A stunning route you've never heard of | Yosemite High Route

I suck at this I am bushwhacking too much this is a pretty freakin big navigational hair friends today is Sunday September 29th 2019 I am about to start my approach to the Yosemite high R at the southern section so I'm starting out of Glacier Point actually that's where my permit is so today I'm gonna get to Glacier Point from 4 mile trail and then from Glacier Point I'm gonna cut on over to little Yosemite Valley where I'm camping tonight but it's a cold morning probably gonna be a really cool trip I really only have one objective which is don't die alright so what is the Yosemite high rat well it is a 94 mile stretch and it Li goes from Grace meadow at the northern terminus down to quartzite Peak Clark Canyon which is the southern terminus so I'm gonna be starting from the southern terminus and doing half of it to Tuolumne Meadows and probably won't see anybody for a while once I leave the trail [Music] okay it's 3:15 I am here at the campground this is little Yosemite Valley good morning it is the morning of day two I'm getting up to have an early start because I think once I hit the off trail sections it's really hard to know how long it'll take wow this Hector Merced Lake is really sweet here's between these giant granite cliffs [Music] what a nice set of stairs [Music] that is the southern terminus of the Yosemite Hiero here we are officially going off trail okay I consulted the map again and I decided I'm gonna go up two slabs through the forest because this bit is probably gonna be a bit more push wacky okay it's not stirring well I went through these bushes the next time I'm gonna just try and stay on the slabs cause the bushwhacking really sucks okay I suck at this I am bushwhacking too much I need her down to one of the slabs I'm figuring if I get really close to this cliff here then it's gonna miss this Lobby and not pushy it's been an hour I've made it a quarter of a mile Oh on the map this part looks easy glad I got out of that and up that way is Clarke cannon okay so this is Clark engine traveling is a lot easier than that bushwhacking I had to do earlier of course that peak is right there behind me and it's just about noon so I guess it's a little bit cold here yeah I should've gone off the slabs it's much faster I made it this is quartzite peak [Music] here's the low register [Music] I just counted all the entries in the summit register and the 19th person to do the us somebody hi Brown good job everybody I'm sure some people have done the hi route without sounding Quartzsite peak but it's it's worth it time to get down safely if this part is never as fun as going up so coming down this and I see the route going that way all right here we go that's obelisk Lake ourselves a beach I'm gonna keep going over there [Music] so day two wrapped up nice and early I actually moved faster than I expected over off trail terrain okay and there we have eliminate that mess in case you can't tell it's a little bit cold it's still bright outside but I have nothing else better to do but to stay warm good morning it's day 3 5:45 a.m. there was a cold night it's really hard to force yourself to sleep especially when it's like not comfortable [Music] all right it's 7:00 a.m. I'm about to get started I'm gonna go over a lemonade pass it was a slow morning today but that's all right I see the route and that's my route it seems like a class-3 scramble here definitely needs my handholds and to check every rock to make sure that it's actually solidly anchored [Music] and on top of lemonade pass well I guess there's another set of lectures on the right here and once I get down to there then I can just cross on over okay almost two hours getting close to Adair lake just a lot of tellus just came down from there okay from afar going through the brush look like a good idea but I'm glad I chose to go slab cuz of clothes that is pretty thick sweet snow okay it's almost 10:30 there all right this is the top of soup ass wow this is beautiful just so raw out here not a single person out here except for me do you hear those birds it's 1250 look what I found I hit the trail perfectly I'm already kind of bored I would have just taken the most efficient route through here instead of whining around on the trail you know I like about the high routes pirates make me feel like I've actually done all the work to get up there instead of having a trail that takes me to the top so it just feels so much better look back and see all the crap that I cross to get there the only thing that makes it type too fun to be honest is that it gets cold at night sleeping is the type to fun ordinarily I would do this on the go but obviously I'd have a camera in my hand so one two three four five so I'm gonna go down the trail a little bit and then resume my off trail to get to Harriet Lake there's just some ice fall over there see that that's person sheet of ice wow what a treat this is so nice all right I think this is gonna be a good night it was a long day but it was a lot of fun it's 5:45 a.m. rise and shine tonight was definitely the coldest night I slept really well because of this nice campsite I picked out it was nice and flat and protected from the wind in case Oh drop down to 16 degrees in my tent oh it's a cold morning nothing like hiking to get warmed up yep water's frozen well there's Forester peak the first rays of sunshine I found footprints somebody came down this okay there's Forester peak looking right in the Sun and there's Mount Ansel Adams's that way towards that little lake well I'm walking up the ridge to see if there's a nicer way down um still looks fairly steep my original spot was spot on I thought maybe a little bit further to the northwest side I'd find something that wasn't as steep but I was wrong it was more steep so back I go clearly news okay slow go pass is in view what descent from Forester pass okay there's the real slow go pass this is the bowl and then that's the pass over there I mean on top of slow go pass all right I'm headed up there and through there Wow I'm pretty impressed my route finding exactly where I want to be I'm really thirsty we're gonna go up there and then there's a lake up there I'm part way to the base Russell Pass had to go up that way fortunately I see a bunch of slabs there it is okay here's my plan I'm gonna go left of the snow go up this lab probably go through those rocks and then go up there okay I just try to climb up the slab but my feet got wet here and then had no traction here so I had it down climb it that's too sketchy I shouldn't be doing like class five moves okay well I'm at a saddle okay no Brasher that really is Russell pass there should Dan climb in just Nick camp making bad decisions here this is a pretty freaking big navigational error I I can't believe it we're on the wrong side of this Cathedral range man and I thought I was doing so well with my navigation and stuff so you got slapped in the face well it's 4:30 I'm gonna make camp [Music] [Music] good morning I just put my glasses on so they can start to defog a little bit it's a cold night glad to be getting up soon and the first thing that I'm gonna do is deflate my pad and it's now bright enough for me to attempt Russell Pass it's really loose up here so I'm trying to stick close to the big rocks that are actually Pilot Mountain okay so that's Maclure glacier this is a glacial lake and there's the glacier you can see a couple of like these receded a lot all right get some slabs going down there here's what I love to see like big rocks it's easier to hop on a big rock than the little guys cuz you're not sure that the little guys are stable I just joined John Muir Trail at the base of Donahue pass so now I'm gonna climb up towards Donahue pass and then I'll cut away from it one day haven't seen a single person maybe I'll see somebody - well I guess I'm going off trail have the fortune of seeing two people to slap wall well I just came down to slab wall well I guess that's it for the Tallis too bad I'm getting comfortable with it but actually my legs are really tired from it you know what I think it's like interesting I just found some sort of trail okay here's the final stretch it's not as easygoing as a trail but ok it's 5 o'clock I'm still next to the highway and one dog lake trail now hopefully we'll be getting to told me better soon so I can try to get a ride before people leave I think if I wasn't in a rush to get there Tommy Meadows I would have enjoyed that last couple of off trail miles a lot more well it's 5:45 p.m. on Thursday October 3rd I am officially down at the US Fe High Route the southern loop [Music]

Channel: Hiking Nerd

Views: 21,200

Rating: 4.9414635 out of 5

Keywords: yosemite high route, yhr, yosemite national park, backcountry, offtrail, off-trail, hiking, hike, hiker, backpacking, backpack, camp, camping, highcountry, multi-day, high route, andrew skurka, trip report, adventure, sierra high route, quartzite peak, russell pass, sue pass, foerster pass, donohue pass, john muir trail, jmt, trail, fall, autumn, 3 season, tuolumne meadows, yosemite valley, glacier point, four mile trail, south loop, north loop, scramble, talus, section

Id: n7y0v2ykRTg

Length: 19min 42sec (1182 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 09 2019