And the Heavy became Light...as light as a snowflake is heavy.
10-07-2007, 09:16 PM
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And the Heavy became Light...as light as a snowflake is heavy.
After backpacking for the last 37 years in the mountains of the Western US and Canada without taking a camera I decided it was time for the last trip of the summer to pack one in. Last Sunday I left for an 8 day trip into the Eastside of the Sierra (by the way it is not the Sierras but singular Sierra). Not a girly 35mm but one of the big boys. Big mistake. With tripod, lenses, camera and the ton of batteries that the digital back require, I figure 20 lbs. Add that to an already heavy pack and I'm thinking the whole thing was 65-70 lbs. I'm guessing as I don't have a scale, but just weighing things up in my head.
My original plan was to go up to Granite Park and over Italy Pass and drop into the Bear Creek from Lake Italy. The trail up to Granite Park is steep and the higher you go the crappier it becomes...marginal really as a trail at higher elevations, very rocky and difficult to follow. At Granite Park it peters out and the hike up to Italy Pass is without trail, the final push on top is often a scramble. I did this same route last year and it was problematic in dry conditions. The latest map in Wilson's Eastside mountain store in Bishop recommends not trying to go from Lake Italy to Bear Creek. I was going to anyway. This would have put me a long 2 and half days into the mountains.
The weight from the camera was unbearable, maybe 20 years ago it wouldn't have been. The first day I do 2500 vertical feet and I'm whupped. New plan is made. I will do another day and make it Granite Park and base camp there for awhile and then push over Italy Pass. I tell myself I'm never packing this much weight again as it is downright painful, I can't even cinch up the waistbelt tight enough to keep the pack on my hips. Both my hips are bruised after one day from how tight I need to make the belt. The camera has become a hated object.
And so I spend the next few days day tripping out of Granite Park as I couldn't face humping that load up another close to 1000 feet up to Italy Pass and that's not counting the 1000' drop down to the lake. On Thursday afternoon this is how the sky looked.
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394635-S.jpg">
That night I hear some splatters on the tent and go outside to take a leak, it's snowing. No big deal, I've winter camped, winter mountaineered, a ton of ski touring in the spring including some trans Sierra trips. The wind picks up...and picks up some more...and picks up some more. At one point in the night I'm pushing outward on the poles of the tent as I feel they are about to collapse. I took an ultralight three season tent and even though I guyed the hell out of it to the biggest rocks I could find I couldn't be sure it was going to hold together.
Morning comes and there's a lull in the storm.
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394338-S.jpg">
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394438-S.jpg">
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394514-S.jpg">
I make a plan to get the hell out as I don't know if it's going to be a one dayer or a four dayer storm. One long push out with snow still barrelling down on me. I don't know why I felt such a sense of urgency but I did. I decided to take a shortcut straight down the creek line instead of the crazy Forest Service trail that went up and over a ridge and back down again. I had taken this same route the day before and I knew what I was getting myself into and took it very slow. I only fell a few times there. I knew a broken leg or twisted ankle would uhhh....not be good. The 8-10" of snow made each step a guess...literally. Didn't know if there was something there or a hole. Would be solid or would it be icy. Creek crossings were fun too. What was a simple hop, hop, hop from rock to rock in dry became fraught with the thought of falling face down or waist high in icy water.
I fell maybe 50 times and with each came a great yell of a curse. Came within a inch of landing knee down on a knife point of rock.
But I made it. Threw the pack in the car and without looking back drove down the ten miles to 395 and stopped and got out. Pine Creek trailhead is behind me.
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394782-S.jpg">
Drove to Bishop, got a 59 dollar a night room, walked in and crawled under the covers and went to sleep.
The next day, the roads going back over the Sierra were closed. I was in the Ranger station in Bishop talking with the cute ranger about where I was going to stay that night. She said why don't you "Disperse Camp" out in the Buttermilk Mountains. I said what's that?..."Just go out there and camp anywhere you want as long as it says you can't.
So that's what I did....thought halfway through the night that maybe I should've worked a slightly different angle with her, but it was too late for that.
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205395062-L.jpg">
And so what I was cursing and swearing at...the weight of the camera kept me only one day out. A manageable one day out and not a desperate fight for days starting from a point much deeper in the mountains.
That is all.
My original plan was to go up to Granite Park and over Italy Pass and drop into the Bear Creek from Lake Italy. The trail up to Granite Park is steep and the higher you go the crappier it becomes...marginal really as a trail at higher elevations, very rocky and difficult to follow. At Granite Park it peters out and the hike up to Italy Pass is without trail, the final push on top is often a scramble. I did this same route last year and it was problematic in dry conditions. The latest map in Wilson's Eastside mountain store in Bishop recommends not trying to go from Lake Italy to Bear Creek. I was going to anyway. This would have put me a long 2 and half days into the mountains.
The weight from the camera was unbearable, maybe 20 years ago it wouldn't have been. The first day I do 2500 vertical feet and I'm whupped. New plan is made. I will do another day and make it Granite Park and base camp there for awhile and then push over Italy Pass. I tell myself I'm never packing this much weight again as it is downright painful, I can't even cinch up the waistbelt tight enough to keep the pack on my hips. Both my hips are bruised after one day from how tight I need to make the belt. The camera has become a hated object.
And so I spend the next few days day tripping out of Granite Park as I couldn't face humping that load up another close to 1000 feet up to Italy Pass and that's not counting the 1000' drop down to the lake. On Thursday afternoon this is how the sky looked.
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394635-S.jpg">
That night I hear some splatters on the tent and go outside to take a leak, it's snowing. No big deal, I've winter camped, winter mountaineered, a ton of ski touring in the spring including some trans Sierra trips. The wind picks up...and picks up some more...and picks up some more. At one point in the night I'm pushing outward on the poles of the tent as I feel they are about to collapse. I took an ultralight three season tent and even though I guyed the hell out of it to the biggest rocks I could find I couldn't be sure it was going to hold together.
Morning comes and there's a lull in the storm.
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394338-S.jpg">
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394438-S.jpg">
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394514-S.jpg">
I make a plan to get the hell out as I don't know if it's going to be a one dayer or a four dayer storm. One long push out with snow still barrelling down on me. I don't know why I felt such a sense of urgency but I did. I decided to take a shortcut straight down the creek line instead of the crazy Forest Service trail that went up and over a ridge and back down again. I had taken this same route the day before and I knew what I was getting myself into and took it very slow. I only fell a few times there. I knew a broken leg or twisted ankle would uhhh....not be good. The 8-10" of snow made each step a guess...literally. Didn't know if there was something there or a hole. Would be solid or would it be icy. Creek crossings were fun too. What was a simple hop, hop, hop from rock to rock in dry became fraught with the thought of falling face down or waist high in icy water.
I fell maybe 50 times and with each came a great yell of a curse. Came within a inch of landing knee down on a knife point of rock.
But I made it. Threw the pack in the car and without looking back drove down the ten miles to 395 and stopped and got out. Pine Creek trailhead is behind me.
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205394782-S.jpg">
Drove to Bishop, got a 59 dollar a night room, walked in and crawled under the covers and went to sleep.
The next day, the roads going back over the Sierra were closed. I was in the Ranger station in Bishop talking with the cute ranger about where I was going to stay that night. She said why don't you "Disperse Camp" out in the Buttermilk Mountains. I said what's that?..."Just go out there and camp anywhere you want as long as it says you can't.
So that's what I did....thought halfway through the night that maybe I should've worked a slightly different angle with her, but it was too late for that.
<img src="http://pkstudios.smugmug.com/photos/205395062-L.jpg">
And so what I was cursing and swearing at...the weight of the camera kept me only one day out. A manageable one day out and not a desperate fight for days starting from a point much deeper in the mountains.
That is all.
10-07-2007, 10:07 PM
#2
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Oh man . . . great story . . . I have a few the same. I have 6 peaks over 10K in the Sawtooth . ..
I have some video from Spiller Canyon. Did many a peak from Staton, Hunewill, Epidote, Kamiyaka, Grey Butte, Dunderberg, Virginia et al . . .
I made a solar battery charger that I brought with me. Easy slog as the pack train brought my eggs and beer . . .
great pics and story
I made a solar battery charger that I brought with me. Easy slog as the pack train brought my eggs and beer . . .
great pics and story
10-07-2007, 10:16 PM
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I love the names of Mountain Ranges like the Sawtooth, the Bitterroot, the Bugaboo and Monashee
Sangre de Cristo, the Caribou...the list goes on. Mountains are like my soul cleansers, I always, and I mean always come down a better person.
10-07-2007, 11:40 PM
#5
Whoa. Little adventures are part of the whole thing, eh? Really brings back memories, P.
Have done a bunch of trips in all seasons up in Desolation Wilderness. Never packed anything fancier than a point and click... usually disposables.
Never been caught with as drastic weather change as what you had. We were always prepared for snow camping, although one year the lake we were crossing didn't feel frozen enough and we scrambled back to the edge. Having to take the regular but now snow-covered trail was tough and slippery with the heavy winter packs and snowshoes.
Coldest trip ever was late October, though. Tried to squeeze one more fall trip in. Mostly dry, but we got some flurries and brutal whipping wind. Truly miserable.
But like you say, always better for it after you come back out.
Thanks for sharing.
Never been caught with as drastic weather change as what you had. We were always prepared for snow camping, although one year the lake we were crossing didn't feel frozen enough and we scrambled back to the edge. Having to take the regular but now snow-covered trail was tough and slippery with the heavy winter packs and snowshoes.
Coldest trip ever was late October, though. Tried to squeeze one more fall trip in. Mostly dry, but we got some flurries and brutal whipping wind. Truly miserable.
But like you say, always better for it after you come back out.
Thanks for sharing.
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10-08-2007, 09:35 AM
#8
AudiWorld Senior Member
Your are insane to carry a pack that heavy. I try to stay under 30lbs...
And even under 25lbs if I can. Although my trips are not usually 8 days. 
Sounds like a cool trip none-the less. I was just in that general area to summit Mt. Whitney (did it, but it was hard).
Sounds like a cool trip none-the less. I was just in that general area to summit Mt. Whitney (did it, but it was hard).
10-08-2007, 09:42 AM
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Yeah food is the thing that drives up the weight and now that the Forest Service is requiring
bear cannisters to be carried that adds a little less than three pounds per container. You can squeeze about 7-8 days in one container but you also supposed to place all scented items in there as well like sunblock, toothpaste, etc etc..
Hey I heard now you have to pack out your crap in the Whitney area.
Hey I heard now you have to pack out your crap in the Whitney area.
