As long as other people are going to the high peaks and writing up their experiences, I feel absolved of the responsibility. Hey, I got married, that’s enough commitment for one life. This morning I found all sorts of evidence of high country wanderings, such as:
Calipidder has posted a bunch of pix from her weekend of four-wheeling and geocaching.
Rebecca also posted a comment referring Mount Whitney hopefuls to Mount Langley, another “easy California Fourteener.” I googled said mount and found this page telling how to get up there. I also stumbled upon this interesting discussion: California Fourteeners, from easiest to hardest. One writer’s assessment of the five easiest:
1. White Mountain – 14 miles RT – Class 1 – ~2000+ feet elevation gain
2. Mt. Langley – ~21 miles RT – Class 1 – ~4000+ feet elevation gain
3. Mt. Whitney – 22 miles RT – Class 1 – ~6000+ feet Elevation gain
4. Mt. Muir – 20 miles RT – Class 3 (from the Main Mt. Whitney Trail) – ~6,000 feet elevation gain
5. Split Mountain – ? miles RT – Class 2/3 – ? elevation gain – North Ridge Route via Red Lake
Speaking of Whitney, here’s a nice write-up about a daring chap going up the Mountaineer’s Route.
The worthy Sierra Descents blog points to another fine blog for big-hill adventurers: Sierra Journal, written by a Bay Area techie.
Don’t worry if the boss busts you scanning these links on the company dime. Just explain how reading about the outdoors reduces your fundamental urge to burn the office down.
Hey Tom,
Thanks for stopping by! Glad you liked the Whitney article,
Andy
I’ve done three of the five. (Thought about but haven’t climbed White Mountain or Split Mountain.)
Langley is a beautiful summit, but a long slog through a lot of sandy terrain – two steps forward and one step back sort of stuff. But the ridge between Old Army Pass and the summit block is a wonderful place to visit.
In a younger and more impulsive part of my life when I was a bit of a rock climber (almost exactly 30 years ago) I was on Whitney for the first time with a climbing buddy and we snagged Muir on the way back down from Whitney’s summit. (Muir is, as least from the Whitney trail, something of a bump on the ridge. A difficult bump, mind you…)
Last year I was on a pack trip and more or less partially circumnavigated Whitney, and I had so much fun not climbing Whitney that I vowed never to climb the peak again. Yesterday I, uh, returned from a trans-Sierra pack trip that went over, uh, you guessed it, Whitney. 😉
Dan
(For any who might remember my comments about “packing out poop” a couple weeks ago, to things… First, yes, I used the wag bag on Whitney. Second, there is a problem. Quite a few people take and use the bags… and then are leaving them under rocks on the summit, at trail camp, and just about everywhere else. Not as wonderful a solution as we might hope for.)