High Sierra Topix

If this wasn't my favorite trip ever I can't remember what was. The only downside was not enuf time. We are slowing down a little and after getting a late start the first day wound up with no full layover days. After waiting for decades to finally be in Lake Basin (which was everything I had hoped for and more) it was truly painful to wrench myself away. If I were going to do this trip again I would allow at least 10 days.

Speaking of our start time: we knew we wouldn't make it over the pass the first day and an early start was out because my friend had to travel. We decided to try a late afternoon departure into the shadow. What with one thing and another we finally got started about 6:45 PM. This actually worked out great. The sun went behind the crest as we put our packs on and we stepped into cool (well, cooler) evening air. There is a nice (dry) campsite at about 7100 ft which we found just as darkness found us. An early start the next day made the climb about as painless as it can get.

Why go up not down? Six reasons: 2 knees, 2 ankles and 2 feet. Some of my most memorably awful moments on the trail have involved descents of Taboose and Shepherd pass... and these were years ago when I was just starting to fall apart. Now when I plan a trip involving the "big 4" or another high, steep pass I try to find another way out. Not to say we didn't have some steep descents, but they weren't 6000 feet.

Air quality was swell. This was the first week of Aug as the monsoon arrived. Blue skies, fluffy clouds, not too much thunder and no lightening until the last day. We were lucky.

I do have pics. Wasn't sure what people would want to see. I have some shots of the passes, etc, some of which are pretty good, some not so. Haven't had a lot of time to look at them as I've been hiking in northern Yosemite for the past week... but I will try to post a few sometime soon. I am new here and haven't figured out how to do that yet but I'm guessing if I look around the site there are instructions?

phenocryst,
There are good instructions for photo posting, but I think that all of them require you to have the photos on one of the photosharing websites, like flickr or photobucket. Being computer semi-literate, I find it can be cumbersome to post single shots. But, if you post a link to selected shots, then it's easy.
I'm envious that you had good air quality. I just came back from a pair of trips and it was mixed even after rainstorms. As for the amount-of-time issue, I can't agree more. In June, we got a couple days each in Upper Basin, Lakes Basin and Amphitheater Basin and even that was barely enough. Sadly, there are no easy ways into that area, though I may try Birch Lake access next time....
Hope you get a chance to post photos.
cg

Thanks for the post phenocryst, nice to-the-point description. I take it there was no cornice/snow of any note on cataract pass? (That's the one leading from Dumbell Lakes to Amphitheatre Lake, right?). I went that way a few years ago and remember thinking it could turn tricky with enough snow. Anyway, there's a tab at the bottom of the screen when you edit that says "upload attachment", and if you convert photos to under 2mb, you can upload them with your text. -Eric

I will try to post a few pass pics I hope will be informative. Thanks cg and Moonwalker! Third (westernmost) rockslide below south side of Cartridge Pass. Switchbacks go up under trees running diagonally from bottom left, then trail traverses left (west) and goes up the wooded drainage to the lake at 10800+. View south from Dumbbell Pass including Marion Lake and Cirque Crest. Palisades and Cataract Creek Pass (low point at left center) from Dumbbell Pass. North side Dumbbell Pass from below Cataract Creek Pass. We descended on the strip of snow, then traversed right (west) over the ridge and diagonally down to the lakeshore at right center. North side of Cataract Creek Pass (upper section). The small amount of snow at the top was easily bypassed on the west side. View down Cataract Creek from below Ampitheater Lake. We started down the right (east) side but soon crossed to the west. A short section of good trail took us around the cliffs and talus above and west of the pond just above center.

There is notably less snow in these photos than in others posted on HST. Almost a month later, there is probably even less there now.

Dang, those rockslides below Cartridge Pass still look as lousy as ever; I pretty much gave up on Cartridge after donating a pint of blood to mosquitoes there on a hot July morning years ago. But, the rest of the trip looked as alpinely seductive as one could hope for. thanks for the photos!
cg