High Sierra Trail to Mt .Whitney 2007

[Tony Wong]

4 Days and 70 Miles in Sept 2007

Starting Out

Heading Towards the Western Divide

Bear Paw High Sierra Camp

Porch with a View

View from the Porch

The Great Western Divide

Lake Hamilton

Contrail & Squall 2 at Lake Hamilton

Morning Rays Above Lake Hamilton

Precipice Lake & Eagle Scout Peak

Kaweah Gap & Eagle Scout Peak

Big Arroyo

Jeremy at the Big Arroyo

Mt. Lippincott

Looking Down on the Big Arroyo

Moraine Lake

Southern View of the Kern Valley

Kern Hot Spring. Funny Disappointment. Slogging 20 miles trying to get to the Hot Spring with sore feet from rock strewn trails, I had visions of soaking like a Japanese Snow Monkey in a huge hot spring surrounded by "hot trail babes". As you can see, hot water, but no hot babes.

Kern Hot Spring. I take it all back. Forget the women, it is sooo nice to be clean!

Trail Above Wallace Creek…Switchbacks out of Kern River Valley

Tawny Point in the Distance & Bighorn Plateau

Crushed by Dehydration/Heat Exhaustion…scared it was altitude sickness

Guitar Lake

Breakfast at Guitar Lake…cold enough to have ice form in our Platypus water tanks. Approx 11,000 ft.

Late Start on the Trail up to Mt. Whitney

Ridges of Stone on the Switchbacks up to Mt. Whitney

Step by Step into Thin Air

Crystals of Stone

Jeremy's Window to the World

Peering Down the Window…Town of Lone Pine & Death Valley in the distance

Log Book at Mt. Whitney Summit House 3.5 days

Highest Peak in the Continental United States

Jeremy & Tony

Hardcore…guy with red cap just finished the JMT. His buddy bailed out half way due to foot injury. He took the tent foot print and used it as a tarp. He slept on to Mt. Whitney that night out in the open with howling winds. Only slept a few hours. When he arrived at the Whitney Portal store the next day he cried, "I am sooo sick of water. I want a beer!"

Looking Back Where We Came From

Summit House

Summit House Warning

Inside the Summit House 1

Inside the Summit House 2

Inside the Summit House 3

Spires to the Windows

Lower Hitchcock Lake

Crown of Stone

Jagged Little Trail

Trail Crest 13,600 ft

Below Giants of Stone

Cables & Ice

Water Flowing Under a Sheet of Ice

Consultation Lake

Mirror Lake & Thor Peak

Climbers Route to the Top of Mt. Whitney

Big Horn Park

Switchbacks to Whitney Portal

Losing the Light Looking Back at the End of the Day

End of the Trail

Whitney Portal Pancake Breakfast

I've been Hiking with the Unibomber

Other photo essays by Tony:

BPLers GGG: Henry Coe State Park, CA.

BPLer's GGG: Point Reyes, CA. 2nd Annual Trip

BPLer's GGG: San Francisco Bay Area, CA.; Mt. Diablo

BPLer's GGG: Yosemite: Hetch Hetchy Resevior to Rancheria Falls

BPLer's GGG: Point Reyes, CA

Emigrant Wilderness

High Sierra trail to Mt. Whitney

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park: Deadman Canyon

Tahoe Rim Trail

Ventana Wilderness

Yosemite: Glacier Point to Red Peak Pass to Lake Merced

Yosemite in Winter: Crocker Point & Dewey Point

Yosemite: Lake Vernon & Hetch Hetchy Reservoir

Yosemite: Tenaya Creek

Photo Essay by Linda Vassallo: Mt Whitney Summit Hike: A photo essay

Trip Report & Article by Jeremy Pendrey: Hiking The Diablo Trail: A Conservation Success Story

Photography and Backpacking Article on Hike It. Like It.

Photo Essays: Telling the Story, Sharing the Adventure

[Jay Wilkerson]

Hey Tony, Great pictures- what camera did you use?

[Tony Wong]

Believe it or not, I shot all these photos with a 5 year old Canon that is only 3.2 megapixels.

What made the difference was using Photoshop Elements quick photo fix touch up features.

Nothing technical on the touch ups, just clicking two buttons to let the software automatically make the adjustments.

[Richard D.]

Thanks for the pictures. It brought back memories and made me want to get back to the Sierra some day. I'll bet you couldn't get enough of those pancakes at the end! :)

[George Matthews]

Excellent pics!

Enjoyed your sharing of the trip

Thanks

[Dave T]

.

[Rick Dreher]

And great pictures. You packed a lot into four days, Tony. Well done!

[Anonymous]

Tony,
I'll add my 2 bits worth to the rave reviews. You really captured the spirit of the Great Western Divide and the Kern Country on the backside of Whitney, not to mention Whitney,itself. Well done! BTW, that was indeed Tawny Point and Bighorn Plateau. Thanks for sharing.

[Dave .]

Awesome pictures Tony. What pack was that you were carrying? Just curious.

[Tony Wong]

Tom,

Thank you for the big compliment.

I took about 800 photos of the 4 days of the trip…a few are bound to come out well with those numbers. :)

David,

The pack that I used for the trip is a Gregory Z55 (3,100 CU at 3 lbs 3 oz), which I started out at 36 lbs.

Jeremy was carrying a Granite Gear Vapor trail with about 29 lbs at the start of the trip.

Jeremy and I gave ourselves 7 days to complete the trip and carried 6 days of food.

It was our longest trip to date…a prior one in Yosemite being 50 miles as a warm up to this 70 mile trip.

We were both surprised at the mileage that we were able to do….15 miles on the 1st day to Lake Hamilton. We did 20 miles to Kern Hot Springs on our 2nd day and destroyed our feet in the process. (Who put all those freakin rocks on trail coming down into Kern Valley!!!)

The 3rd day was my hardest. I think we did at least 15 miles, maybe 18. Frankly, after doing the switch backs out of Kern Valley, I was a wreck. We had a leisurely/late start and it was high noon by the time we hit the switchbacks. I was baked by the sun and after getting out of the Kern Valley I was having big trouble. I could not find my camera, which was in my hip belt pocket and I thought we were going to Mt. Shasta vs. Mt. Whitney. I was nauseous and concerned that I had altitude sickness. I laid on a rock for about 20 minutes sucking down water and a power bar.

Foolishly, I decided that I was okay to press on…it was slow, painful and I really don't remember much of that part of the trip, but we did manage to get to Guitar Lake by 9:30 pm in the dark that night.

Anyway, Jeremy and I are relatively new at the light weight thing. I fully blame Jeremy for introducing me to BPL and the Backpacking Light Book/Bible, which has resulted me in buying all new/lighter backpacking gear.

Frankly, it would have been cheaper to buy a mule and toss a $40 Coleman tent on it. :)

-Tony

[Martin Rye]

Tom,

Just looking at the forums and found the photos. Some amazing trip in the mountains you had there. Put it to you “wow” trip like that to me in the UK would be a dream walk. The US has so much amazing landscape, I’m envies, and your blessed. I’m going to save hard and come see for my ‘self. Thanks for sharing the photos.

[Tony Wong]

Martin,

Thank you and I am really glad that you enjoyed the photos.

I am really just enjoying sharing them with everyone and all of the postive feedback.

Makes the hours and hours of sorting and cleaning them up worth it.

My goal is simply to give people and idea of what my trip was like and what amazing things there are to see out there.

I have some other photos from other trips that I will post up shortly.

-Tony

[Martin Rye]

I’ll look forward to that Tom; you have got an eye for a good photo. Maybe I’ll put a few UK Pictures on the forum soon to show what UK has to offer. Its great stuff, but very different than the High Sierra Trail which is something else. I can see why Chris Townsend and other UK walking magazine writers rave about the Sierra range. The photo of Mirror Lake and Thor Peak really is something. Can you wild camp by the Lake in the picture or are there restrictions to where you can and can not camp?

Thanks

[Tony Wong]

Martin,

I spoke to Jeremy and he says the following:

"You cannot camp at Mirror Lake. You can camp lower down at Lone Pine Lake, which is the last lake before the last switchbacks to the trailhead. Lone Pine Lake is so close to the trailhead there is really no reason to camp there. Mirror Lake is not that far above Outpost camp, where you can also camp. The two typical camp spots between the trailhead and tail crest are Outpost Camp and Trail Camp. If advising someone else, I would tell them to plan to camp at one of those."

Jeremy really is the one who deserves credit for this trip.

He planned it, got the permits, and set the agenda.

I was just stupid enough to tag along for the ride. :)

On the first day of the trip about 40 minutes into the trip Jeremy asked me, "So what did you do to prepare for the trip?" (In terms of physical conditioning/training).

My startled reply, "Prepare????"

[Martin Rye]

Tony,

Thanks for the info and hope to see more trip reports and photos from you soon.

[Jeremy Pendrey]

Tony: Thanks for posting these. It's great to relive the trip through the pics.

For anyone out there who hasn't done the High Sierra Trail, the shorter stepchild of the JMT (they both end in the same place: the top of Mt. Whitney), as you can see it is mile for mile as stunning as anywhere. I'm ready to go back.
-Jeremy

Ps. I look way cooler than the unibomber.

[Diana Birchall]

I want to thank you very much for this wonderful photo essay. I just got back last night from a trip to Bearpaw; as an only moderately fit 62-year-old woman, that 12 miles is about as far as I can get! Well, I can get to Hamilton Lake, and about ten years ago I hiked with my family over the Kaweah Gap into the Nine Lakes Basin. I'm so thankful that I did it, and that I have that memory. What your photos did for me is to show me "the rest of the way." Knowing the trail up to a point, I could really follow you and feel that I could imagine and share the journey. It brought me a lot of pleasure, so thanks for that.

Diana Birchall, Santa Monica

[Jolly Green Giant]

Wow. How inspiring. Now if this doesn't make someone want to go backpacking, I don't know what will. Thanks for allowing us to live vicariously through your pictures. Whether it was God doing the painting or Photoshop Elements brightening things, your picturers are really fantastic….they make an east coast guy really want to head west to get out of the "green tunnel".

[Michael Davis]

Tony,

Also as one from the east, these pictures look awesome! You did a really great job with this gallery.

Yes, the east and west are different worlds, both have their individual character. I hiked Grand Canyon about a month ago and experienced that difference. That reminds me, I've got to find time to post my pictures.

[Eric Siegfried]

Have you ever tried geotagging your photos. Create a track on your GPS and then take pictures on your hike. You can then download the gpx file and use software like robogeo to put your pictures with location and geo data on a google map.

Then organize them on a hiking map of your choice

I have found some great hikes in California on http://www.recplan.com. I believe you can add hikes like you have described to the map

[Tony Wong]

Eric,

Unfortunately, I don't have a GPS unit and I don't plan on getting one in the future. (I am always looking to cut weight).

However, I do have a friend who has one and one some of the trips that we go on I could ask him to give me the coordinates and post them with the pictures.

Thanks for the great idea…will try to incorporate them when I can on future postings.

-Tony

[seth souza]

great pics, hoping to do this in August..any tips on bear canisters or packing in and out your waste.

[Tony Wong]

Seth,

Glad you enjoyed the pics and makes me happy to know that these are still of value to people.

Regarding bear canisters.

I use a Bear Vault…they make a solo weekender and one larger one for up to 7 days, which I have managed to get 8 days into with some creativity.

Negative is that the large one is 2.4 lbs.

The expensive option is a carbon fiber Bearikade: http://wild-ideas.net/index2.html

Expensive at $195.00 to $275.00, but lighter.

I believe that you can also rent them, which might be an option for you….unless you are going to be backpacking in the Sierras all the time in places that require it.

The Ursack was a great option, but is no longer approved for use in a lot of parts of the Sierras.

New product that is in development, but not out yet:

http://camp4outdoors.com/products.html

Looks like a nice price point and weight, but no idea of when it will be out.

Regarding packing out stuff….once you reach Cragtree campsite area, you must uses a wag bag for all your solid waste.

Recommend that you have one or two plastic bags to double bag the wag bag.

You might even go with securing it outside of your pack because it does have a bit of a smell.

If you are at the end of your trip, you COULD put it in your bear canister, but that might gross you out.

Otherwise, for any other garbage, you are pretty much packing it all out with you.

At the High Sierra camp, you might have a chance to dump some garbage, but I would not count on it.

Alternative, that is not LNT is to burn some of it if you have a hot campfire….no metal, foil please…..paper stuff, toxic plastic??? Your call.

Hope that helps….beautiful trip.

If you like that area, check out Deadman's Canyon, which using part of the HST on the last leg of a loop.

I have a photo essay of that one too that you can find here:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=37691

-Tony

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