Sierra Backpacking/climbing trip logistics

If you’re going to be based in the Bishop area, you might take a look at going in over Piute Pass and start the SHR at Snow Finger Col, continuing on to the JMT just north of Evolution Lake, and exiting via Darwin Canyon/Lamarck Col.  That is a nice 2-3 day section that starts and ends at the North Lake trailhead.  You could also go in over Lamarck Col, pick up the SHR at the JMT, hike up into Dusy Basin, over Knapsack, Potluck, and Cirque Passes to the JMT and then back to Dusy Basin with an exit over Bishop Pass to South Lake.  You could then either walk or hitchhike back to North Lake.  This would take 3-4 days, depending on how far you wanted to walk once you got back to the JMT at Palisade Lakes.

Bishop is pretty hot in the summer. Used to live there.

You’d grease off any problems at the Buttermilks after 9am. There’s only limited roadside climbing at higher elevations, ie Rock Creek and a little up Bishop Creek. Pine Creek is the place where the cool kids hang out now, tons of new developments there. But it’s only a bit higher than the Buttermilks.

Here’s an example of a fun loop that takes in a classic portion of the SHR, some of the JMT, tests your off-trail route finding and offers a few class 3 peaks along the way, including Feather. Portions of this route are very seldom visited.

Tom, thanks for the info. at this point of the planning that’s exactly what I’m looking for. Gonna look into these recommendations a little more. I will have a vehicle, so am not limited to bishop, but most likely will be staying somewhere along the eastern side.(mammoth, independence and lone pine will be realistic entry points for me).
<p style=”padding-left: 60px; text-align: left;”>@roamer thanks for the heads up about the bouldering conditions. I’m used to gunks conditions…intense humidity in the summer, and potential ice in the winter, so may be able to deal with that. I’m gonna try to push this trip towards the late sumer, like September. I did the Jmt that time of year and loved it. I’ll probably try to climb super early in the morning when temps are lowest.  have you done any Bouldering near tuolumne or Yosemite? I may check that stuff out too.  And thanks for the loop idea!</p>

Also, it’s easy to catch the Eastern Sierra Transit into and out of Bishop, so you can to point-to-point to/from Mammoth Lakes and/or Independence. Opens up some other options. You can catch the SHR between those points or the SoSHR going south.

Lots of bouldering around Yosemite/Tuolumne too. September should give better climbing conditions than the middle of summer.

Matt,

The hike that Nunatak recommends is awesome; I’d only suggest going over Granite Bear Pass and going out Feather Pass to French Canyon.  One of the best hikes in the Sierra in my opinion.  Another good option is to go over Echo Col, hit the JMT heading North and come out at Lamarck Col.  Bouldering in Bishop isn’t great in Summer unless you get up before sunrise, but close by is Rock Creek which is really good even in Summer as long as you wait until about 4 pm.  The rock there is the best on the eastside.  Way Lake out of Mammoth is also a very good summer bouldering area.  The best potential for high country bouldering that I have found is out of Horseshoe Meadow near the 4th and 5th Cottonwood Lakes.  I live in Bishop and boulder as much I hike.