Time to be a trail rat

[Troutdog 59]

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!!

[Sierra Ledge Rat]

...I am 49 days into the trip ...

I hate you

[vandman]

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

[Cross Country]

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

[Jimr]

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.

[Cross Country]

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

[Sierra Ledge Rat]

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

[RoguePhotonic]

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!

[Jimr]

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

[RoguePhotonic]

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!