The High Sierra: 2015 - 2018

PanShiBo

2016-07-27        Alta Peak, Sequoia National Park (contd.)

Some photos, taken in Sequoia National Park. 8)

vera

2016-07-27        Alta Peak, Sequoia National Park (contd.)

PanShiBo

2016-07-27        Alta Peak, Sequoia National Park (contd.)

Sequoia National Park is not as popular (=crowded) as Yosemite Valley and the mountains are not as dramatic as those of Lone Pine. Also, the visibility was not as great. However, we spent there seven relaxing days. The swim in Silliman alpine lake was the best we ever had. The place seems to be very good for family type camping / hiking / backpacking.. 8)

vera

2016.07.27 Sequoia NP

Sequoia的Lodgepole Vis Ctr是我们每天光顾的地方，停车场边上就直接是营地的入口。这里除了没有wi-fi，其他设施服务都很好。有自助洗衣房，有shower，有商店和快餐。冰激凌是多种味道你可以选的，Pizza也很有质量（比Yosemite的好吃多了）。

有一天早晨，我们提前到了那里，坐在餐厅外的遮阳伞下等着8点营业时间可以早餐和洗衣等，遇见两个背着大包的中年男士，看起来很兴奋，脸上都泛着激动的光，好像跃跃欲试的样子。我就好奇地和坐在我对面的他开始了对话：

-- 你的包好大啊，好像很重，你们要去哪里呢？
-- 去Mt. Whitney！
-- 那么好！从这里走过去吗？
-- 对啊。我的包50磅，其中13磅是食物。
-- 那你们从哪里来？
-- Texas。
-- 需要很久之前就参加lottery吗？
-- 是呀，半年之前。但是lottery一开，5分钟后就没机会了。（他们只好"曲线救国", 从less popular的路线到Mt. Whitney）
-- 那你们一路露营要走多久？需要很多燃料吧？
-- 七八天。没有，只带了一罐，我们会节约用。（大概他们只喝冷水，不太煮食。换做是我，一定多带几罐）

他听我问他，特别开心，可能是因为有人愿意听他分享吧，当然啦，Whitney确实值得每一个人都这样骄傲！他也告诉我，他们是坐飞机来的，然后再乘shuttle bus等。(They flew from Texas to San-Francisco, then changed to Modesto, then took the bus...)

真不容易！

PS. Who knew we would be standing on top of Mt.Whitney just a few days later (but still a few days before them) as we would win the Lone Pine walk-in lottery for the Mt. Whitney zone back-country permit? I was thinking of them on the trail. It would be fun to meet them again!

PanShiBo

2016-07-27        Alta Peak, Sequoia National Park (contd.)

Alta Peak: typical U.S. army ammo box used as a summit register.


This kind of running next to the edge is never encouraged. Especially without U.S. emergency medical travel insurance. 8)


Clouds over Eastern Sierra.


We are the only ones who write vernacular Chinese in the summit registers.


See comment to #2 above.


Interesting rock formations.






Hiker's dream: forest and trail.

lulululu

谢谢分享，潘博士和Vera的图文太精采了！

PanShiBo

lulululu
谢谢分享，潘博士和Vera的图文太精采了！

! 8)

PanShiBo

2016-07-27 Panther Peak, Sequoia National Park (contd.)

The concept of "bushwhack" doesn't exist in High Sierra, instead they use less brutal term "open country". The forest is so open that one can walk in any direction, without trail. 8)

PHOTO: Using topo map (loaded to our smart phone GPS, not on paper) for navigation we cut short from Panther Peak directly to parking.

PanShiBo

2016 High Sierra

At the parking to Alta Peak in Sequoia National Park,  a car stopped  by and a young boy came out asking us  "do you know where to register?". After figuring out what it meant, the question actually was "How to get to the park' visitor's center?". After having so many similar directions questions before, this one didn't surprise us anymore. We showed him the paper map of the park (available at any park entrance) and his friend tried to take photo of it with his smart phone. This was strange considering all modern smart phones are equipped with GPS and the market is full of free navigation apps. Is that because the technology makes us lazy? The boys were very happy when we gave them the map..

During our 45-days trip through High Sierra, we had many other directions questions like these:
"how to get to the place where the creek gets bigger?" (meant "how to get to Cottonwood lake?"),
"how drive out of the park?",
"where is trailhead to Mt. Dana?",
"how to get to Mono Lake?",
"how to go for a hike?" (actually meant "where is Mist Trail to see Vernal/Nevada waterfalls?" - still 60 miles away) etc.

The best one we liked was "how to get to the lake from a postcard" - this person (wife and daughter in the car) apparently was looking for Tenaya Lake,  which was photographed by Ansel Adams in 1946.

PHOTO - Ansel Adams: Tenaya Lake, Mount Conness, Yosemite National Park, California, c 1946.
Fifteen years ago I purchased in Costco an Ansel Adams' coffee table calendar (for year 2001) with this and many other  High Sierra photos which I still keep on my coffee table! Similar to "directions" questions, apparently, photography also suffers from the same angle - modern photo equipment is much better than it was in 1946, but it failed to produce better photographs - so far I have not seen photos that are even close in quality to Adams' - only poor commercial imitations meant for  mass consumption.. 8)

PanShiBo

2016.07.28        Moro Rock, Sequoia NP

Our philosophy "never plan anything" allows two of us to be super flexible and therefore achieve much much more. We never make any reservations. We, of course,  do our preliminary research and train hard, but we never set in stone our destinations. We leave Vancouver with all climbing / backpacking gear but without knowing what peaks we will climb and what trails we will take. We even don't know which country, state or province we will be in, so we always carry our passports and two annual passes: one for the US National Parks and another for the Canadian National Parks. We take what the current situation could provide, the best of it- after all why stick to the "plan" set six months ago if the weather there is rain? We have been in Sierra before but the weather was not up to our standards - for example we skipped backpacking trip to Mt. Langley, CA last time (2015.09) because thunderstorms were likely and went to climb Colorado 14ers instead (which was super great). This time even in sunny California standards, the weather was so good so that we extended our 10 days trip into 45 days - all passed so quick, like one day! 8)

PHOTO: Mother bear with a cub. Sequoia NP.


Alta Peak as seen from Moro Rock, Sequoia NP

vera

2016.07.29 Mount Silliman, Sequoia NP

PHOTO: California climbers' salute at the summit of Mount Silliman (3,412 m) , Sequoia NP

PanShiBo

016.07.29 Mount Silliman, Sequoia NP - contd.

Low-key Sequoia NP can offer quiet relaxing times hiking, climbing and watching wildlife.


At the top of Mt. Silliman.


Silliman lake - warm alpine pond with clear water and sandy ground.

vera

2016-07-28 Moro Rock, Sequoia NP - contd.

90米的拔高，400级像模像样的石阶之上，就到了Moro Rock的山顶，北美户外的人去了，是分分钟搞定的事！它的山顶与众不同，像个有钢管护栏的长廊伸出去与天空呼应，你站在那里，360°空旷之感，根据游览手册上说，此处看夕阳最美。虽然Sequoia低的能见度让我对四周的远景实在不太恭维，但此前所言非虚：所到之处各有其独特之处。有的是景，有的是因人和事，Moro Rock之行对我来说属于后者。

Moro Rock, 在我们眼里就是纯粹的散步，所以大众游客很多，络绎不绝。由于这是没有树的花岗岩，我可以全程打伞遮阳，悠闲吧？有一小插曲令人忍俊不禁：我们站在顶上，游客中传来了普通话，听了真亲切，一看，原来是一家三代四口到此一游（年轻父母+六七岁的小男孩+外婆）。外孙和外婆最前面，外婆最爱美、最怕晒（遮阳的披肩将胳膊什么的盖得一点不露），妈妈就追着孩子不停喊着小心。我们让出了山顶最外沿的位置好让他们拍照，博士睁大了他的蓝眼睛不解地问我：他们怎么了，怎么说的普通话？那个爸爸一定是南方人，一点也不标准，他和孩子妈妈一定不是来自同一个地方！一边说着，博士还一边模仿着人家不卷舌的"普通话"。"哎呀，小声点，别人都听见啦！"我提醒着博士，跟着他来到靠着山脊这头一个阴凉的角落（倾斜的石壁挡住了阳光），观察护栏下的攀岩路线。看着这一家人拍照后开始下撤了，我就截住了走在最后的爸爸。

-- 可以打扰你一下，问你一个问题吗？
-- 哦，当然可以。
-- 我旁边这个外国人在学中文，说你的普通话很不准。请问你从哪里来？
-- 噢，我啊，重庆。是啊，我的口音确实很重，自己感觉不到，但是我太太常常批评我教孩子中文教得不对。
-- 对啊，听得出来，她说得好。她是哪里人啊？
-- 当然，她是北京人。

啊哈，博士这个老外真棒，现在已经能根据别人的口音判断出南北方的差别了，牛！得到确认后，他成了那天最得意的人！

我们在加州的旅行还没有结束，博士随身行李中的成语故事书已经全部读完了。每天一个，绝不skip，多的也不要，持之以恒，就像爬山一样，slowly but steady，假以时日，不知不觉中，惊人的进步！而且，他还能现学现用。几天前，去松鸡山，出了停车场，只听迎面来的两人在说着什么人到了晚期，后来学了病入膏肓，他马上跟我说，她们说的那个人就是病入膏肓！（绝对厉害，学成精了）

我想，如果我们真正懂得了如何爬山，那我们收获的一定远远超出我们的预期和想象。博士的中文学习就是一个极好的佐证。

如果有一天你顺路经过Sequoia，有半小时的空，那就来Moro Rock吧，来体验一下summitpost的形容是否贴切：

"At least once in your life, you gotta do it, even if you don't buy the T-shirt afterward.

Climb Moro Rock!"

PanShiBo

2016.07.30 Big Baldy, Sequoia NP

Sequoia National Park offers a few maintained class 1 (family type) hikes that end up at the summit of some mountain. Little Baldy is one of them.

PHOTO: California cimbers' salute at the summit of Little Baldy.

PanShiBo

2016.08.02 Mount Russell (4,296 m), Whitney Group, Eastern Sierra.

Mount Russell sees far less traffic than its much more famous neighbor Mount Whitney. However, since its southern and eastern slopes fall in the Mount Whitney Zone of the Inyo National Forest, these approaches are governed by stricter access limits. From May to October, only ten people per day are permitted to enter the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek for overnight use. Day use climbers are grouped with the Whitney Main Trail day use quota. This puts climbers on Russell's most common approaches in competition with climbers on Whitney's popular Mountaineer's Route, and also with the Main Trail users.[

Approach, the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek.


Approach, the Ebersbacher Ledges.




Mt. Whitney as seen from just below Lower Boy Scout Lake.


We are taking East Ridge route, which is offered by some commercial mountain guides.

Mt. Russell  14,094 ft.
East Ridge III 4th Class, Mitheral Dihedral 5.10a, or Fish Hook Arete III 5.9
3 days/ 2 nights
Cost:  $850.00 per person  with 2 Climbers
Cost:  $1,275.00  One to One Single Climber

http://www.swsmtns.com/mt-whitney-group/

Photo: Sunrise at Upper Boy Scout Lake, Whitney Group, Eastern Sierra.

vera

2016.08.02 Mount Russell (4,296 m), Whitney Group, Eastern Sierra (contd.)

Approach to Mt.Russell begins from the same trailhead as of Mt.Whitney.


North fork of Lone Pine creek.

vera

2016.07.29 Mount Silliman, Sequoia NP (contd.)

In the entire day we didn't see a single person.

3,157m above sea level.

PanShiBo

2016.08.02 Mount Russell (4,296 m), Whitney Group, Eastern Sierra (contd.)

Morning start @ Upper Boy Scout Lake - Let's do it!


Almost all these peaks are higher than 4,000m


Mt. Whitney (4,421 m), climbed 2015.03.15


蓝天！

vera

2016.08.02 Mount Russell (4,296 m), Whitney Group, Eastern Sierra (contd.)

Approach, the Ebersbacher Ledges, is not counted as "a climb".



Upper Boy Scout Lake at 3,459 m above sea level.


With Mt. Russell (our destination) at the back.

PanShiBo

2016.08.02 Mount Russell (4,296 m), Whitney Group, Eastern Sierra (contd.)

With Mt.Whitney (4,421 m) at the back.


Tulainyo Lake (3,902m) is one of the highest alpine lakes in the U.S. As seen from the East ridge of Mt. Russell.


A bit airy indeed..


This is simply awesome!

awe·some
Extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear.

But this is not the summit yet! 8)