TR: Shepherd Pass to Whitney Portal 6/22 - 6/24

[maiathebee]

Lessons from the first trip apparently not learned. Glad you tried to get some knowledge with taking a snow skills course but trying cross-country on your second trip ever is... questionable. You'll be way happier and safer if you do a few trail trips to get some experience for the landscape and how much you can do in a day before you try cross-country again. Surprised nobody's mentioned that you're putting SAR lives at risk with the way you're "learning." With a bit of planning, you can see a lot of beautiful stuff in the Sierra on-trail and even on a weekend warrior schedule.

[jokismo]

Lessons from the first trip apparently not learned. Glad you tried to get some knowledge with taking a snow skills course but trying cross-country on your second trip ever is... questionable. You'll be way happier and safer if you do a few trail trips to get some experience for the landscape and how much you can do in a day before you try cross-country again. Surprised nobody's mentioned that you're putting SAR lives at risk with the way you're "learning." With a bit of planning, you can see a lot of beautiful stuff in the Sierra on-trail and even on a weekend warrior schedule.

I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think this warranted the admonishment. I talk about things light-heartedly but I do understand risk management, and we planned our trip being aware of both our ability levels. The XC section we planned was always within an easy bailout route to the JMT, and I studied the terrain within the basin area pretty thoroughly (yes I made an error in getting there, but we made the sensible decision to bail out after that) We also definitely over-prepared for being stuck in there an extra night due to our somewhat aggressive itinerary.

Edit: Regarding last year's Baxter Pass trip, yes I totally agree with you, we were totally unprepared for that and we could have very easily caused a SAR incident . We did do a lot of research for that and had information that helped us get through it but we did not realize how hard the conditions would be due to the snow pack. However that did serve as a crash course and gave us a lot of reference points to carry into future travels, especially on the risk management side.

[maiathebee]

I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think this warranted the admonishment.

Not trying to admonish as much as point out a couple facts: you seem to so far consistently overestimate what you can get done, and doing that increases risk of something bad happening.

I know it's exciting to see all the cool things people experience in the Sierra and to want to just get it all in as soon as possible. Seeing everyone's TRs and Instagrams gives serious FOMO, I totally know, I get the same way myself! And also I think there's a bit of a culture these days that is performative, like oooh wow look how many miles / how much elevation / how hard of a trip I did, which incentivizes the types of trips you've planned. I'm just saying that maybe if you want morale high in the evenings as well as in the mornings, maybe a different approach would be better, at least until you have a few more trips under your belt. It's super fun to make it to your planned camp at 4pm and have time to swim in a lake, relax, and explore a nearby ridgeline all before dinner.

[jokismo]

Not trying to admonish as much as point out a couple facts: you seem to so far consistently overestimate what you can get done, and doing that increases risk of something bad happening.

I know it's exciting to see all the cool things people experience in the Sierra and to want to just get it all in as soon as possible. Seeing everyone's TRs and Instagrams gives serious FOMO, I totally know, I get the same way myself! And also I think there's a bit of a culture these days that is performative, like oooh wow look how many miles / how much elevation / how hard of a trip I did, which incentivizes the types of trips you've planned. I'm just saying that maybe if you want morale high in the evenings as well as in the mornings, maybe a different approach would be better, at least until you have a few more trips under your belt. It's super fun to make it to your planned camp at 4pm and have time to swim in a lake, relax, and explore a nearby ridgeline all before dinner.

That is great advice, thanks. We totally overestimated, and have adjusted our upcoming itineraries based on what we learned this time. I agree about the performative culture, although it is more-so influenced in my case by availability of permits, time constraints and wanting to have a more remote experience. I'm sure we will find a better balance as the years go by.