High Sierra Topix

Day 1,13.8 miles 5094 up 2527 down Beck Lakes trail head to Nydiver lakes along SHR.

Started the day catching the first shuttle down to trail head, got on the becks lake trail and got to Superior lake ended up following the Becks Lake trail too far before cutting over to Nancy pass, which made things more difficult than need be (not a good way to start off trail). A woman and I were on the same route she only for a few days and lighter pack than I so she was faster and I was getting over a cold. I kept seeing her up until Minaret lake when I went around on the trail and she went the quicker way to the west. I followed the use trail up the pass, did not find any class 3 and was quite easy. On the other hand the way down to Iceberg lake from Cecile, was unpleasant at best as it took me a bit to find the use trail. Finding my way to Nydiver lakes was easy and quite pleasant and they are beautiful a perfect spot for the first evening (I was very tired big 1st day!) cont...

Day 2 9.2 miles 4951 up 4837 down Nydiver lakes to upper twin lakes basin (upper north fork san Joaquin)
Over whitebark pass quite easy Had to avoid the snow it was still to hard, worked to Thousand Island Lake and up to North Glacier pass use trail most of the way and a beautiful creek saw a few deer along here. North Glacier had some snow but was soft enough for just my running shoes, although saw tracks of a few people before me using crampons. Looked down on Lake Catherine and up to my next objective Banner and Ritter. Made my way to the rib east of the glacier, went up on rock a ways then desended on nasty/loose sand scree nastiness down to the glacier. Went up glacier no crampons it was easy travel up to Ritter/ Banner saddle then up on rocks scree to Banner peak. Saw 2 people coming down, and passed 2 people deciding not to go up but waiting for there friend to come back down. Got to the summit where the friend was there took pictures and decided Ritter would have to wait for another day (A good day hike someday soon) as I still had to go over to Davis and then down what it known to be a loose/steep chute to upper twin lakes. Did not put on the crampons for the way down, but the other guy did (I am very comfortable on snow) made my way back up the nastiness (scary) to the rib then back to my pack. On to Davis peak…some of the BIGGEST sun cups I have ever seen and had to be in ie very tiring! The view from Davis is spectacular! But knew the worst was to come the 1st chute from davis is the way to get down to Upper Twin lakes area and as described it is a scary endeavor especially with a backpack, included some butt scooching and very loose rock glad no one was above or below me! Made it to one of the beautiful lakes and promptly ate and went to sleep. cont...

Day3 8 miles 3613 up 2045 down UTLB to below lyell/ maclure

Started up the beautiful upper san joaquin basin working my way to North Clinch pass a maybe class 3 pass, then traversed over to the ridge between marie lakes and Davis lakes, down to beautiful marie lake which I went around on the North side got almost to the trail before cutting North cross country to Donahue pass another beautiful area no way would yoou want to go down to the PCT it was easy walking. At Donahue pass lots of people, took trail down to the Lyell fork then turned up and off trail towards Lyell/maclure camping at the lowest lake below Maclure did not go to the bigger one as there was snow and found a good but cold spot (should have set up the tent). cont...

Bravo - I feel so inadequate. Are you going to do the Sierra challenge this year?

I did 1 day last year hope to do more this year really great people some of which go really fast! Went and did dinner plate special (russell, morgenson, tannabora?, cleaver, and carillon) in a day with 3 of them only myself and 1 other did all 5 also did the ridge between russell and morgenson pretty interesting ie better know what u are doing! It was a great day!

TR on that coming after i finish the other 6 days of this report

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

Day 4 6 miles 3159 up 3711 down lake under McClure to the lakes under east side of Amelia Earhart pass?
Took my day pack crampons and ice axe and made my way to the base of lyell where getting of the glacier was interesting, worked up class 3 rocks to below more snow where I traversed until the pitch on the snow was friendly enough to not use crampons, then an easy walk to the summit. Same route down until I found a better place to get back on the glacier, even more exciting! Then over to Maclure ( a very fun class 3 peak highly recommended) back to camp, worked around point of Maclure to above lake maclure beautiful lake then over to below simmons peak grabbed day pack and up to the peak pretty easy class 2 but loose. Then to lake 11275 (simmons lake)where I hoped there would be a ledge over to the lakes below AE pass/peak. Another beautiful lake and the ledge I hoped for was fantastic and easy going. The lakes where I camped were spectacular also.

Day 5 12.5 miles 4039 up 4762 down AE pass lakes to Lake 10541 below Florence peak.
So up the pass to the ridge over to Amelia Earhart peak some fun rock here and there and great views, then back to the pass over to Parsons peak, then along plateau above gallison and Bernice lakes. This is where I saw the herd of bighorn sheep at first I thought they where deer but then I heard a crashing one coming towards me! Had its collar and came within 30 feet of me I am not sure who was more scared! Anyway worked along plateau/ridge to peak 11850 and Fletcher peak where I went up the wrong/further one away before getting on the right one, met a group of 3 up there. Then back to the pack and on to Vogelsang peak some easy snow in the chute till the top then kicked steps after that an easy walk to the top. Again back to the pack at Vogelsang pass then down to where I cut off cross country towards Florence peak cut off a little too soon but it worked out. Camped at Lake 10541 below Florence yep another beautiful lake to my self! cont...

This is awesome! I am not worthy! Thanks for posting Gazelle, looking forward to the next installment.