High Sierra Topix

Trailguru wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2019 4:38 pm Anyone have any info on going from Alta Meadow and short cutting it across to the HST?

Curious what you mean by "the" shortcut from Alta Meadow to HST. I don't see a route on your CalTopo link, just the general area.

I thought about trying to attempt such a shortcut last year and decided not to after extensively studying the satellite imagery. No matter where you look it's a mix of woods and rocky cliff bands everywhere, would be easy to get cliffed out or just bogged down in annoying steep brushy stuff. Plus when you plan to go out there this year it will be full of varying degrees of snowmelt due to the shade even though it's south-facing. I don't think it would end up being much of a "shortcut" vs just hiking back to the junction at Mehrten Meadow and taking the connector.

maiathebee wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2019 9:15 pm
I thought about trying to attempt such a shortcut last year and decided not to after extensively studying the satellite imagery. No matter where you look it's a mix of woods and rocky cliff bands everywhere, would be easy to get cliffed out or just bogged down in annoying steep brushy stuff. Plus when you plan to go out there this year it will be full of varying degrees of snowmelt due to the shade even though it's south-facing. I don't think it would end up being much of a "shortcut" vs just hiking back to the junction at Mehrten Meadow and taking the connector.

Yeah something similar to what you tried. The distance would be only about 1 mile but it's steep and the average gradient is about 27%. There seems to be a possible route between Alta Meadow and the HST going down west of the creek

We will likely set camp at Alta Meadow and do a reconnaissance mission before attempting it with full packs but it'd be nice to see if anyone has attempted it before

The blue "corridor" seems to be the only feasible way to rejoin the HST. The distance seems like it'd be around 1 mile.

From the Alta peak junction, it's about 5 miles all trail, or 1.6 trail miles & 1 mile of steep cross country by this "shortcut". Both routes will probably take two hours, especially with packs, so I'm not sure if there's much time savings there for the additional risk. I bet you'll do some butt sliding on the cross country route, 30+ degrees is pretty steep. But I'd bet you could make it go.

The trouble with Google Earth is that the brown-green small vegetation could easily be horrible brush. South facing slopes in SEKI can be very nasty with sagebrush and stickers. What looks like bare dirt may actually be better. But I would have to agree that the trail walking is easy and fast, so unless your goal is specifically to find a short-cut, staying on the trails may work better, even if it costs an hour or so.

I met a group that had come down that slope cross country and they were tired, scratched up, and told me that they wished they had never done it.

sekihiker wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2019 5:54 pm I met a group that had come down that slope cross country and they were tired, scratched up, and told me that they wished they had never done it.

Thanks for the tip. Yeah based on what you guys are saying we might just go back especially as we will have some weaker hikers joining us on this one.

Did a 9 day trip July 1-9, 1988 with first day at Alta Meadow and then would drop down to the HST cross country. At Alta saw 3 bears in red firs at east edge of meadow. On a warm July 2 did route per above. As WD noted those sunny south facing slopes have horrible brush and that was one of the worst I'd ever done. In those days I did numbers of ridiculous bushwhack routes before learning better. Although the route shown is not that steep, combined with dense brush and mountain chaparral small trees like scrub oaks, it becomes crazy. In places like that you may go significant distance without touching any ground but rather are monkeying through branches. And there can be lots of dust, pollen, and bugs while sweating it out. Tried to change route to avoid brush but that was impossible and there are short steep cliff bands. Recall being massively grubby at bottom then stopping at Buck Creek for a total immersion. That same trip to escape mosquitoes, I camped a couple days about the wildflower gardens flowing over glaciate granite bedrock north of Lippincott and climbed Eagle Scout Peak.

https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=36.5738 ... 3&z=15&b=t

Thanks for the tip SSSDave,

It's invaluable information and just reinforces the notion that we shouldn't be doing it!

Although it's only 1 mile so i will still check it out for fun and see if any use trails have emerged in the last 20 years the day before