High Sierra Topix

Well got into VVR a day early which is never a bad thing.

So what have I been up to? First of all I have to say you bastards! lol. If I had known going around Lake Eleanor and up that creek was so bad I wouldn't have done it! I camped my first night in about half a mile past Frog Creek. It then took me 4 hours to just reach the inlet in a total bush whack micro cliff nightmare! It ended up taking me 4 days to reach Twin Lakes. As a result I did Bigelow Peak but did not cross over Dorothy Lake Pass. I made the rest of the loop back to Eleanor as planned.

When I went back in I decided I did not want to go up Frog Creek not knowing what sort of mess was waiting for me so I went out for Moraine Ridge through Jack Main Canyon. I did everything else as planned until I went up Matterhorn Pass. The wind must have been blowing 100mph and I could hardly stand up. I was blown to the ground once and bashed my leg up. I also could not find the route down and ended up climbing up the ridge a bit towards the Matterhorn. Every step was very scary with the wind trying to rip me off the cliffs. Class 2 pass my ass lol. I made my way down nasty class 3 cliffs! I skipped the Matterhorn itself because the conditions were too dangerous.

I froze my ass off most of those nights waking up with the creeks all frozen with my 32F bag. I did Stanton Peak but was too lazy for Grey Butte. I did Mt. Conness as planned. I skipped Mt. Lyell because it looked like too much snow to go without Crampons. As a result I jumped over to the Lost Lakes.

We cleared allot of big trees on trail crew before I went out again. I followed the last section almost as planned. Both Pika and Franklin Col were nasty passes! And I did them both in the same day! I made it over the summit of Red Slate Mountain with my full pack and ended up camping at Lower Mcgee Lake. It wasn't until after breakfast that I even made up my mind if I was going to climb Red and White Mountain but I went ahead and did it. Talk about one of the most loose nasty sharp rock peaks I have ever climbed! Heard about 5 rock falls in the two nights I was in that area.

I made it into VVR from Lower Mcgee Lake today. I decided to skip Crocker Col since I sent home my ice axe and I figured it would still have allot of snow. I thought my time was better spent in the Hopkins Recess anyway.

Other than all that it has been pretty smooth. I'll be around here before I go out for a 5 day loop and then that 8 day loop so I will be checking in more often.

As for Black Kaweah I figure it is nasty. I ran into a girl that has done the SPS list and she said she would never climb Black Kaweah again! That is along time from now so we'll see if I stay alive that long!

Thanks for the updates Rogue.

Rogue wrote:
First of all I have to say you bastards! lol. If I had known going around Lake Eleanor
and up that creek was so bad I wouldn't have done it! I camped my first night in about
half a mile past Frog Creek. It then took me 4 hours to just reach the inlet in a total
bush whack micro cliff nightmare! It ended up taking me 4 days to reach Twin Lakes.

See you enjoyed some of Yosemite's finest by bushwacking in the Bermuda triangle area.

Yeah that area was beautiful but a mess for sure.

The last section went well with my dad. He only made it to Frog Lake the first night but it worked out and I climbed Saddle Mountain on our way to Margaret Lake the next day. He skipped all the peaks though. The next day I did Sharktooth and Silver Peaks. Then he managed to make it over that pass 11,200 and down to the Devil's Bathtub. So now back at VVR again relaxing. I'm sure I will do 2 days again and even debating on 3. I don't really want to spend the extra money but I will leave on BBQ night again and it happens to be my birthday on that day so it just doesn't seem right to leave when that is the case!

Looks like the weather will turn on me in the next section. I will have to get onto those peaks early!

How's the smoke out there?

The smoke is nasty! Was horrible coming into VVR and you cannot see much right now. It was up in the Hilgard Branch Yesterday also.

As for me I am back at VVR because the last section went nasty on me! So I went up Bear Ridge, climbed Volcanic Knob and then went up to the summit of Recess Peak with my full pack on and on down to Hilgard Lake. My first big mistake of this section was when I left VVR I forgot to buy any fuel for my stove so I was stuck having illegal fires far above the fire line in order to cook my food. That night at Hilgard Lake it started pouring on me at about 1am and the winds were crazy. Half my tent stakes pulled out of the ground and because it was so crazy out I did not want to get up and fix it which turned out to be the biggest mistake I have made out here! My tent completely flooded and my sleeping bag was soaked completely from my feet to my knees. Luckily it wasn't very cold though. Almost everything else in my tent was soaked and all my TP got soaked completely so they were just big blocks of mess. Since it was raining in the morning still climbing Mt. Hilgard was out of the question. This really sucked because for some reason I wanted to climb that one more than any other peak I have planned. So I decided to retreat down into the Hilgard Branch so that I could get a big fire going and dry out my stuff. This worked out fine but after many hours of my TP sitting by the fire without any noticeable effect I weighed my options and decided to retreat back out to VVR 4 days early. It's a shame since that was going to be a cool section all around and after doing the hardest part of carrying my pack over Recess Peak it should have been all easy from there!

So now I think I will stay here at VVR until Sunday morning. Doing that will put me back onto my planned schedule. It's all tough going from here! No more light pack resupplies! 16 days when I leave here. This stay here may be the last time you hear from me until early September when I reach Cedar Grove and even there they don't keep the WIFI on very often. My only other option would be to head down to Bishop Creek Lodge and pay for some WIFI but I doubt I will.

After a complete deluge here at VVR I went and checked my tent to find the water splashed all through out the whole tent soaking everything and splashing mud all over everything. I just can't win.

Hopefully this smoke wont ruin all the views of my next section. It's been really bad at VVR.

Pwned

That is a long time without the internet. Best of luck on the rest of the trip!

Ran into RP resupplying at VVR this afternoon. We talked for a few minutes discussing the next leg of this summer's expedition. Sounds like a good time.

Hey Rogue, it was nice meeting you at Ambition Lake a couple days ago. You ended up being the only person we saw during our whole trip. Hopefully you continue to have a safe trip.