Thru-Hiking Roper's Sierra High Route

we are climbing up mile one of the sierra high route it is very hot that's all i got to say about that we're about 500 feet into our six thousand foot climb it's 99 degrees at least the views nice out yeah anyway that's neil feeling good having fun we're leaving the trail [Music] there's some cool mountains over there some cool mountains over there just some clouds put some clouds up there everything's good this is our campsite on night one of the high route grass lake this is grouse lake we're approaching goat crest saddle which i think is that one where the sun's coming through that's our second high route pass so far so good definitely off trail is slow and hard according to roper this section is remarkably easy so there's that there we are goat crest saddle neat pretty neat so head down goat crest saddle palisades over there this is the first thing that roper describes as steep so we're gonna see a bit tricky a bit a bit tricky so yeah we'll see what that means well this is what we just came up i mean came down um yeah i would say the first steep pass really wasn't that bad i feel much more relaxed now i was pretty nervous for that and that felt super doable feeling a lot better about the super stuff we have ahead this is pass number three of the trip and three of the day gray pass not much of a pass we're approaching white pass that one wow wow [Applause] whoa sweet dude we're almost down to marion lake which is maybe the bluest lake i've ever seen and this is what's between us and the lake it's rather steep oh we made it down and it is still just as blue as it looks from up there wow okay so we're actually not camping at marion lake the we got there and mosquitoes were terrible which um you know we could deal with but then we figured out the ants are even worse and how bad ants have to be to be worse than mosquitoes this is bad so bad they have to be so bad they're just they're on everything there's all my shoes i remember yeah and they got bit on the penis we're approaching frozen lake pass climbing out of lakes basin over there that's what we came down yesterday evening there past the snow patch right up that little chute there looks very steep where heading up this bowl then left and right under those cliffs up that chute rupper says this is one of the two or three most difficult sections of the high root i hope he's right i actually i moved to climber's left yeah i mean it's a little looser than the talus below but um it feels a little more secure than the than the scree if you test the rocks beforehand yeah yeah okay i'm gonna go climbers right okay cool nice so this is the pass i think i see a used trail going down there which is not the way we went so i think we just sandbagged ourselves this is our walk of shame we came up something over there it's like very burly class 3 with some class 4 moves in there uh and this is the pretty easy use trail that we could have just bombed up if we had seen it pretty much invisible from down there yeah it was a gross experience all right chase does you know dropping according to the guidebook the side of the pass is far more rugged than the side we came up which had us shaking in our boots because we were already terrified coming up and then we found out that we went the wrong way and the way up and the way down are both way chiller than what we had originally done so that's that's a great feeling all right i'm coming down [Applause] alright let's go let's go you know dropping that's amazing actually this is pretty good we are back on the jmt we just came down frozen lake pass which is that little notch right in there and then down to a little lake there then across that ridge through the basin down there and now we're here oh yeah this thing's super doable yeah that goes that was cool all right we're on top of potluck pass right pog all right and storms coming in looks like all right it uh just started hailing so we're trying to book it down to our campsite for the night oh i think on our way up towards mir pass this is quite a climb mirror pass victory pizza never tasted so good it's probably hard to see but there's a bald eagle flying up there over just playing around over your pass dropping down into that volusion valley after a very very long day we've been walking for about 12 hours about 23 miles now maybe got about four more to go snow tongue pass tomorrow today is the day snow tongue pass kind of hoping that the miles leading up to it would be uh pretty pretty chill warm up but tiger lily look at that that is a nice flower but it's trying to be i think one of the most mentally exhausting parts of the trip because it's just traversing this very forested slope let's go up and down to avoid all these little obstacles so it's been like surprisingly tiring mentally and physically so really tired i'd like to be feeling a little sharper than this for snow tongue which i think theoretically is the hardest part of the whole hike so yeah gonna take a break and eat a lot of food and help feel better you're out of purgatory snow tank pass isn't quite visible from here but it's pass to the right of this double piece mountain there there it is there oh that's pretty steep that is pretty steep okay cool well that looks terrifying okay so we're at the notch that roper describes in the book i think it's still fairly steep i definitely you can see how the biggest hazard is going to be loose rock you all right yes wowie well that makes me feel better about this [Applause] good stuff hey we decided to stop and bivvy for a while um maybe cook some dinner and keep hiking after that storm's getting closer lupin is incredible right now it's so fragrant every time a breeze blows it's like everything smells like flowers here we are on the top of puppet pass as if we couldn't get any more scenic [Music] making our way up to feather pass this is in that notch over there definitely heavily challenged first thing in the morning so i just realized that that's not in fact a feather path so i have to backtrack across this terrible talisfield this is white bear lake it's a good lake it's a good lake we're on our way up to lake italy here we are on the shores of lake italy which roper describes as fundamentally ugly or whatever i'm not sure i agree he must have been having a really bad day when he got to this part very dark clouds behind but i think they're moving away from us just started hailing let's grab it pass that's where we're going but not right now not right there right there now right now presumably there's lightning it's hail no it's snow it's snowing yeah whoa yeah it is it's like halfway between snow and hail snailing snailing all right vivian chill defcon 5. the tarp is holding up admirably my completely unbiased opinion that was like two seconds last one was three so turns out the storm was not moving away from us as i initially predicted i saw that one hit excuse me the bolt was like like i think it hit gathered pass maybe so glad we didn't grow up at all we want to do uh lunch ramen but we need water so we're gonna go and brave the elements bravent it's very scary outside here we go this is when you need a wide mouth street home so worth it i think the storm has passed we got about i don't know how much this is but i guess it's snow but the tarp held up great we're dry we've had a nice nap ready to head on to gap it pass remember when we went swimming earlier today yeah we're on gavit pass now this is the last pass over 12 000 feet on the whole high round it feels kind of fitting to do it in the snow pretty cool nice wow it's nice who's silly now so those two peaks the little double peak way in the distance there that's ritter and banner and that's where we're headed eventually [Applause] check that out stage we're going down into the second recess it's supposed to follow a used trail that keeps some distance from the creek so between zero and infinity feet thanks for that steve heading up to laurel lake and then big horn pass and shot of relief pass [Music] [Music] all right shout out relief nice nice down there looks nice and not steep we uh left duck lake this morning and right now we are walking along the sierra crest um this is this section is called the mammoth crest because it's above mammoth where we'll be going to pick up our food for the next leg that's banner and ritter up there looking much closer than they did last time from gabit pass was that the first time we saw him first time we saw gabit yeah yeah [Music] so neil has some stuff going on with his achilles so he's gonna stop at mammoth um which means it's kind of just me from now on this will be interesting definitely wish you know we're feeling well enough to continue but part of me is excited about having a intense solo experience we'll see if i feel that way in a couple days [Music] about five or six days to get to the end at twin lakes so it's gonna be a lot of me talking to myself so it's gonna get weird well i'm back on trail after mammoth and this begins the solo portion of my hike i'm gonna try to make it to red's meadow tonight maybe devil po post pile maybe devil's pop pop post pile i love devil's post pile okay so that wasn't devil's post file because devil's post palace that way go ahead foiled again there you are you sly devil this is my first morning alone on the trail it uh section reminds me of washington oh it's on my nose blood i don't know anyway oh it's chocolate this is nancy pass i i think i don't know it could be that one it's not really clear the gps and the map i had a lot of mosquitoes you're old man the gps and the map disagree it has different mountains labeled the same name so it's very confusing all right let's see what happens i am at the top of whatever path that was it's pretty whatever it is so just remember yesterday i was like oh i'll probably be at banner and ritter in like two or three days nope yeah there they are banner ritter i'm going to keep getting i'm confused now my next objective is white bark pass which i think is that more or less so i'm going to go up this basin here and double back up the shelf pop over the bridge hopefully i can get there before storm materializes i don't know this could go either way this is just the loveliest meadow so lovely it's a pretty cool tree it's a white bark pine thousand island lake getting pretty close to yosemite here oh hey banner hey raider this is scary looking i'm gonna go down there maybe set up camp i don't know or set up a baby just in case the storm comes in because i think i'm going somewhere up there next and that is not where i want to be right now it's so cozy it's so cozy listen to that approaching lake pass it's that little notch there it's about seven o'clock storm's over obviously i could go until eight maybe get a couple more miles and apparently the next spot is kind of supposed to be hard route finding so definitely don't want to do that in the dark i just came down these cliffs here like through there it wasn't as bad as it looks but it was still a little heady considering it's getting late and the rocks are wet i'm ready to be in in the tent so that all took a lot longer than i was anticipating it's really hoping to get down to the meadow that's 400 500 vertical feet below me but i don't think it's gonna happen i already slept a couple times and i think if i keep going i'm gonna hurt myself so i'm gonna stop so tiring day first full day alone yeah just like a lot of unexpected kind of heady sketchy stuff today i don't know i just feel so much more exposed like so much more risky okay see how the next few days go but i'm not like ready for it to be over but i will be relieved when i have finished safely i think that's where i'm at right now it'll be good to get sleep now good morning folks it's six a.m i just started walking this is where i woke up not bad not bad at all and uh yeah this slope seems much more manageable than it did last night in the dark so feeling good about that we'll see how far yet today maybe maybe 12 millimeters i don't know it'd be cool it'd be a big day but a lot of it's trail so um i think it'll be pretty pretty smooth going once i get through the first section which apparently is kind of tricky chocolate on the nose again blood blood nice chocolate okay okay gonna walk now so this is what i came down this morning started way up there went down to the top of the waterfall first left maybe i went across that i might have gone that way anyway this is kind of steep but it's pretty fun i just got a little too close to this rock here it's quite sharp there's a little clump of my hair that took off here's the little scrape kind of gross actually anyway go back to the earth that's bench canyon down there looks pretty nice i'm just gonna drop down and and walk back up just slip on some wet grass and snap my pole not stoked about it um all right i guess i'll have to deal with one let's go to the top of the lake pass this blue lake it's pretty blue it's not the bluest like i've seen it was very nice just crossed the boundary into yosemite it's the clark range up there 12 meadows i think it's maybe somewhere over that way this is great i'm sure we're always this easy this is like walking on a trail almost i did not make it to 12 minutes today so i did 22 to vogelson and that 22 was a very tough 22. it was nice there's a lot of trail later in the day um the beginning of the beginning of the day was pretty uh a lot of difficult route finding so i made it go a lot slower it's pretty tomorrow i came at 20 minutes 12 meters early and then i think you have to do another try i think i have to do another 20 tomorrow because there are a bunch of camping restrictions it's a good cascade like which is 20 miles which will set me up really really nicely for the day after tomorrow good morning just before 5 30 now and then figured try to blast out these 11 trail miles by 9 or so i'll have the rest of the day to do the nine off trail miles to cascade lake so i think it should be fairly doable it's perfectly still right now there's no wind no noise of any kind i love of early mornings 7 54 a.m i made it a little past twelve meadows i'm at dana fork which is the uh next major ford of the trip let's see how uh how this fearsome river stacks up in this low snow year womp wob it's all right this is my last big day of the trip tomorrow i think it's only going to be like 10 miles which would be great things things go well well it is just a beautiful morning [Applause] this trail has been lovely and easy um it's about 8 30 8 40 and i've done about 11 or so but yeah this is this is really nice granite lakes [Music] named after granite the rock that's something over there too there's a big guy there who's a big fluffy guy oh look at that bottle there's dana there gibbs is there so i think i'm at speller lake the reason i'm not sure is that i thought it was going to be farther and in my experience if you think you haven't gone far enough yet chances are you probably haven't this looks a lot like it yes this is it maybe i'm just going faster than i thought i have decided that i'm not at spoiler lake that is not spoiler like definitely gotten better at reading maps since i've been out here on this trip but one thing i have not gotten the hang of is uh judging a lake's approximate size from the map because i keep doing this i keep being like oh that's going to be a tiny lake and it's huge or vice versa it was so nice i had to swim it's um about one o'clock i think and i only have four miles left so i like this having enough time to do stuff thing it's like kind of wild i should do more of it so you can see all the way where it came from now let's see down there is spuller lake just barely see the uh edge of the lake that i thought was baller lake at first where i had lunch i came from there kept there by traversing all the way around that ridge around the corner there there's mount kanas it's an incredible view so that must be saddlebag there i can see some boats on it and there are a bunch more licks i don't know what they're called but they're pretty look how distinct the line is the contact zone between the slate and the granite that's incredible also i think you can see sky pilot call from here it kind of looks like it's that which how am i supposed to get up that maybe it'll look better from down to lake but yikes there's north peak there's cascade lake my planned campsite for tonight um i think that over there is steelhead lake i think that's sky pilot coal definitely doesn't look quite as steep from here but still looks like not a lot of fun i'm at cascade lake which was where i was going to camp tonight i got here at 3 20. gosh my nose looks sunburned i'm gonna go up to the next lake i don't think i'm going to try skype tonight though i made it to a little lake it's such a nice little town here it's still only like 4 15. sky pow would commit me to another mile and a half they've definitely been hyping it up in my head probably came up here now i'm just gonna camp here that's the responsible thing to do i feel good about that do i feel good about that i don't know it's right there let's see what i'm feeling after dinner i have dinner and i'm sleepy so i'm going to camp here good morning world i wanted to do the next section after the sun was up um so here it is sun's coming up gonna get ready and gonna climb some talus i think that's got a pilot call up there and there's the lake camp out last night north peak right there pretty nice pretty nice this really doesn't actually look that bad so far so good talk is right over there i'm glad i waited until today my legs feel good i'm not quite awake yet i didn't sleep very well last night i like apnea or something and really bad farts whoever call this part offensive which i think i agree with almost there made it i'm hoping this little use trail goes somewhere a little more accessible because i'm not trying to go down that there's the top there the main shoot looked a little too steep so i'm trying this this looks pretty steep also oh there you have it sky pirate cole this will be slow and tedious but it won't be particularly particularly scary this is agonizingly slow very glad i didn't do this last night i probably would have broken something here is a great example of the contact zone so that's slate over there and then boom granite on this side everything's granite on that side everything's darker it's late the granite towers was a lot easier to walk down than the slate towers there isn't really such a thing as a typical day on the high route and i think this is a good example of it it's 805 by this time yesterday i think i had walked like nine miles maybe today i have walked almost one and a half i'm about to go way down into virginia canyon then way back up the other side to soldier lake and then up to stanton pass there it is made it to the top of the pass you can see all the way back to uh sky pilot where it came from this morning there the next pass horse creek passes right around there looks okay from here but i think the steve stuff is below i went about a hundred feet to my left of the saddle i found this shoot it's pretty crash darn steep but i think it'll go i think i made it through the crux came down there over that block there and then chunk and then down this here i think i blew it kind of out of proportion in my head definitely psyched myself out that's it made it down i think i came down over there somewhere this looks really sweet cool i'm stoked that was uh like waiting on me for a couple days i feel really good that it's behind me and now i get to eat my you survive the past peanut butter cup sweet relief never tasted so good i also have to catch myself from calling these victory peanut butter cups because that implies that that i won and the mountain lost if the mountain wants you dead you're dead so i think it's a survival peanut butter cup anyway here's to survival i'll be going up to horse creek pass next which is from there it's just down in the twin lakes so quickly i was so hyper focused on getting over these passes and you know making sure that i would finish in time and then now that the time pressure's kind of off it's like wait i'm not done yet just so pleasant so serene so pristine so nice goodbye western sierra i guess the top basically the forest green pass which is the last pass on the sierra high road there would be a giant palace field on the last pass oh well wow no wonder these snowfields are still here look at that it's like 20. that's crazy good morning it's 5 25. we've got about three miles until mona village so it should be there in that hour may have to stop the poop oh i'm definitely gonna have to stop the poop okay so maybe it'll be like an hour and 15 minutes poop don't wait about three miles from twin lakes nice spot so it looks ahead of me not a bad way to go out okay so i'm averaging a little less than 10 miles an hour that looks like a lake down there well i think i'm done i think that's my village there so technically i finished but [Applause] oh look who it is good morning sunshine

Channel: Timothy Hunt

Views: 4,338

Rating: 4.9666667 out of 5

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Id: mKKGeA3x0SI

Length: 55min 3sec (3303 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021