Sierra Prime: Off Trail in California’s High Country

I'm doing a trip in the same area this summer. I would love to see your gear list. Also, how did the Bearvault fit in the ULA Ohm pack?

Thanks and great trip report.

Hi Brad –

The bearvault fits into the Ohm reasonably well. It takes up a lot of space, but there's still plenty of space for what I need. I have a 1/4 closed cell foam pad in my Ohm, and that helps to pad my back from the hard canister. I find that if I put the canister relatively high in my pack, it keeps the the small of my back from getting irritated by pressure from the canister.

If you send me a note ([email protected]), I'll be happy to send you my detailed gear list. The simple version of the list is posted in the article.

Don

I really enjoyed the combination of text, photos, and short video clips.

Great trip report.

That route goes through some of the finest the Sierra has to offer. Well done, indeed, gentlemen!

Definitely inspiring! It's very cool to see that you were able to pack in 3000+ calories per day at a density of 140+ cal/oz like that. Gives me hope that I'll be able to carry more than just a few days' worth of food in one of those canisters.

And, oh man, I want to get out to the Sierras….

Sounds like a great trip. I completely agree with your approach. I have a small son at home and no immediate prospect of getting a whole Ten Days for such a thing, but did something similar on a smaller scale for a three day solo trip in the Karwendel Alps last summer.

There's a trail that crosses the main Karwendel range, between two huts, that's generally done as one fairly long day with a possibility of taking in one or two summits along the way. I decided to take two days between the same two huts, sticking more or less to the crest of the ridge the whole way, with a bivouac around the point where the trail crosses. Had two superb days, did seven of the nine summits (bypassed two on the first day that otherwise would have involved climbing and tricky route finding in mist), saw only one other person for the first day and a half (last two summits are the highest in the range and heavily frequented). From the second hut, options are a boring trudge out down the valley on a gravel road, or a very nice trail over a pass in the next ridge. Did the latter.

You guys seem to have your planning system dialed, not shocking given your cumulative experience and analytical thinking. Surprised to not see a reference to a Microsoft Excel file, though, in order to help plan the route, logistics, schedule, etc. By far, NG TOPO! and Excel are the two most important programs I use when planning a long trip. Google Maps/Earth is probably third — the landsat images are critical in determining vegetation and in updating the USGS maps if the landscape has changed since the maps were made (often the case in AK, where some of the USGS maps haven't been updated since they were first published in the 50's and 60's, and where glaciers have been receding, flood plains have changed course, and beaches have eroded).

I'm also going to offer a shameless plug here. A good chunk of Don and Alan's route appears to be part of the Sierra High Route. For those interested in this route, I'd recommend you start by picking up Roper's guidebook. I've posted a lot of additional info about the route and my SHR hike on my website, and I also developed a complete mapset using TOPO!.

This one gets 5 stars, this is exactly the kind of article I love to read on BPL, thanks!!

I was going to ask: what about the Ursack? Now I know that it (currently) is not an allowed substitute for a canister in the mandatory areas, but not as much of the Sierra is mandatory (don't you love that word) as folks think. And the official wording outside the mandatory area is that "some means must be used to prevent bears from getting your food". They don't make this crystal clear because (IMHO) they would really rather you use a canister everywhere.

After two trips of mine when I hauled a Garcia canister, I took a look at the Sierra Wild Bear site (which has a link to a nice map of canister mandatory areas) and was dismayed to discover that the entirety of both trips were NOT in canister mandatory areas. A study of this map with your trip in mind does indicate that it would be very hard to enter at Kearsarge pass and get out of the canister mandatory area that surrounds that trailhead. Then another smaller zone surrounds the Bishop pass (and Palisade Area). Nonetheless, lots of trips can be planned south of Yosemite that avoid these areas. My last trip was like this, and I used an Ursack and had no troubles, with bears or rangers!

Thanks for the great article. You two a definitely an inspiration. I really liked the video clips. I want to start shooting some of my own after watching your clips. What a fantastic trip!!

Happy Trails–
Ukulele Bill

Reading this article for the second time. It confirms my new philosophy of ultralight packing. The whole point is to be out there and on the move (however, at this point I only get up before dawn when there is a peak to be climbed). I used to carry a lot of the stuff I used to carry for "comfort in camp", or something like that which was never clearly articulated. Now I avoid carrying stuff to achieve "comfort on the trail" and am so much more happy! Nothing like traveling light and covering ground.

As for the article, I would be interested to see mileage per day as food for thought (but given 120 miles and 10 days the math to figure the average ain't all that hard. Also, it would seem that less than half of the days were "off the trail". This is fine, I like the mix.

>I'd love to know how you got Iridium messages to automatically post. I'll be skiing the JMT this winter and will be bringing my 9555 along.

First, it helps to have a son who is PhD student in computer science.

Second, it involves using a surrogate email address to send SMS messages to, WordPress, and a WordPress utility, "postie," that pops email from the surrogate address and imports it into the WordPress Blog. We can even convert a 6 digit UTM location shorthand (embedded in the email) into a Google Map location like SPOT does.

There is also an option to post voice mail "blogs" from the Iridium phone as well. Although this is not via WordPress.

Contact me on my BPL address if you need more details…

-A

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