Thursday, September 29, 2011

Half Dome

My buddy Tim wanted to go to Yosemite to take pictures and I wanted exercise, so we headed out and hiked 30 miles in two days.

Half Dome - September 2011 at EveryTrail

Starting out before the sun

Sunrise coffee break

At the top!

Nevada Falls

More pics coming soon!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

San Gorgonio Summit from South Fork

Kyle, who I'd met coming back from San Jacinto last month, planned a hike up San Gorgonio via Vivian Creek. We met up early in the morning and drove to the ranger station. When we arrived, there was a notice that the Vivian Creek trail had reached its quota, so we had to choose another route. We got a permit for South Fork to summit via Dollar Lake Saddle, a brutal 20.6 miles roundtrip with an elevation gain of 4,750ft to the summit at 11,500ft. This was the single longest trek I'd ever done, and pretty much hated life by the end of it. Still, a very very rewarding experience and I'm very glad to have done it!

San Gorgonio Summit from South Fork at EveryTrail

We started promptly at 7am, going at a fast clip until we slowed down before the Saddle. The rest of the way up was slower going, but the trail itself isn't particularly steep. We summitted by 12:45, and headed back down at 1:30. The last 4 miles were the worst. We kept tripping on all the loose rock on the trail, and I'm very glad I had my poles. We got back to the car at 6:30pm and I was enjoying my double-double with spicy peppers an hour later!

Starting out at South Fork

We were really booking it for the first several miles. It was hard going for me with 5 liters of water on my back!

Meadow with a neat picnic area.

Popping out of the trees to reveal the blue sky

First decent view of the summit. It didn't seem that far off...

Lots of shade on the way up, at least until we hit 10,000ft.

It was weird to keep going up after seeing the elevation posting. Guess I'm too used to Baldy!

Looking back down at Dry Lake

The summit (on the left) slowly getting closer...

The last half-mile before the summit

At the summit, looking south toward San Jacinto

Chipmunk begging for food

Kyle and the chipmunk share a quiet moment

Tired, but not as tired as I'd be by the end.

Cool placard found in an ammo box at the summit

Heading back down, the rocks in the trail got tiresome after a while.

Post-hike reward of a double-double with spicy peppers!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

San Jacinto Solo Summit Attempt - Success!

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My second solo summit attempt in the snow; made it! I took almost the same route as last time with Lee, but swung further north and ended up trudging almost straight up Miller Peak's slope toward San Jacinto Peak. It was arduous.

Pics coming soon!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

San Jacinto Snowshoe Summit

View 3/26/11 San Jacinto Snowshoe Summit in a larger map

For those of you who don't have Google Earth as a browser plugin

everytrail.com graphs here

Determined to summit in the snow, I invited my friend Lee (who's in way better shape and has a ton of experience) to go with me snowshoeing for the day. We took the first tram up at 8am and made it to the summit by 12:15pm. A few technical difficulties aside, I felt I did alot better this week than last. Still, the altitude was definitely affecting me and there were many times I had to stop to let my heartrate come back down.

As good as it felt to summit, it was so ridiculously cold and windy up there that we were only up for maybe a minute before dropping back down the east side and it was pleasant.

Last week, I brought snowshoes but it turned out crampons would've been much more appropriate on the ice. This week, I brought crampons and snowshoes and didn't use the crampons at all.

There was a lot of fresh snow in the last week which made snowshoes more practical.

We were making great time at first; roughly 1.8 miles an hour, which in snowshoes is pretty good for me.

High winds...

Stopping to take in the view on the way up

Miller Peak, facing east

Some cool-looking tree. We stopped here for lunch on the way back down later.

Trudging up

Almost there!

Just below the summit. You can see which way the wind blows up here.

At the summit! Man it was freezing!

Trudging back down

We stopped by that cool tree and Lee got his camping stove out and melted some ice and made miso soup. It felt so good to have something hot to drink!

Hot miso soup!

We packed up and headed back. I thought we made pretty decent time, especially after my snail-paced return last weekend.

Once we got back down near the stream, the sky cleared up.

We made it back just in time to catch the 4pm tram back down.

The Stats

Total distance - 7.74mi
Hike start - 8:31am
Hike end - 3:37pm
Average Speed - 1.1mph
Moving Speed - 1.8mph
Actual hiking - 4:24
Stopped time - 2:42
Elapsed time to summit - 3:14 (6 miles)
Elevation - 8300ft - 10,800ft (2,500ft)

Friday, March 18, 2011

San Jacinto Solo Summit Attempt - Aborted

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I was originally supposed to go hiking with the Los Angeles Hiking Meetup Group, but I was short on time and concerned for the weather and decided to take the first tram up and do what I could. Not knowing the terrain well enough, going solo, and getting caught in a whiteout added to a slightly more stressful hike than I'm used to, but I survived. :)

I ended up ascending to over 10,200ft. Not bad for still having a cold. I did about 6.8 miles roundtrip but it took almost 6 hours. I just couldn't go faster with the ice.

At the lower tram station

Once at the top, I noticed how different the conditions were from the last time I was there. The snow, once powdery and soft, was now frozen over into an awkward lumpy ice that was impossible for snowshoes. I also realized that there was no clear direction to hike. Fortunately there was a guy, named Bob, who checked in at the ranger station just before me and I started following him. He was a bit of a weird one and at one point turned around and said "oh, I didn't know you were still following me. I'm just kinda wandering around aimlessly." We parted ways at the lower end of Round Valley, where I picked up the trail from the seasonal ranger station.

Bob "leading" me

Lower end of Round Valley

I started following these guys

I was starting to wonder about this

I remember swinging left around this mountain the last time I summited and I was following a group that was stubbornly pushing up the steepest part of the peak. I stopped for a break and weighed my options. I could've continued up and hoped to find the main trail to the summit, or turn back. As I was sitting there, I notice clouds overhead and the winds picking up. The clouds were moving in. I decided, especially since I was alone, that I'd turn back. Good thing too, because I was about to get trapped in my first whiteout.

The point of return

My first whiteout

Thankfully I was able to follow my GPS track back down. There were so many impromptu trails made from boots and snowshoes that it was hard to tell where to go. There were several times I checked the GPS track to find that I'd wandered away and hadn't even realized it.

The weather started to clear a bit and once I found the stream, I knew it'd be easy to make my way back.

The weather changed for the better

The stream I followed back

Back at the bottom

Elevation/Distance

Speed/Time

Sunday, March 6, 2011

REI Snowshoeing Class - San Jacinto

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Our first REI Outdoor class, and it was AMAZING. We took the "Intro to Snowshoeing" class and the instructors were really knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. I spent a lot of time talking with Michael, one of the two instructors, and he said I was running around "like a kid in a candy store" in the snow. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun. I loved every second of the experience and I can't wait to get out there again!