will.

As for Alpine Col it was Goethe Lakes on the Eastern shore. It was amazing how long it took!

Well will be off to Yosemite Valley tomorrow. I have 8 days planned for this next section so my pack is heavy once again. And I picked up two new books here so ugh!

Ahh, that stuff. The talus for which all other talus is defined

Yeah there were times I had my body completely stretched out friction climbing between rocks trying to get up.

Time to get back into the wild. I keep debating to take Nancy Pass or just cheat and take the Minaret Lake trail. Who knows what I will do but even Ropers book says do not go from Cecille to Iceberg Lake until mid afternoon with the snow. I have cut foot holds in the snow on this trip already but it's so hard to do if your climbing down! I also have glissaded on rock hard snow which took some nerve but with such a heavy pack it's not a good idea.

Time will tell. Off I go!