SUPER SIERRA HIGH ROUTE | An Off-Trail Adventure From Yosemite to Whitney

[Music] oh i should have done splits before starting on this climb [Music] a high route is just like any other backpacking trip well kind of except for a few key differences the main one is that there's generally no trail just mountains timeless and indifferent to human travel and you walk through them like this [Music] or like this sometimes even like this [Music] so you have to navigate the old-fashioned way by reading the terrain features on a topographic map [Music] there's also a lot more elevation change on high routes up to twice as much per mile as you'd find on say the john muir trail as you might imagine high routes travel through remote terrain meaning it's likely you'll have the mountains all to yourself and of course the people you're with [Music] all of this adds up to an experience that is engaging and challenging offering true adventure and just a taste of real wilderness [Music] my name is dan stenziano and i like hiking in 2017 i hiked the pacific crest trail from canada to mexico and in 2019 the continental divide trail from mexico to canada in 2018 i attempted a section hike on the sierra high row but unfortunately was not successful partly due to lack of off-trail experience and partly due to trying it alone [Music] a funny thing that myself and many other hikers do while hiking is to daydream of other hikes for me these dream hikes have usually been more far-fetched and adventurous than the trip i was on at the time one that i kept coming back to was this idea of an extended high route that would span the whole length of the sierra nevada by connecting multiple existing routes the fruition of that idea is the subject of this film the first thing i did was enlist the company of some friends i'm armstrong from the san francisco bay area grew up hiking in the sierra and uh yeah why do you live in a van because i'm a dirtbag i don't know it's like why elsie doesn't want our biggest logistical task was figuring out where we were actually going to hike we knew the route would include the sierra high route which spans most of the length of the range but unfortunately excludes mount whitney and the dramatic high terrain of the southern sierra the solution to that problem was easy as the southern sierra high route connects to the sierra high row and extends past whitney to the southernmost point of the range on the northern end things were not quite as clear the sierra high route does reach into yosemite but we decided to extend the route to the northern boundary of the national park using a fairly new route called the yosemite high route the whole thing would be about 300 miles and we figured we'd need between three and four weeks to do it we called it the super sierra high route hello i'm here in yosemite national park about to start a very interesting and ambitious route got the pack loaded up with seven and a half days of food and a bear canister so feeling pretty heavy but yeah it's going to be an excellent adventure and i'm looking forward to seeing what the next three and a half weeks or so have in store [Music] the yosemite high route begins up in the northwest corner of the park an area that feels very wild and remote [Music] in fact it's unlikely that you'd ever be sharing places like this unnamed sandy lake with anyone but the local residents [Music] high routes are notorious for being extremely physically demanding but actually the terrain on our first couple days felt a bit like a warm-up for what was to come still it was hard work and by the end of day two i was really feeling it about to descend to our first camp well i guess our second camp at our first camp after our first full day on the high route down there at rock island lake fourth cross country pass of the day really kicked my butt i didn't think i was gonna make it 4 900 feet of vert today will be about 12 and a half miles [Music] our next destination is matterhorn pass which is right there how are we feeling about it excited excited i think it's going to be fun i think it's going to be spicy [Music] i'm hungry [Music] so we're here at the base of matterhorn pass we've got a thunderstorm threatening trying to find the best way up hopefully either the storm holds off or we can make it up and over before it starts because that's the last thing i want to be doing is down climbing class two or three loose garbage in the rain so fingers crossed so you're gonna hear me mention class two and three scrambling somewhat frequently in case you didn't already know class 1 means walking class 2 means scrambling where your hands are only used for balance a little like this class 3 means scrambling where your hands are supporting some of your weight maybe with a bit of exposure kind of like this yeah if you just like keep your left foot there drag your right foot down you'll find some solid stuff where you can put your right foot [Music] over there to the right south of virginia peak you can see our next pass which is stanton pass also class three yeah a thunderstorm has developed so we're pitched underneath stanton pass we were actually planning to push ahead beyond our schedule and go over stanton tonight but uh looks like that's not gonna happen but uh yeah lucky we didn't have to go down matterhorn in the rain because it was sketchy enough and it would have been it would have been uh unacceptably sketchy in the rain by day four it felt like the high route was in full swing the day started with a difficult climb up and over stanton pass which featured some tough scrambling near the top and opened up to a beautiful panoramic view days on a high route tend to follow a predictable pattern a handful of high passes connected by basins valleys or canyons [Music] [Laughter] [Music] we're on day five now by the way and aside from today we haven't seen any other hikers so if you ever want to get away from everyone and just have all the mountains to yourself then a high route is what you want anyway i am just getting behind on this climb better catch up we are on our way up to kuna crest specifically that saddle above the snow class two pals it is actually a bit sketchier than i thought as you can see up close it's very loose i've already sent some rock sliding so i'm just picking my way very carefully up it's true that it's only class two but it's loose cluster it's a little bit scarier than some of the class three i've been on but we'll get up it all right i made it to the top but my route up was basically idiotic so i moved some kind of big rocks and i should have taken the route i should have taken the route that the other guys took i'm gonna go ask them how it was for them so real quick tell us why what i did was stupid uh because there was an easier way i guess that basically sums it up [Music] my mishap on kuna crest reminded me that things can go wrong on a high route even on a seemingly routine class 2 pass much harder passes and peaks would come as we hiked further south culminating with a class iii climb up the tallest mountain in the lower 48 mount whitney [Music] it's really not every day that you're this close to a massive glacier like this that is the mcclure glacier very cool [Music] the area around the mcclure glacier was far and away the highlight of the yosemite high route for me we spent a good amount of time up close and personal with the glacier if you've never tried drinking unfiltered glacial melt i highly recommend it [Music] the mcclure glacier is situated right beneath our main pass of the day russell pass the guide author describes this north side of russell pass as primal a world of nothing but rock and ice got to be careful on this stuff but very slowly because it's as you can see it's pretty loose [Music] the ascent was straightforward but the other side was very loose loose scree can be scary or fun depending on who you ask [Music] [Applause] [Music] nice alrighty so we are on our fourth and final pass of the day it's right there blue lake pass the rock is so unstable here south of tuolumne it's just been really bad way more unstable than the first part of the route i'm just tired i need a zero day [Music] we were nearing the end of the first leg of our journey south to mount whitney we had just transitioned from the yosemite high route to the sierra high route which would lead us to our first resupply in red's meadow something we were all very ready for our last two days featured tons of beautiful stuff like lake catherine nestled high away between banner peak and mount ritter [Music] i remember saying to armstrong and mudslide on day one that if i could make it through the first resupply i could make it all the way to whitney to be perfectly honest i didn't even know if i would be able to handle a route like this because i had failed on a high route attempt in the past completing this one felt far from guaranteed so on our eighth day i felt a great sense of accomplishment and a hopefulness for the rest of the route as we hiked around the beautiful minarets and finally into red's meadow for a well-earned zero day [Music] so hello there after a nice and restful zero day at reds meadow we are back on the high row um starting off with something very silly this very steep pumice filled gully that really is meant for northbounders because you're supposed to sort of ski down it and uh it's going to prove to be it's proving to be very annoying for us going up it so this should be a good fun start to our next leg of the super sierra high row but soon we'll be up on the mammoth crest which has some nice views why is it that the sierra high route is better hiked northbound because we could have skied this instead of slogged up it ah that was rather disappointing for the next six days we would be hiking on the sierra high route from reds meadow to our next resupply in bishop we were really starting to find our stride now the navigation felt smoother and the miles came just a little bit easier the views continued to impress and inspire so all in all the hiking was going great and thankfully we were all still enjoying each other's company too so who's relieved to be a shout of relief pass can i get some shouts of relief i relieved myself this morning no longer did the high route feel like some great challenge to be overcome but rather an opportunity to bask in the glory of the sierra and spend our precious limited time enjoying the mountains [Music] if i could name one thing that characterizes this section of the route it would be the incredible lakes that dot the alpine basins one that stands out is lake italy which marks the halfway point of the section it is a massive alpine lake a hiker on the high route will walk along its shore for over a [Music] mile [Music] [Music] so this lovely lake here is white bear lake up at the top of white bear pass the guidebook author steve roper says that this is one of the most remote places in the high sierra i don't know exactly what he means by that but definitely feels remote up here very lonely very isolated but it sure is [Music] beautiful [Music] [Music] my ass is wet i thought you would need to know your ass is grass thank you for that contribution good morning standing in front of our first obstacle of the day puppet pass it doesn't look particularly difficult but it will be a bunch of tedious talus and it's fairly steep but we're going to get to climb in the shade so that's nice later today we will have snow tongue pass which is supposed to be one of the hardest passes if not the hardest pass on the high route so i think we're all a tiny bit nervous about it but we'll see how it goes later so i just crossed over the paiute pass trail and that is significant because in 2018 on my attempted section hike of this part of the sierra hiro i bailed on the paiute pass trail to the jmt because i just crossed the glacier divide which is lies just ahead over alpine coal which is actually an easier supposedly easier alternate to the actual sierra high route which goes over snow tongue pass there are multiple ways you can cross the glacier divide at the time i found alpine coal very difficult and a little bit traumatic and uh after i had gone over that and gotten down here into humphreys basin i decided i didn't want any more cross-country travel so yeah i bailed but this year after crossing paiute pass trail i'm gonna continue on and cross snow tongue pass the pass i was too afraid to try the first time around it just goes to show you that the more you do this kind of stuff the more comfortable you get and the more capable you become that's why you chose a gray route nothing go ahead [Music] i'm gonna get ahead of you before you go over me here i guess this uh small patch is all that's left of the snow tongue this year up there is the pass this class [Music] armstrong found some interesting not quite on route class three rock might be preferable to the loose stuff honestly if you saw the route ahead you'd think this is on route holy no i'm stuck so are you having fun yet oh yeah absolutely this is a little bit in the type 2 category for me type one except for when you're like plowing up the dirt loose that's just like getting in your shoes then it's tight this nice yeah i hugged the right just seemed easier [Music] successfully ascended snow tongue pass this one is going firmly on my never again list but uh glad that i saw it through and made it to the top given the choice between this and alpine coal i would choose alpine coal and i thought that was horrible at the time yeah coming up from wahoo lakes makes you a wahoo i think yeah but that's a safe conclusion that last part was nice standing on a bunch of hopes and dreams whose hopes and dreams were you standing on my own [Music] here's a familiar view for me and probably for a lot of you this is a view from mere pass we've got a few more miles to do on the jmt which should be very pleasant nice change of pace from the high route and then we'll be taking the bishop pass trail i think that's what it's called up over bishop pass and to south lake and then we'll have another zero day in bishop so this stretch is winding down after climbing snow tongue pass i felt like our group could handle just about anything and i was excited not worried about the challenges that would come on the southern sierra high route big class 3 climbs like mount sil and the mountaineers route on mount whitney lay ahead but now the mountains felt like home and i was connecting and engaging with the landscape more than ever are you ready for the spiciest section of the super series this is the spiciest section yeah this should be pretty spicy we were off on the southern sierra high route starting with a couple of easier cross-country passes knapsack pass and potluck pass the spiciness would begin the following morning with a side trip up 14 000 foot mount sill hello there it is 8 30 in the morning and we're on our way up to mount sil and it is supposed to have the best summit view of any peak in the sierra so we'll see i've said it before i try not to have expectations but this should be pretty good so we'll [Music] see [Music] so here is our final ascent to the top of mount sil it has taken a long time to get up here we've dropped our packs and now we're going for the last who knows to 300 feet might be a little bit of class 3 scrambling here as you can see mudslide doing [Music] [Music] [Music] so there's armstrong and mudslide up on the top of 14 100 foot mount sill panning over here we can just make out the tongue of the palisade glacier down there just wish there was a little less smoke it was very fun though even though it was a long slog but the views in every direction are pretty great september 1st 2020 via southwest slope from the southern sierra high road part of our super sierra high road project standing on top of mount sil was a wonderful feeling exposed and airy unlike anything we'd experienced on the route thus far for the rest of our route we would be brushing the highest reaches of the sierra basically never dipping below 10 000 feet the southern sierra contains the tallest peaks and the most dramatic and exciting terrain in the range and it had only just begun [Music] down there is lower palisade lake never seen it from this vantage point before we are headed down to the jmt for some easy miles it'll be nice to just get some cruiser miles in we're probably going to night hike over math or pass because uh mount sil just took way longer than anticipated longer than the guidebook suggested it would so yeah cirque pass which is right after it wasn't too bad though good to be in the sierras that's awesome bighorn sheep sighting um we have left the jmt after pinchot pass on our way up to uh the call between mouse cedric wright and coliseum peak actually for many years this area was closed to all human activity even cross-country travel because it was critical bighorn sheep habitat but i wasn't expecting to see one like immediately upon entering this area so i made it up to the call it's called coliseum call by the way from here you can actually see quite a bit of our route moving forward our next objective is that peak right there that is mount baxter and uh what we're going to do is cross a basin and some lakes and stuff and then we will gain the north ridge of mount baxter which is supposed to be easier than it looks the whole thing is supposed to be only class 2. it looks rather imposing so we are ascending to that ridge i mentioned the north ridge of baxter our objective is this chute right here it looks steep and a little bit loose but that'll take us to the ridge which we can then take right to the summit when you're trying to make miles you don't always make the smartest decisions we started up mount baxter late in the afternoon naive to how difficult the climb would be as it turned out the chute was extremely loose and the ridge that was described in the guide as solid was anything but imagine trying to climb a 600 foot pile of broken chunks of sidewalk you like the beacon nope we tried to get up as fast as we could but by the time we arrived at the summit it was almost 7 30 and we were losing light fast one thing we did know was that the descent was not going to be any easier if you've never descended a steep loose talus slope by headlamp i definitely do not recommend it so let me tell you about what happened last night uh had a little bit of an adventure so first off mount baxter is tough uh the the guidebook makes it sound easier than it is definitely some hard class two class three moves that are kind of exposed right near the summit it was sketchy as hell um beautiful views though i mean i get probably not too many people get to see sunset from up there because you know if you're sane and you planned your day well then you wouldn't be up there at sunset anyway uh yeah i'm gonna get walking [Music] if it seemed like our struggle on mount baxter came out of nowhere that's because it did things had been going smoothly for so long i had let my guard down but high routes always have the potential to throw you a curveball i will admit the incident had shaken my confidence a bit if baxter which is technically only rated class 2 gave us this much trouble what was the mountaineers route on mount whitney going to be like [Music] so right now we are hiking on the old jmt we are on our way up to junction pass which is where the jmt used to go uh before with this trail was decommissioned in favor of the newer forester pass that they blasted out of the rock little taste of history this morning right over there just one basin over from us is forester pass do you recognize it it's really fun to get a different view of these places that i've seen and hiked several times on the jmt and pct because you see these other places when you're hiking up on those trails and sometimes you wonder about them so it's cool to like get to experience these areas surrounding this trail that i've become so familiar with i'm enjoying it even though i am sucking wind going up to junction pass it's a 13 000 foot pass just like forester [Music] we were now just a day's hike from mount whitney the most exciting landmark on the entire route and also the most imposing [Music] these ancient pine trees are so cool i'm really appreciating this section it's also extremely easy the travel is excellent through here just wide open and flat easy navigation easy walking today is shaping up to be a good day [Music] teleno lake is simply incredible it's ju it's a massive high elevation lake nestled in this basin with no inlet or no outlet we are pretty close to 13 000 feet and to see a lake of this size it's just unbelievable today's gonna be a fun day it's whitney day our next objective is right there russell carry on coal class three climb [Music] [Music] [Music] we have reached what you could say is the crux of the southern sierra hiro the mountaineers route up to the summit of mount whitney you can get a good picture of at least the beginning of the route here an ascent of that gully up to that notch and then you'll go around the other side up to the summit feeling good feeling good um what does that mean me hungry [Music] so [Music] said some of the whitney how does it feel great super saver high row almost in the bag almost there now we head out that way we did it we had climbed mount whitney after hiking high route style all the way from yosemite all that remained was a roughly 20 mile jaunt through the rest of the southern sierra well the super sierra high route is winding down we are on our way out of the sierra sadly it's our last day man what a crazy adventure this has been i at the start of it i didn't even know if i would make it through the first resupply let alone all the way three and a half weeks of hard cross-country travel i can't believe tell you the truth i almost can't believe i did it we did it can't believe we did it gonna miss the sierras beautiful place [Music] done [Music] final entry on the super sierra high row this is cottonwood lakes trailhead and this is the end 300 mile high route through the high sierra from yosemite to whitney and beyond [Music] i need to go get some food [Music] you finished the super sierra hiro how do you feel hungry no yeah that's how we feel [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: Dan Stenziano

Views: 84,607

Rating: 4.9695396 out of 5

Keywords: sierra high route, yosemite high route, southern sierra high route, yhr, shr, soshr, ultralight backpacking, backpacking documentary, sierra high route documentary, dan stenziano, super sierra high route, high sierra, adventure film, adventure short film, backpacking short film, off trail backpacking, off trail hiking, mt. whitney, mountaineer's route, mt. sill, snow-tongue pass

Id: MMvnoaATyA4

Length: 46min 36sec (2796 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 21 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/StefvanZoggel]

Awesome video. Epic Hike. Congrats.

(Quick reddit related Q - I'm new to this and can't seem to post a video so it shows up in-feed like yours, only a tiny thumbnail that takes you off to YT. Any advice on how to post it like yours? thanks!)

[u/Hikingindepth]

Good suggestion, very different from what Kraig has already posted.