Aerial Views of the Sierra Nevada Last Week

[tgtaylor]

https://picasaweb.google.com/JoeFellerAZ53/AerialPhotosJune232011?feat=directlink#

Thomas

[tgtaylor]

Here's an interesting report filed last week by a thru-hiker:

http://postholer.com/journal/viewJournal.php?sid=e64b598434ded8874e718d15095e0e39&entry_id=23980

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

Looks a lot like a typical overflight in March rather than almost July! The real danger
right now is from the heavy runoff. If I start going nuts it seems like the Whites and the bristlecones are a way to get a breath of high altitude. I know they're doing constr
work at Sherman Grove but don't know if the road is open clear to the end yet. Another alternative, the Ruby range in NV, just seems to be getting plowed and is probably also pretty deep in snow, though without the extreme runoff hazard.

[tgtaylor]

Updated trail conditions in NCal:

Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:08 am (PDT)


Just a quick update from the Sierra-north:

We just got through Desolation to Miller Creek (1122) and the snow situation is grim. Even for the snow-experienced, the constant kicking of traverse steps, heel-plunging, easing across snow bridges, and the navigation under forest cover is both exhausting and slow. A mile/hour is average. We came out due to illness and a presentation we needed to be present at for the Tahoe Rim Trail Association.

Snow is patchy at 7,500 and solid at 8,000. The patches are 3 to 5 feet thick across the trail up to 8,000 and 4 to 8 feet thick above 8,000 with all lakes still frozen and streams covered. Navigation in the trees is very trying and slow, so make sure you have the current tracks in your GPS units, fresh batteries, and 7.5-minute topos in hand!

More to come. See photos and trail descriptions at www.mountaineducati on.org

"Just remember, Be Careful out there!"

[Drew Wiley]

That's odd. I wonder how I managed to get around the high country every spring before a GPS was even invented.

[tgtaylor]

Well for one thing these people are on a trek of several thousand miles through challenging terrain which most, if not all, have never traveled thru before. They are not merely day-hikers wandering around familiar terrain for short distances.

And for another, snow covered landscapes have a tendency to appear isotropic and is easy to get lost in without a navigational device.

Thomas

[Jim Michael]

It's already nearly July. Is that snow likely to melt by the end of the Summer?

[Drew Wiley]

Tom - so what! That's what kids in my neighborhood routinely did growing up. We were lucky if we even had maps. You can call us foolhardy (which we were); but it was probaly safer than driving through a bad city. GPS is just another potential tool. But if you don't know the lay of the land in the first place, it is exactly the kind of tool that will get an inexperienced person in big trouble. Of if it fails, which sometimes happens, what next? At my age I'm not exactly fond of the idea of postholing through
deep snow for days on end and chopping through cornices with an ice axe, but I can certainly remember that for several decades it was my definition of fun. This year I
suspect that the high passes will be clogged the entire season, or worse, slippery ice
in the shade after it has consolidated. Hence the wisdom of a "plan B" destinations.
I'm perfectly comfortably off-trail, but have to take into account traveling companions
and their safety too. Yet I'm insisting they wear real boots, not those glorified tennis shoe things one sees on the midsummer trails so much these days. Still, there will be plenty of wonderful destinations in the high Sierra come Aug and Sept. Plan accordingly
and carry a little extra gear and food just in case.

[Asher Kelman]

Here's an interesting report filed last week by a thru-hiker:

http://postholer.com/journal/viewJournal.php?sid=e64b598434ded8874e718d15095e0e39&entry_id=23980

Thomas

Thanks for the link! That's a story of guts, skill and determination!

My God, this is an action adventure survival movie but without diamonds, sex and spies!

An amazing story!

Asher

[Preston]

Two people were swept off the Wapama Bridge near Hetch Hetchy yesterday. One body has been recovered, and the search continues for the second.

The thru hiker was very, very lucky! His dunking in Wright Creek could've easily been his last.

Be careful out there!

--P

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Well for one thing these people are on a trek of several thousand miles through challenging terrain which most, if not all, have never traveled thru before.

I doubt there is an area of the Sierra range that has not been explored and travelled through. I'm no hardy mountaineer, but even I have done cross country routes over snow covered cols and into basins containing lakes with no names.

I liked seeing the aerial views of some of my favorite places even though the image quality is pretty low.

[Drew Wiley]

Even areas considered remote off-trail today were visited by sheepherders before John
Muir and Clarence King ever got there; and I've seen plenty of virtually unknown high
passes with a broken atlatl point or bits of obsidian lying around. About the only area
unvisited until the turn of the century was the Enchanted Gorge. But down in the major river canyons there are probably still some unexplored branches. I don't think the
Gorge of Despair was climbed clear through until the 70's or even later. The north/south route of what is now the PCT was first done solo under much more severe winter conditions in the 1920's by Orland Bartholomew, a stream-guager from my hometown, using all homemade gear. Then starting in the mid-70's, the route has been
repeated off-season many times. Still, it's no place for the unexperienced or ill-equipped. My main question is what the mosquitos will be like. Since July is their peak
season, will this season simply be dealyed at high altitudes or, more likely, largely
bypassed, which would certainly be nice. At the mid-elevations I have no doubt it will
become bug hell for awhile, however.

[tgtaylor]

It's already nearly July. Is that snow likely to melt by the end of the Summer?

The big meltdown is underway and will result in extremely hazardous stream crossing for the next few weeks as evidenced by the drownings (now 2 recovered bodies) in Hetch Hetchy as noted by Preston in a post today. Snow will undoubtedly linger in the highest elevations throughout the summer.

The earth is in the process of undergoing a climate change with the weather in California seemingly wetter and cooler than normal. Rather than the typical arid climate in California we may be transitioning to a more wetter and cooler climate here.

Thomas


Thanks for the link! That's a story of guts, skill and determination!

My God, this is an action adventure survival movie but without diamonds, sex and spies!

An amazing story!

Asher

You're welcome Asher!

While thru-hiking the PCT in any year requires guts, skill and determination hiking it this year requires more than the usual.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

It is very difficult to predict what the long-term trend will be. Just a few years ago we had the driest year on record in the Sierras, an extremely snowy year before that, and now a snow record throughout the Sierra and the Northwest. This will hopefully give a new lease on life to some of the smaller glaciers which were on the margin, but it's too late for most of them already. The relatively healthy glaciers tend to be either way high up in deep shade or along the storm funnel leading toward Mammoth Pass in the Ritter range. Global warming is a very tricky thing to predict as far as local microclimates go. When I was young I did a lot of climate study of the West pertaining
to the close of the ice age, which was the last major shift of this magnitude; and what
seems to have taken place (and is now confirmed by pollen studies and marine micro
fossils here on the coast), is that the climate essentially went batty at that time here
in Calif, with extreme changes back and forth once the thermostat broke, at least
until things basically reached equilibrium again. But when I'm in the mtns I carry a
certain amt of winter gear the whole time, and like to be prepared for whatever. It
is a habit that has made mtn travel enjoyable rather than fatal.

[Drew Wiley]

Locally they are starting to post biographical information on the drowning victims.
Two doctors, both with PA spouses I think. Experienced backpackers. They crossed
a formal bridge over a Hetchy creek on the way in, but on the way back the melt water was clear over the deck of the bridge itself. Facing an arduous 19-mile detour
if they turned back, itself potentially dangerous, they attempted the bridge and two
of them slipped. Only one body has been recovered. A very sad situation. Nothing in
the mtns is as spooky in my opinion as high meltwater, and there's a tremendous
amount of it at the moment.

[tgtaylor]

I can't find a print of the bridge that I printed a couple of years ago but here is another's photo of it:

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/5334735/sn/368882999/name/1006_517_D1A.jpg

There's usually water on the bridge as above in normal times and crossing it you expect to get wet. The terrain on the right side is a continuation of that shown on the left and drops down to the reservoir. As you can see there is slim chance of surviving a fall off that bridge.

This tragic incident immediately brought to mind a similar situation that I once faced while serving in the military in Korea. My job back then was leading patrols into the DMZ. Three days and nights out on patrol, back in for an afternoon and night, and then back out on another patrol. Then one spring day while coming back in with a patrol I watched a mine field being laid in front of the infantry positions lining the north side of the Imjin River. "You see that", said a guy that was next to me, "they are not anchoring those mines. When it rains they are going to shift positions and you won't know where they are at."

I filed that away and when the first rain came I stopped taking the "safe lanes" thru the minefield to exit the DMZ and instead went back to OP Dort and down that road which I knew to be safe. However that decision, never popular with members of the patrol, involved hiking an extra 5 or 6 miles instead of a mere 100 yards or so thru the "safe lane" in front of the tower. Then one day it almost came to blows with a member of the patrol and I told him that if he went into that safe lane and stepped on a mine I wasn't going to go in after him and, further, I would court-marshall his ass for disobeying a direct order.

Well that settled that and we hiked down to OP Dort and down the road as usual where we learned that another patrol coming in thru that "safe lane" had stepped on a mine and that someone with a map of the minefield had also stepped on one going in after him. I never had a problem with the extra hiking after that.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

I once did a three-day detour to avoid a dangerous crossing. I've been mildly dunked
in recent years, but nowhere where I could have been swept into deep or rapid water. Just a minor nuisance with wet boots and cold wet pants for the day. Learned
that lesson long ago. During the runoff I plan my trips into smaller watersheds, where the streams are smaller. At the moment, however, its probably dangerous
almost anywhere streams are encountered. I'm grounded for the moment anyway
with a swollen foot. All the rapid changes in weather have gotten my rheumatism
acting up. It was winter just two days ago, then a high pressure front moved in.
Strange year indeed.