JMT 2009 10lb base

here's the first one – Ultralight for sure – Yo-yo record holder on a weekend hike. We met her and her friends on the way up just before things turned nasty

http://trailgirl.blogspot.com/2008/07/expect-unexpected-yosemite-sign.html

My comment at the bottom of the blog page summarizes our experience that day. No goretex, but ponchos – and they were absolutely useless after about 30 minutes. I could go into detail how this all evolved, but let's just put it this way: I thought I had seen it all with lightning bouncing around me while on top of Forester Pass or snow for a mile on both sides of Muir Pass, but this storm came in without any real warning, and it stayed for a few days. Unheard of in July, I thought.

here's another report from July 12, totally different part of the JMT further south:

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/46365/page/3/fpart/2?PHPSESSID=af3fd9e12c1bf1c130e611bdd54d1854#Post57902

To explain my position on gear, you have to realize that I cannot simply bail from the trail and run out – I have two kids with me usually, so I have to be able to handle any situation in place (and when you read Catra's story you'll see that even record ultralight runners can get in real trouble, especially when creeks turn into raging torrents and you can't get across to reach the bottom of the valley)

Ultralight is not my thing anyway, and I don't abort hikes even if there are suddenly 6" of hail on the trail and water keeps running down the switchbacks as if I am at a river crossing. But I don't like it when the lips of my kids turn blue in front of me.

Before I hiked with my kids I did things differently. One year I did the Muir Trail in less than 10 days solo, never saw a cloud, another year it snowed so much in early July when I got to Reds Meadows that I simply aborted, which is easy to do there.

Obviously, my level of caution these days is probably far from what I'd do if I hiked alone, especially late in the season after the summer monsoonal flow has ended, when you'll probably see nothing but blue sky up there. If I hiked in late August/Early Sept, I'd probably be much less concerned about radical weather changes.

hey – take a look at this picture from Muir Pass, July 10, 2006…

http://www.pbase.com/aarondoss/image/72272375

Ryan, it appears you are using esbit tablets. Are they available at VVR and other suppy places?

The Mt Whitney Fish Hatchery at Independence was a total loss that day – even weeks later when we left Owens Valley, hwy 395 was still muddy where the water came down.

not sure about Esbit, but propane/butane can be bought at Tuolumne Meadows, Reds Meadows, Muir Trail Ranch and probably VVR (haven't been there in a few years, but they are more likely to have what you need than the MTR)

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"With a decent shelter your sleeping bag with a mug of cocoa would have been a much better plan than hiking in head-to-toe Goretex."

well, if you see it coming…

We were caught with the storm on the other side of a steep pass, just clouds, no thunder, no lightning, and when we felt the first big drops, we were just about at the pass, so what do you do? you move on to get the heck down on the other side. What happened then, though, was pretty much brutal. 1/2" hail kept opening up for almost an hour, and it just didn't let off. We ended up in our tent right on the trail AFTER we were soaked. Then the tent got wet on one end because there's a river running down the trail.

Had it been 30 mins earlier, we would have had set up the tent and waited it out for the night right there. It's just a matter of timing and luck sometimes. This time we hit it just about as bad as you could. Years before that I was in a similar storm (without the hail) at Forester, and there it was more a matter of not getting hit by lightning. Never had lighting so powerful so close to me, and it just hung around for a long time because the clouds got stopped at the pass.

The thing is, we made it through, the rain stopped about 4 hours later, and we packed up our tent, got off the pass, camped where the next creek crossing was impassable and got through the night, even thogh I had no sleeping bag (soaked).

In 1988 and 1989 I never saw a cloud on two complete Muir Trail Hikes during the same time of the year.

Peter said: "If I hiked in late August/Early Sept, I'd probably be much less concerned about radical weather changes."

The week after Labor Day in ~1986 I skied on 3 feet of snow at Mammoth Pass.

“Either way, I’d love to see a trip report and pictures from your gnarly survival trip! “

you got 1.5mbps?

1.5mbps videos

or

3.5mbps HD video

This is all the raw footage of the hike last year. The actual JMT stuff starts around tape 2 clip 41. Hope to have a fully edited clip ready before we head out again this year.

didn’t run that camera a lot during the storm… amazing it actually fired up, as it was rather wet.

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Now I'm imaginging myself with my down bag, small tarp and bivy trying to weather that storm….not sure how great I'd manage.

Interesting to see several accounts of the July 12 storm, both written and video. I am glad to see that posters here were survivors, but it IS a cautionary tale for all. Alpine environments can shift from clear to stormy in a very short period with violent weather and little shelter available.

It reminded me that here "up north" in MN in the Boundary Waters along the Canadian border we can get frost in every calendar month. I've also backpacked in the same area with 95 degree temps and 90% humidity where the biggest risk was staying hydrated. I consumed 23 liters of water that day and was still on the short side of full hydration.

“The week after Labor Day in ~1986 I skied on 3 feet of snow at Mammoth Pass.”

1986 was a big snow year – but not even the biggest (that was 82-83)

doesn’t look like we are on track for that this year

current snow graph

weather here in Wisconsin – well, thee days ago it went from 53 degrees to 13 degrees in less than 8 hours, next day it was 3 degrees at night, tomorrow back to 50+

and that’s without mountains

when we crawled out of our tent we had 6″ of hail covering the pass on July 12, it looked like it had just snowed heavily, except it was all wet, with water raging down everywhere.

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The September 1986 (or thereabouts) snow fell a few days after Labor Day.

In the Sierra you need to be able to survive freak storms- rain, sleet, snow, or high winds. They can come up in odd times of year. When you've been in the backcountry for a week or more it's unlikely that any forecast had predicted the storm before you started.

The mistake made by some who advocate gear overkill is that you don't have to keep hiking in such a storm. They normally don't last that long. Even a summer blizzard will generally have mostly melted within a few days.

What's important is getting to shelter if possible, otherwise setting up your own. With children or inexperienced hikers along this is even more important as Peter has correctly stated. They can't move as fast, they don't have the same energy reserves, self knowledge, or thermal mass as an experienced adult.

This is probably all fodder for a seperate thread so we don't get off-track from beating Peter up over carrying his tripod! My parting shot is "Bothy Bag".

> I consumed 23 liters of water that day and was still
> on the short side of full hydration

Wow! 23 liters … can't imagine that. And I think I am having a pretty big day if I consume 8-10 liters over a day …

Bob, I was overweight, out-of-shape, carrying 40+ pounds (pre-lightweight enlightenment!!) and it was HOT and HUMID so that sweat didn't evaporate. Fortunately there was lots of water along the way. I'd stop, drain the last of my 2 carried 1L. bottles, pump/filter for bottle #1, drink that while I pumped for #2 bottle, then pump to fill #1 again. Hike a bit, head down to the lake as bottles neared empty, rinse and repeat.

Despite the on-going effort to stay hydrated, it was a nice outing, as are most backpacking trips. It's up there with my dogsledding-in-minus-55-degree (F.) stories!!! (record low temp for Minnesota…1996).

By the way — it occurred to me today to think about the electrolytes — you must have been chugging slat tablets or some such?