Doing the Ortstock east ridge

Based on the forecast and the fact that greg got back late Friday night from a work trip, we decided for a lazy Saturday and a long(ish) Sunday this weekend. So Saturday afternoon we went to Braunwald and then Sunday we did the East ridge of the Ortstock. Nine years ago we were also on the Ortstock as part of a tour from Braunwald to the Glattalphütte, somehow that blog post never made it out of the "text coming stage"... tja. That time we came up via the hiking route from the Furggele, this time we wanted to take a more adventurous route up.

Saturday was the expected laziness: a slow morning, a later train, and then a stroll around Braunwald before checking into the hotel/hostel. The weather isn't great, but the forecast for the next day is good, so we go to bed optimistic.

Sunday starts reasonably late (it's not a mountain hut, so breakfast doesn't start super early) under cloudless blue skies and great views of the Ortstock. and it's East ridge.

We start the same way as last time: heading out of town and up, up, through the woods to the hanging valley. Across the valley and then up the end towards the Bärentritt. Here we pass the first other group of people we've seen (big packs... maybe they are also planning some climbing?). The route through the Bärentritt is nice, but certainly less dramatic than we remember (we've come a long way in the last decade), and we're up top before you know it.

Now we're moving into terra incognita. We've got a couple of descriptions from hikr and one from the SAC tourenportal, so we're pretty sure we know what to do. After a short food break we leave the path and head cross-country towards the ridge.

This starts off pretty flat, but then turns into steeper grass. After crossing a small patch of scree we start to enter a more exposed section at around 2100m (this is easily visible on the map), always heading up up. As this steepens a bit more the ice axes come out (they work sooooo well on steep grass!) and we continue up, up into the T6 part of the program. At some point we start seeing yellow/orange dots marking the way (cool! no more concern about being on the right route); these lead us ever upwards, sometimes with pretty dodgy, steeply up, up until we hit the saddle in the ridge.

Here we take another food break and put on the climbing gear (Andrea's attempt to toss her harness down the mountain is, fortunately, unsuccessful). Then we hit the rock and start climbing. The first bit of this is actual climbing (4a according to the tourenportal, but who knows...) on decent rock with a few bolts along the way. Andrea leads this and greg follows. It's soooo odd to be climbing/scrambling on limestone after all the granite in the Sierras!. Thanks to the markings and the occasional bolt, staying on route is straightforward, which is good since the rock in the scrambling sections of the route isn't what one might hope and it quickly becomes outright dangerous if you deviate (something greg discovered at one point, leading to one big rock dislodged and a big burst of adrenalin). There generally tends to be something around that the rope can be attached to. The classification of this in the tourenportal as a hochtour and not alpine climbing makes perfect sense: aside from that first pitch, this has much more in common with standard mountaineering ridge route than rock climbing.

After a couple of hours of this we're on a peak. At the time we think this is the Vorder Ortstock, but doubts emerge later and, after looking at the track, we end up being pretty sure that it was actually one of the other spires on the ridge. Still, that's where the markings led us. Everything we've read recommends not continuing along the ridge from this point (the rock is bad and it's extremely exposed), so we follow the markings into the North face and further onwards towards the Ortstock. There are a couple of small snow fields here that we cross at the top (easy) and then a larger one towards the end that we also cross at the top. This one's less easy due the amount of loose crap on top of the ice/rock, but we make it through. Then it's onwards, always staying next to the rock and following the dots until we emerge on the Ortstock itself.

This is one of those routes and peaks where you can emerge from nowhere into a crowd of hikers (always fun!), but we're late enough that there's only one person on the peak, so we don't get to have that bit of fun. Ah well, it's also nice to have the peak mostly to ourselves. :-)

After another snack break and packing the technical gear away and another snack break we head down the hiking path to the saddle between the Ortstock and the Höch Turm (there's supposedly an mountaineering route up that one too... worth considering for a future trip!), then down, down, through the Bärentritt and back down, down, down to Braunwald and the beginning of the trip home.

This was an interesting tour that, despite the low altitude, definitely deserves the ZS rating and requires some concentration. It sure would be nice if the rock was better throughout, but you take what you get. :-)


Track:
Stats: 14.3km, ~1650m up and down

Tomlishorn and Widderfeld

More or less exactly a year ago we did a nice T5 trilogy on the Pilatus and, along the way, went up the Tomlishorn. In discussing that tour we found a hikr report about doing a T5 tour up the Southwest ridge of the Tomlishorn that sounded fun. Today we did that tour along with a bit of extra fun that Andrea found.

We start with the train to Alpnachstad and then start hiking through town and then up, up along road, forest road, and hiking path. Up, up, through the trees, through the gorge that's not really a gorge near Tiergarten, and then up some more until taking the first break near Polentablätz. We're on our own through all this and everything nice and quiet. Fun to be doing all this vertical with light packs and below 2000m! :-) Coming into the open below Fräkmünt we get our first good view of the ridge. Looks good! The ridge to the Matthorn, to our right, also looks good; going to have to come back and do that one too. Onwards past the picnic area, where we see the first people of the day, and then up, up a bit more to the alp at Tumli.

Here we leave the path and scramble up to the ridge and the bench that's directly above the alp. Nice food break here enjoying the views and quiet and then we continue along the ridge.

There's some easy and fun scrambling in this interspersed with nice walking and great views, always heading up, up, up. Someone is playing an alphorn in the area, so we've got a bit of musical accompaniment (yeah! back in Switzerland!). Towards the top, as the ridge broadens out and gets gentle, we catch up with a group of five who had clearly also just finished the ridge. We also walk past the guy who's playing the alphorn and continue up to the normal hiking path for the last bit to the Tomlishorn.

Now we're in the masses you expect on a peak like this on a lovely fall Sunday. There's barely room to stand on the peak itself.

After a short stay at the peak, we continue on our way along the ridge towards the Widderfeld (we last did this with Kristen ten years ago). Instead of following the path along the right of the Widderfeld, we turn off to the left and follow a use trail (later marked with blue stripes) that continues under the cliffs of the Widderfeld. Here we're alone again. :-)

The path takes us to a tunnel with stairs that take us up through the cliff and to the steep grass on the other side. Here we follow the use trail/markings until topping out on the trail down from the Widderfeld. We continue to the top and enjoy another food break and views across the madness on the Tomlishorn (we're alone up here). Supposedly there's an interesting direct route down from there, but we don't manage to find it, so after the break we continue along the path down the ridge, past a *really* nice bivvy spot (lacking water, but that's probably solvable) to the saddle between the Widderfeld and the Mittaggüpfi (11 years since we were last there), and then down, down, down. At Lütholdsmatt we stop for cool beverages and then continue the rest of the way down, down, down to Alpnach Dorf, where we start the trip home on trains that are as full as one would expect on a lovely September Sunday.

This was a nice long tour that's not particularly technically challenging. Since it's South-facing it might be a good one to add to the list of possible early-season training tours.

Amusing aside: two weeks after doing this tour, we found a very similar tour on the list of new tours added to the SAC tourenportal (though that one is a lot shorter since they start from the Schybach parking lot).

Track:
Stats: 23.7km, about 2000m up and down.

Climbing in the Sierras: Mt. Emerson South East Face

yet to come

Climbing in the Sierras: Mt. Whitney East Buttress

yet to come

Climbing in the Sierras: Crystal Crag's East Arete and Ridge Traverse

After a rest day (and some laundry!) we're both feeling fresh and fit. We get an early start and drive from Bishop to Mammoth Lakes to meet our guide L. After having a coffee we pile into the car for the short drive to the trail head at Lake George. Now along the same path we followed five years ago when we hiked up to the ridge here (no blog post for the hike, unfortunately). Up and up and then turning off from that path towards Crystal Lake and then off on a use path that leads us to Crystal Crag and to the foot of the route up the East Arete.

On with the climbing gear and some more clothes (we are in the shade and it is cold). After a quick discussion of rope signals we start the climbing. This is all done with L leading and then the two of us following (on separate ropes with the last clearing all the gear). At each belay we repeat the process. It's still quite cold, so it's nice that we can climb in the big boots and that the climbing isn't too difficult (not much feeling in the fingertips for subtle holds!). Great rock, fun climbing. At some point we hit a pitch of pure white quartz crystals. Amazing!

Eventually we hit the ridge, the sun, and the first summit, and then continue on a single rope with a mix of down climbing, scrambling, and ridge following until we hit the second summit. Needless to say we got nice views from the ridge and the summits, but we aren't too sad to start down-climbing to get out of the wind. A bit of good down-climbing on the rope (good that we practice this!), and then a walk down to the bottom. Off with the gear, back to town, goodbye to L, lunch, then the drive back to Bishop.

Amusing side story throughout the day: it's cold when not climbing in th sun. L. Mentions the possibility of changing our plans for our two-day trip to do a route that has morning sun. We discuss this while she's climbing and decide, emphatically, yes!. At the next belay, as we get ready to mention this, L gets a text from the office telling her that the trailhead we were planning on using is closed due to a fire, so we'd need to change anyway. L mentions that Mt. Whitney has a great climb for cooler days since the East wall get sun early. We were just there and know how fantastic that wall is, so we agree that it'd be great to climb there if a permit is available. This seems unlikely, but L asks the office to check, says she'll think about other options, and climbs on. At the next belay L gets the text that we have permits and that we're going to climb Whitney as a plan B. :-)

No track for this one.

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Upper Boyscout Lake to Whitney Portal

The last day is always tricky, this was no exception. :-)

We are in no hurry, so we do a bit of a morning walk and aren't packed and underway until shortly past 9. The route down isn't 100% obvious (lots of cairns and potential paths) and we don't have a description, so we just pick a likely looking path and, with a comment of "I really don't feel like doing an hour of bushwhacking" from greg, start down. And thus begins an hour or so of bushwhacking... this is definitely type 2 fun for greg, but there are some funny pictures.

We eventually find our way down to Lower Boy Scout Lake and continue the route down, along a not particularly inspiring, but at least mostly easy to follow trail. Which, after a while, vanishes. Shit. Luckily Andrea remembers reading something about ledges. So we head up a bit again and re-find the path following a set of ledges in the granite walls. Luckily for us we come across a group heading up (two guides with five clients) when nearing one of the less obvious turns and get to wait a bit while the guides shuttle a couple of guests across an exposed bit. Onwards and downwards, losing the trail again at a river crossing, realizing our mistake later, coming back up, and more descending.

Down, down. Meeting the trail coming from Whitney - plenty of wiped out looking hikers on their way down after this point - down down to the portal and the shop. Cool beverages there and then along to our car (still there! still with a live battery!) for the drive down to Lone Pine and "civilization".

Track:

Stats: 6km, 110m up, 1020m down

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Wallace Lake to Upper Boyscout Lake

Normal start time under a cloudless skies. We start up the side of the valley, retracing the beginning of the walk to Wales Lake yesterday. It's warmer than expected and the walking is very good. After crossing over to the cool marsh area below the head wall we move to the obvious weak spot and have a really nice talus scramble to the top. Really nice. Up top we do a short break and then move on across the lovely hanging valley that leads to Tulainyo Lake. The valley is pretty long, so this takes a while and anticipation for the lake and the first views of the head wall to the col builds.

The lake is spectacular, like a caldera but filled with water and surrounded by cliffs. There's still ice on the lake and snowfields around the edges. The wall to the col is impressive! It's one of those "if we didn't know it's possible it wouldn't ever cross our minds to try" things. We have a another break surveying the situation and then cross the snowfield to the talus below the col. After some water pumping on the other side of a huge cloud of young mosquitoes we start heading up.

The first 1/2-2/3 is more fun talus, with some bigger bits up top that are somewhat scrambly. Good warm-up for the wall itself. We start near the obvious point in the middle and then just follow a sensible route to the top. It's easy scrambling, intentionally made a bit more challenging at times by route choice, and we're at the top with big smiles on our faces. That was fun! And it's nice to know that it was doable (the alternative would have been complicated and several days long...).

Another break and quick discussion of what to do next. Given that the weather is still perfect, it's pretty clear to both of us that we're going to do the East ridge to Mt Russell - we've read a lot about it and the ridge looks great. We pack stuff into hip packs, set ourselves a sensible turnaround time, and then set off. I could spend multiple pages on the ridge, but I won't. It was really, really good. We spent much of the route out to Russell on the ridge (more exposed and scrambly) and then did the easier lower route to return. The rock was mostly great, the views were fantastic, and the exposure was huge. Again, a really fun scramble.

Back at the packs with even bigger smiles on our faces, we repack and then head down to Upper Boy Scout Lake. The first part of the steep bit here is kind of shitty because there are too many different paths that people have taken (insert ranting from greg here), but after that things consolidate to one path and the descent is pretty easy. The ascent, on the other hand, would suck (you have to earn that nice ridge hike!). We find the turnoff to the lake and descend easily. At the lake we look for camping spots and end up not too far from the other two guys here (the spot we picked is nice). Have a snack (we're learning!), pitch the tent, pump some water and wash a bit, then laze around until dinner time.

The lake and spot are beautiful, but it's damn windy... may be a long night despite the wall we build on the windward side of the tent. Let's see how it goes.

This was a great day with perfect weather. Lots of good scrambling too... just right for us!

Dinner: black bean soup. Tasty!

Track:

Stats: 10.5km, 960m up and down.

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Wright Lake Basin to Wallace Lake

Underway beneath a mostly cloudless sky shortly before 7:30. It's cold this morning! We are sure that's a good sign. Start by heading through lots of really wet grass along the long, lovely Wright Lake Basin. Follow this quite a while before reaching the bend in the stream signalling that we should cross and head cross-country over a slight ridge towards Wallace Creek.

Nice break in the woods on the other side of that ridge and then we continue with some very nice forest walking along the valley, heading down to the creek. Shortly before hitting the creek we cross the old path up the valley, which we turn onto and follow up, slowly up, through the woods. This is nice walking! At some point the path vanishes and we do the rest on our own. Encounter a footstep at a marshy area (first sign of other people today). Have a nice break at another marshy area, lots of fun walking and path finding. As we near the top of the valley we re-run into the trail and start following that again. After not too long the trail ends at a creek. We look around a bit, fail to find any stones across, and do a barefoot creek crossing. Yeah! Fun fun! :-)

Further along the path, across a high stony plain until the lake comes into view. We ditch the packs near a very bold marmot and start looking for the campsite. We also see another hiker getting ready to do some fishing. We find a good campsite, pitch the tent (several attempts required due to hard ground... flaring tempers due to hunger... note to selves: snack before pitching the tent if the weather allows). Quick chat with the fisherman (who ended up in the wrong valley but is making the most of it for an hour or so before trying to get back on-route). Snack by the tent, water pumping, washing, a quick (very quick) swim for greg that almost didn't happen, but luckily the sun came out at just the right moment.

Walk up to Wales Lake, allowing a reco of the first bits of tomorrow, and then a truly stunning lake theater with crazy vertical stone walls (and much less talus than normal) all around. Maybe some weather coming, so we hurry down to the tent and do a quick cup of tea/coffee, ready to run for the tent at the first drop, but everything behaves, it stays nice, and we get to enjoy our beverages outside. Greg moves into the shade of a convenient rock to read and Andrea goes for a stroll. We do dinner in the sun and another quick bit of water pumping, say hi to the two new fisherman who have shown up and are planning on staying the night, and then head back to the tent. Quick stroll, chocolate, blog writing, bed!

This was our first entire day without rain! Wow! Let's see what happens tonight.

Dinner: Black Bart Chili, downright edible!

Track:

Stats: 10.3km, 300m up, 280m down.

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Meadow above the Pothole to Wright Lakes Basin

Normal efficient morning and we are underway by 7:30. We pump a liter of water and then head onwards and upwards to traverse some talus to meet the trail to Shepherd Pass without going all the way down into the Pothole. After the loose talus, the nice patch is a real treat. The route up through the pass, with its big snowfield, still isn't clear, which is a "fun" piece to all of this.
It starts to sprinkle, we cover the packs and break out the hard shells, and continue. Along the way we see switchbacks up through what otherwise seems to be an unpleasant chute to the right of the snow, which answers the questions of how one gets through the pass. Yeah! No dealing with steep snow today!

The rain gets harder and harder. Greg has spotted what looks like a sheltering group of rocks (leaning against each other with space underneath), so we head over there. Andrea crawls into the crack, we shove packs wherever they will go, and greg crams as much of himself as possible into the crack. The waiting begins... It rains, it starts to drip under our shelter, maybe it's raining less, maybe not, greg is antsy, Andrea is calm, it drips more, maybe it's raining less, maybe not. After about 15 minutes of this it really stops raining and we continue on our way.

The switch-backed path up to the pass is very nicely made through some dodgy terrain and cleverly avoids the snow patch. Something has eaten at least one deer on this slope because there are bones and bits all over the place. We come out up top, enjoy the last of the views back, and then move on 'til we can see down the very broad valley in front of us. Time for a snack break, but it's windy and threatening rain (the top of Mt. Tyndell, and much of the ridge is in clouds), so we make it quick and continue on. Past a couple disgruntled backpackers on their way out and onward. At some point we leave the trail and start traversing the slope that leads up to the saddle over to the Wright Lakes Basin. We see a third hiker down on the path. It's great to walk along this level, broad high valley! Once close to the slop up to the saddle we plan a route and then start up through the talus. The actual conditions blow the plan up more or less immediately: there's a nice easy weak spot that we can follow up, up the slope until it hits a switch-backed path coming more directly from the main trail far below. We follow this to rest of the way to the broad saddle. 

We say goodbye to the valley and head across to say hello to the Wright Lakes Basin. Time for another snack break, which we end up doing huddled behind a rock to get out of the wind (tja... views...). We discuss and reject the idea of continuing along the ridge to its end and then descending into the basin and choose instead to just head directly down. On the way down we pass two other backpackers somewhat confusedly making their way up.

Down, down. The basin really is pretty: cool dead pines, nice views, dark dark clouds heading our way (again). We scout around a bit, find a campsite, pitch the tent, toss the stuff in it, and the sun comes out. WTF? We go pump some water, have another snack, and then set off for a stroll up the side valley between Tyndell and Barnard peaks Lovely walk up the moraine with cool vegetation and impressive granite walls and dark, dark clouds. We formulate a plan involving heading up onto a bit of a ridge and the thunder starts more or less immediately thereafter. So much for that plan. We turn back and take an alternate way past a couple of other really nice lakes. The thunder is getting worse, the clouds look evil, the wind picks up, we pick up the pace. We get back to the tent about five minutes before the hail starts. Yeah! The rest of the afternoon passes with us occasionally leaving the tent to enjoy the views and gawk at the approaching threatening clouds; it's somehow all quite entertaining. The tent mostly behaves.

At around 17:00 there's a larger break in the hostilities and we move around a bit outside. The wind has changed direction... that's got to signal a change in the weather... good sign! Around 17:45 we realize that the clouds heading our way from the new direction no longer look so innocent, so we quickly make dinner and enjoy a very cool cloud show on Mt. Barnard while waiting for the pasta to cook, then eat quickly and (mostly) tidy up really quickly to avoid getting soaked by the now dark clouds blowing our way. Retreat to the tent, write some blog, listen to some thunder, and we'll see if we get out of the tent again today.

The weather was particularly weird today because this is the first day that it has rained in the morning and the first day that it's rained much after 17:00. Let's see what the rest of the evening and the morning brings. Andrea is being an optimist: "it's all a good sign!"
Dinner: Pasta with spicy sausage. Meh... not as good as the last two nights (and that's not just because we were eating really fast).

Track (includes both the hike and the afternoon walk):

Stats:9.1km, about 450m up and down. Then ~3km with 150m up and down for the afternoon walk.

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Golden Bear Lake to the meadow above the Pothole

We get up at 6:00 and are underway by 7:45. Down to the lake to pump a bit of water and then onwards along the lake under scattered clouds. The plan is to follow the line/remains/traces of the old, abandoned JMT over Junction Pass until it meets Shepherd Pass Trail. Starting on a nice trail that kind of vanishes; luckily Andrea notices the arrow of rocks pointing across the stream. Onward, following cairns and traces of trail, climbing gently along the side of the valley. Eventually the trail becomes more clear and is an absolute joy to follow up, up, up. Past a couple of lakes with nice tent spots, up a really nice line that carries us with a minimum of switchbacks to the broad ridge.

Food break here to appreciate the fantastic views. Also some fun looking at the JMT/PCT across the way snaking its way up to Forester Pass (the highest point on the PCT). We don't want to tarry too long because there are some dark clouds over Forester Pass and we don't want to push our luck too much with the weather. Still, the views *are* spectacular.

Onward and upward, along a path that continues to climb steadily without many switchbacks across the broad face until we hit Junction pass at 4'000m. More nice views and then we start the gradual descent, following clear tracks, down, down to the lip of the canyon we need to descend into.

There's a clear-ish trail here and the descent requires concentration, but it's not particularly hard. At some point greg moves off the trail and we make our own way down in order to make things more challenging (at least that's what he says at the time).

At the canyon bottom we quickly encounter snow fields which we use to make the descent through the canyon much quicker than talus hopping.

At the end of the snow we take another break and then continue down through the loose talus. At this point the end of the canyon is in view and we see what we think is the trail. So we traverse through the loose talus to that. The trail takes us down, past a lovely small meadow, and then down, down to a broad flat plain from which we can see Shepherd Pass, Mt Tyndall, and some threatening clouds.

We adopt Plan B and find a good campsite on the plain, pitch the tent, finishing just as a few drops of rain start. That, fortunately, only lasts about a minute. Still, it sprinkles on and off for a bit before clearing up.

We wash and pump water in the sun and then have a relaxed afternoon of reading, snacking, wandering around, and taking pictures. At around 17:00 it rains for a bit, but that stops after about half an hour. Onto making dinner, post-dinner stroll, blog-post writing, and sleep.

Nice day of walking with a fair amount of vertical (at altitude), though pretty short. The threatened mess in the afternoon didn't happen, but we still have a nice spot to camp and had a lovely afternoon.

Dinner: Himalayan rice and lentil curry. Good!

Aside: while making dinner we empty the 100g gas cylinder we started with. This lasted through 3 dinners, 2 breakfasts, and 4 coffee/tea breaks.

Track:

Stats: 8.7km, ~650m up and down

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Kearsarge Lakes to Golden Bear Lake

We are up shortly before 6 to blue skies, like you want to see. We end up packing the tent away wet because as we are still in the shade there's just no chance otherwise without waiting quite a while. Underway shortly before 8. We follow the trail to the lovely Bullfrog Lake. Since we were counting yesterday, and we're going to be spending some time on the JMT/PCT, we decide today to count the number of all other backpackers we see (Final score: 32). Past Bullfrog and the other nearby lakes we start to descend.

At around 3km we hit the JMT/PCT and follow that down, down. At one point a spectacular panorama opens up in front of us that fills greg with "wow!". Down, down we go, past Vidette Meadow, onwards under trees with quite good walking for a while. Parallel to Bubbs Creek - actually more of a river. We come upon a lovely block of granite in the sun and spread out the tent bits to dry while we have a snack. Very effective use of the sun. We continue on our way after the clouds move in. We've seen this show before, time to get a move on and get to our camp spot before any rain starts.

Onward and onward. We're looking for the turnoff of the old JMT towards Center Basin; we have a description and a very rough indication on the map, but we end up completely missing it (looking at the map and our GPX afterwards: the "scanned 7.5'" caltopo layer is very wrong about both where the trail comes in as well as the relative course of the *current* JMT/PCT and the stream coming down from the Golden Bear Lake; the OSM map and other layers seems pretty good), so we end up leaving the trail and heading up through the forest much too late. After ascending easy for a bit through the woods we start to encounter the stream we should be on the other side of. Crap. After some bushwhacking and crossing some pretty good talus and some pretty bad gravel above the stream (yuck! Plus greg loses his sunglasses at some point during this whole process) we find a good spot across and then just go straight until we hit the old trail (obvious at this point).

It's now very clear that it's going to be raining again soon and the thunder has already started. Quick quick across the bog and then up a bit to beautiful Golden Bear Lake. No time for appreciating though, need to get the tent up before the rain starts! We look around a bit and find the spot. Up goes the tent and we are moving the stuff in just as the rain starts. Again. :-)

This time it doesn't rain super hard and there are some breaks when we can get out and pump water, etc. We were in the tent by 13:30 and the rain was basically done by 15:30 or 16:00. We have a quick wash, it rains some more, and then by around 17:00 it's really done. We even get a bit of sun later as we're out making dinner. Lovely dinner in the sun, a post-dinner stroll, a lovely, lovely sunset (the upside of the clouds), and then into the tent for blog post writing and bed.

We saw loads of people at the beginning of the day, but after turning off the JMT/PCT we were completely alone. Yay!

Dinner: Coconut veggie curry. Very good backpacking food!


Track:

Stats: 13.5km, 560m up, 490m down.

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Onion Valley trailhead to Kearsarge Lakes

Early breakfast at the "diner" across from the hotel, then into the car and back up to Whitney Portal. We find a decent parking spot (we hope), put on the packs, and head up to the store to meet our shuttle. He's early, so we get underway 20 minutes earlier than planned. Long drive to Onion Valley trailhead (~2'800m), goodbye to the shuttle driver, on with the packs and off we go!

The sun is shining like hell and we start our route up, up. We encounter a ranger in the first five minutes, show our permit, and chat for a bit and then continue up, up the trail. There are loads of people coming down with big packs, so, for the hell of it, we start counting the people coming down with big packs (final tally by the end of the day's hiking: 90!).

Up we go, on a good trail, under clouds after not too long (nice to have it a bit cooler!), up, up, up towards the pass. Nice lunch spot on a big flat rock with a view of Kearsarge Pass (3'569m) and the final bit up. Nice leftover breakfast burrito in the sun as lunch. As we're finishing, the threatening cloud over the peak above us starts making thunder. grrrr. We decide that it's probably a good idea idea to make haste towards the pass.

There's no high speed going with the heavy packs and the altitude, but we make decent time and there's no weather there when we arrive. Still, there *is* thunder nearby, so we don't hang out and make haste back down the other side. The lakes (~3'320m) that are our destination are in clear view (along with a lot of other nice stuff!) and we start scouting likely tent spot locations as we descend. The thunder continues, we feel bad for the folks who are still climbing to the pass (more than a few), but we make it down to the first lake without weather-related incident.

There's a great spot at the top of the lake that even has a bear box, but there are three or four tents there already, so we move on. We continue to the bottom of the first lake, cross over to the other side, and head up to a likely looking area we had seen from above. Andrea finds a decent spot, but we keep looking even though we know full well that weather is coming. Finally we decide that's the spot and start pitching the tent as the first raindrops fall. We set a new record in getting the tent up and our stuff (and us!) inside it. And none too soon. About 30 seconds after the last backpack is in the tent, the sky breaks open and we have heavy rain and hail. Some fun times dealing with drops from the roof (the seams on the rain fly are no longer completely waterproof) and water attempting to run under the tent on greg's side.

Eventually the heavy stuff stops and it settles down to a gentle rain. This goes on, with the occasional stop, for a few hours. Luckily the drops from the ceiling stop after the heavy rain and hail (really luckily: we were considering heading back out to the trail head if the tent couldn't take rain at all). We do enjoy a nice hot beverage in the tent while waiting for things to settle down. After the rain mostly stops, we pump water and start thinking about dinner. At some point the sun even comes out for a while and we enjoy a moment sunshine and rain sprinkles.

After dinner we do a bit of reco' for the next day (the trail-less steep shoulder we were thinking of crossing doesn't look like a good idea), and then head back to the tent since it's getting dark. In the tent we plan the next day and think a bit further to be sure we're happy continuing with the unfortunate weather situation.

Dinner: Patagonia red bean chili. Pretty tasty once the beans stopped being crunchy!

Track:

Stats: 8.4km, 780m up, 260m down