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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Apr 13, 2010 - 10:52am PT
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Fl, Here's a topo. For orientation, the left red circle is Giant Forest. The right one is Mt. Whitney. The John Muir Trail is red dashes that cut north through the "0" in "2008."
Right above the "O" in "Route" is where they were picked up.
The jag west there is the steep face they decided was too risky to climb.
A really good decision.
It's only a few hundred feet, but way steep. I'll estimate 35-40 degrees.
A shallow gully, it's really more of a broad face. 1/4 mile wide, maybe less.
If it slid on you with that much new snow, it would be massive. The runout would carry you way below where you started up it.
So massive your avy beacon would likely only work for a body recovery.
It's significant that the NPS guys in the chopper knew exactly where to look. The High Route is such a natural line, it has few variations.
I would have accepted a ride out on that chopper too!
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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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Apr 13, 2010 - 03:36pm PT
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Looked that area over in the summer and descended the boulder
filled slot (chimney?) Wasn't going to reverse it.
Getting out of the Kern-Kaweah creek area (going west) by an alternate path to rejoin
the High Route would require a miracle in bad snow conditions, else you'd
stay on the H.R. in the first place. Glad you guys are safe. There's always
next month to try again.
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Footloose
Trad climber
Lake Tahoe
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Apr 14, 2010 - 02:40pm PT
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Thanks for the image, DR. So I take it the Wolverton
parking lot is in the Giant Forest. I'm still trying to
figure out if the "High Sierra Route" is a distinct
route or if there is a lot of variation to it. Were I to
try it, what are the essential touchstones to hit. If
I knew, I could google them in google map. To be clear,
is the yellow line in Chopper's post the High Sierra
Route?
If it's a winter trek on skis, is the aim to hit a bunch
of peaks, to cut through the cols and creek areas, all the
above? Or what? I mean, besides having fun of course.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Apr 14, 2010 - 05:25pm PT
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It's a pretty distinct route. The passes and cols are always the same, but with variations possible in between. You're on skis, after all. For instance, the right side of the Google image is Milestone Bowl, one of the epic runs. Depending on snow conditions you might vary half a mile either side of the yellow line.
One of the coolest things up there last spring was how much "extra-curricular" terrain was getting skied. Folks were laying down killer tracks on faces and in gullies that were a mile or two detour off the route. It was inspiring.
You're in luck, Fl, cuz the High Route is not a winter ski tour but at its finest in late spring. In a mid-phat year like this one, first two weeks of May is optimum. Take a Hawaiian shirt and lots of sunscreen. More corn than Iowa.
Last spring in 10 days out there we mostly bivied on dry slabs and never set up the tent. Of course other years I've had two feet of fresh fall in May, with temps down to zero. You could even get into a true epic like these poor guys did.
You never know. That's why they call it mountaineering...
I'm cooking up a Trip Report on last May, to share pulling off the biggest new variation off of the High Route yet.
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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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Apr 14, 2010 - 05:51pm PT
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Footloose
Lots of reasons for doing the Sierra High Route. None sane.
And its the only route. If you leave it for alternate routes you may get lucky ( or not).
Some prefer going eastward rather than westward so those horrible Sierra Wave winds help push you faster rather than hinder and freeze yer nose which
is why most choose the most painful direction.
Ask anyone if going down Shepherds Pass isn't easier than up it?
http://angeles.sierraclub.org/skimt/trips/hirte91/hirte91.htm
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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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Apr 14, 2010 - 06:07pm PT
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Hey Unfrozen CAVEMAN...
West to East...
Interested in swapping cars with us? We're going east to west at the same time
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Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Apr 14, 2010 - 06:11pm PT
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Cleo - I would defintiely offer, but I am going with ASI again and there will be a group going East to West so we have the car link-up already (ASI handles it).
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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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Apr 14, 2010 - 06:12pm PT
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Ah brilliant!!! Well, see you out there, perhaps, and have fun!
-V
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Apr 14, 2010 - 07:41pm PT
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Excellent TR
Those guys really kept it together. I am impressed that they decided early to ration food/fuel. Good decision.
And to not try to ski the avalanche slopes.
They were lucky the storm was a short one.
I've been up at Shepherd Pass in an unforecast winter storm and it's fierce. The TR description of conditions was all to familiar to me.
After waiting out two days of heavy wind and snow we got avalanched above Pothole Meadow, near the Junction Pass trail junction. Escaped back down the canyon. Skied all the way to the top of the last switchbacks above Symmes Creek. Yes, after a BIG storm you can ski back down. But then we had to walk all the way to Independence. 12 miles at night in the rain carrying skis as I recall.
A reminder that mountain weather forecasts don't come from God. Why would She deprive us of the adventure?
I don't think there are any easy ways to escape the basin at the head of the Kern in winter. If you get stuck in there I think the safest option is to stay put until you can travel safely while staying high.
BITD some friends of mine tried to escape down the Kern on skis. They got stuck and had to be lifted out.
Maybe Doug has an idea of escape options that would be useful to get out in public.
Fred Glover
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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Apr 14, 2010 - 09:53pm PT
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see any mountain lions?
those things scare the sh#t out of me.
imagine a house cat times 10.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Apr 15, 2010 - 02:31am PT
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Hi Fred,
The Upper Kern is a pretty hard place to escape from, that's for sure.
Down the Kern is almost unthinkably far. Plus you'd run out of snow and end up with a sad slog like the one you had out to Independence in the rain. For days. Yuck!
South along the PCT would work, going out over Cottonwood, but you'd get mighty hungry. The snow surveyors come in that way when they end up on the Tyndall Plateau, but for them it's an eleven day trip.
When Shepherd Pass is icy, I go up-down the rock rib along its south edge. Way harder when it's all powdered up, but more avy-proof.
Going west --> east, the SuperBowl is the secret. Drift along the crest toward Mt. Williamson a mile or more, and drop in. A bit less steep than the Pass (though the same aspect for leeward snow buildup, so similar avy danger). It drops 5000 feet. Meets the trail eventually, not far above where you climb back out to the Symmes Creek Ridge.
But my personal preference is to avoid Shepherd-Symmes Creeks altogether. If I NEVER go up or down that trail again it'll be fine with me. Seems like there is never anything but steep rotten snow on that headwall into Symmes Creek. Never good skiing.
I like to cut north over Junction Pass and go out Kearsarge. It adds two days to the trip, but it's all good skiing. Sometimes great skiing. That would not have worked as an escape, though, the day you got avalanched near the junction at the base of Shepherd Pass itself.
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The Wedge
Boulder climber
Bishop, CA
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Apr 15, 2010 - 04:18am PT
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Then there is also the Keasarge, deerhorn, erikson, milestone stone.....
Getting over Colby is steeep. Then easy to triple divide. Right in the middle of the traverse. Tough call for sure.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Apr 15, 2010 - 09:55am PT
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Then there is also the Keasarge, Deerhorn, Eriksson, Milestone.....
Yeah, that is the way better start/finish. Nice high roadhead at Onion Valley. So much finer terrain than the Symmes Creek headwall where the snow always seems deep and rotten.
Or Kearsarge to Junction Pass to cut onto the High Route a thousand feet below Shepherd Pass. Easier terrain overall than Deerhorn to Eriksson. I've been guiding that variation for decades.
It adds two days to the trip, though. Which I like to think of as an advantage. It makes an already world-class ski trip into more of a Grand Tour.
It's the "indirect start" that should become the standard High Route. Considerably less direct, of course, but way better. I think Beck actually goofed a little by pushing the Shepherd Pass trailhead. Obvious as it is. And so far most people have bought into his mistake. Mostly just through cluelessness. I doubt that he really considered, or even knew about, the Onion Valley-Kearsarge Pass option.
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Fuzzywuzzy
climber
suspendedhappynation
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Apr 15, 2010 - 12:37pm PT
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Doug -
Don't spill ALL the beans!!
Iowa - May I have another bowl sir?
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Apr 15, 2010 - 12:45pm PT
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Hey TC,
Wasn't there a photo or a poster or something of a guy in a tuck on skis in a cornfield?
Wasn't YOU by any chance?
And as far as spilling the beans: YOU guys were the most coy ever by not giving one bit of beta on the Red Line.
Just a few teases. Like "It was the first time Mt. Russell got used as a pass."
And, well, there was that poster of you, fully launching it in the north couloir of Mt.Humphreys.
Kind of the iconic shot of the whole badass skinny Karhus era, if you ask me.
And your Red Line. Still the ultimate ski enchainment in the Sierra. And still unrepeated.
Such a waste....
Phat skis, plastic boots so good they're practically cheating. And all these modern guys can get it up to do is lap the Sherwins and head to the bar.
Kids these days.
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Fuzzywuzzy
climber
suspendedhappynation
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Apr 17, 2010 - 12:02am PT
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We thought we had to launch. Those tails would drop away immediately - and with the tips pointed towards the sky we had no choice but to leap and land!
I'm ready.
edit: that would be "sky".
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east side underground
Trad climber
Hilton crk,ca
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Apr 17, 2010 - 12:14am PT
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Hey DR wait a minute! " All the modern guys can do is lap the sherwins" I don't think so home -boy! Mendehal,the pinner, the plateau, pete's dream, humphrey's (lots of other lines besides the main ne- couliar) university,palisades, I could go on and on!!!!Cheers! Yes the red-line is bad-ass.
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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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Apr 17, 2010 - 12:42am PT
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An obvious solution for unstable slopes is to use an
avalanche control 2 lb hand charge on it. Of course if you're
at the bottom of the slope, as the 3 buddies were, how to get the
charge up the slope to do its work? And not get buried by the
resulting avalanche.
Some modifications and this may be standard gear for the High Route.
No chance REI selling a version of this !!! :O
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-make-a-potato-launcher-8412
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Apr 17, 2010 - 12:51am PT
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Sounds like a terrorist device to me. :-)
More to the point, something requiring a lot of training and skill to use safely and effectively. Plus you might have to lug a lot of them around.
The picture looks a lot like a throwing stick, aka atlatl.
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