Gear List for 6 day Sierras Trip

9 lbs food for 6 days may or may not be cutting it close? what’s your calorie budget, distance traveled and total ft of uphill?

It’s 6 days 5 nights (starting at lunch first day and finishing mid-afternoon on the 6th), and I end up with almost exactly 3500 calories per day with the food mix I’m planning. I’m hoping that will be sufficient.

Graeme,

I don’t have the elevation of the SNF at my fingertips, however for your proposed time frame it might be a good idea to consider a warmer bag [that is, unless you’re a hotter-than-hell “warm” sleeper]. Sub-freezing temperatures can easily hit the Sierra beginning mid-September.
Have a great trip. You’ve picked IMHO the absolute best time to be in the Sierra: aspen gold and not a skeeter in sight!

I used basically this same set up for a trip in Virginia in March when night time temperatures got down to the high 20s and I was reasonably comfortable. The real reason the Flight Jacket is in the list is as a “torso quilt” that I drape over myself inside the sleeping bag. I find this gives me a good 10 degrees extra (it’s my torso that generally gets cold).

Great list and I too was concerned until I figured out that your jacket does double duty. Sept. Is the best time in the Sierra’s.

Hey Graemey,
Can you give us a post trip report?
I am really interested on what the temps were.
Al Shaver is trying to do the JMT right now and there were 100mph winds on top of Whitney the other day.
Hope you got the better end of that front. That type of wind chill in a poncho-tarp would not be a fun night.

Just got back on Saturday. Trip ended up being 7 days/6 nights due to a lost map on day 2 (very stupid thing to do, but there were mitigating circumstances) which caused me to spend a full day bushwacking around Tehipite Valley until I found the way out.

My route was:

Wishon Reservoir – Crown Valley (in SNF) – Tehipite Valley (in Kings Canyon NP) – Le Comte Valley – Muir Pass – Evolution Valley – Goddard Valley – Hell For Sure Pass (back into SNF) – Wishon Reservoir.

About 100 miles in total I think. Weather was pretty much perfect, with day time temperatures in to 60s-80s with zero cloud cover. Night time was uniformly clear and calm, although temperatures varied dramatically from the mid-40s (at 5000ft in Tehipite Valley) to low 20s (in Evolution Meadow). Rivers were all really low. I had to get my feet wet several times, but even crossing the middle fork of the Kings River in Tehipite Valley the water never got to my knees.

Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to know.

Hi Graeme – I live in NZ – I don’t see any wet weather gear – expecting no rain???
Cheers Rob

Rob,

I think he uses the spinn poncho as raingear when not used as the shelter. Those come with a hood and cover most of the upper body and down to the knees.

That’s right. Patagonia hooded wind shirt for light precipitation, then I’d add the poncho if the weather got worse. Of course at it turned out I barely saw a cloud the entire time.