sierra haute route gps track

[rod9301]

I am planning a winter sierra traverse, west to east, and I'm wondering if someone has a gps track for it.


also, I heard that the spring traverse takes 6 days.

any idea how much longer a winter traverse would take? primarily because I would be breaking trail.

[LightRanger]

PM Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. He's attempted it twice, and succeeded once (other time turned around by spooky slide danger at Coppermine Pass) with ASI.

I doubt he has the GPS track, but he'd be a good resource for you. Good luck too. It's on my hit list.

[Dhelihiker]

Pull up some topos and giv'er. People like to take the adventure out of the adventure. That's my opinion. I want to go East to West and I want to pick my own path. I hate following other peoples paths, if it happens organically so be it. Staring into the abyss and saying, lets go that way is the spirit.

[cat in january]

Dhelhiker beat me to it. Go find your adventure.

[~mikey b]

Done it twice. Once in winter once in spring. No GPS back then. I'm sure you can find one but why? One if the most remote places in Lower 48. Enjoy it.

Turned back once. That became the craziest hitch-hiking adventure I've ever had. Mammoth to Reno in the back of a big stake side truck in a storm with an insane driver. Good times...

[bodywhomper]

Done it twice. Once in winter once in spring. No GPS back then. I'm sure you can find one but why? One if the most remote places in Lower 48. Enjoy it.

Turned back once. That became the craziest hitch-hiking adventure I've ever had. Mammoth to Reno in the back of a big stake side truck in a storm with an insane driver. Good times...

winter? did that include a long and romantic walk in the sage? if i remember right, burrito dave got turned around several times in winter due to low snow level in the sage (like that'll ever happen again!).

[~mikey b]

Actually not Sierra high route proper. Mammoth to Yosemite (Badger Pass) trans Sierra. I don't remember our actual route since I was a sheep following a shepherd and it was quite a few years ago.

[liketoride]

There is a book called backcountry skiing California's high Sierra by John Moynier that has a chapter on the Sierra high rout Trans Sierra tour. This book is fairly old, published 1999. It does not have gps, but it has a map with all the passes mountains you will travel through. You could use that with google earth to find some way points to put in your gps. Google earth will give you the gps coordinates of mountains when you click on the peaks. iPhone has a free google earth app. This is a great book, especially for the adventurous. Most of the tours described are lengthy.

[rod9301]

agree with why take the adventure out of the adventure.
but since I'm doing it in the winter, with potentially stormy weather, I would at least know where the passes are, and even which passes to go over, since I wasn't able to find any info.

I have the book, didn't realize the haute route was in it.

[itsnowjoke]

Just follow the ducks...

[bodywhomper]

agree with why take the adventure out of the adventure.
but since I'm doing it in the winter, with potentially stormy weather, I would at least know where the passes are, and even which passes to go over, since I wasn't able to find any info.

I have the book, didn't realize the haute route was in it.

imo, avalanche terrain management in the middle of the sierra using gps and wearing a multi-day pack during a winter storm sounds like type 4 fun to me. of course, skiing huge bowls of bottomless powder under sierra stable conditions (with and or w/o a multiday pack) sounds AWESOME!

the first edition of moynier's book has mo' long point to point tours. some friends did the "great western divide tour" many years ago, which sounded like a ton of fun with slightly less complicated travel logistics.

[dishwasher-dave]

Dave Beck's "Ski Tours in CA" has a good description as well. Although this has been out of print for a while you can still find copies. Beck also just published a kindle book that apparently has some SHR stories (Haven't read it yet myself).

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MARK79K/..._Y6Xbub1JHR1Q2

6ish days is pretty mellow/enjoyable. I've crossed in four days on pretty crappy snow and 6 days in great conditions. It's a great adventure either way. Personally, a winter crossing would be cool but I'd be very wimpy about incoming weather.

(I created a gps track when I first did the SHR. Never used it due to bluebird and don't seem to have it anymore otherwise I'd share, but it's fairly obvious via the descriptions in the books discussed and easy enough to generate. The various TRs out there also provide some helpful photos.)

[213]

Using google earth, you should be able to generate gps waypoints of key features (passes, peaks, etc) and pull their elevations. Under bluebird conditions, you just stay high. If the weather or avalanche hazard turned poor, however, it would not be difficult to disappear indefinitely out there. The scale of the bowls are massive, and in doing the haute route you effectively ski cut the entire range . You also finish with a mega descent of high consequence (Awesome ski) terrain of either the superbowl or shepherd pass. Not to mention you are pushing the limits of weather predictability for the highest hazard crest region...food for thought for a winter crossing.

The tour is rad and ultra recommended. We did it on tele gear in spring of 2004 casually over five days, switching cars with another group going east to west. Six days would give you the chance to make slower progress or enjoy some rarely skied peaks if conditions were otherwise favorable for rapid travel. Folks have skied it on nordic gear in a day during spring, pretty awesome as well.

Good luck!

[JAREDS]

we looked at doing that a couple years ago, couldn't find any gps data - BUT there are many places with descriptions of passes, etc and we were able to make one easily in google earth.
btw we ended up doing mammoth to tioga instead (and it was awesome), still wanna do trans-sierra though.