Category: alpine

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4WheelBob’s ascent of White Mtn – photos

The historic ascent by normal wheelchair to the summit of 14,246ft (4342m) White Mountain is old news now.

4WheelBob Coomber made the front page of the San Jose Mercury News.

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Mercury News

No doubt, the editors of Backpacker Magazine are kicking themselves they did not send someone to cover his third successful attempt. They had sent a crew on his two previous unsuccessful efforts.

Tom Mangan of the Mercury News and the Two-Heel Drive blog was there. Tom took the photos, captions, wrote the headlines, and even wrote a sidebar piece called Bob wheels to the top, proving me way wrong:

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Bob on summit day

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Bob crawling backwards (which he did 3 times on the final day when the chair could not get past a scree section)

Two-Heel Drive: Favorite images from our White Mountain adventure

The week prior, Tom had invited me to join the support team and I’m glad I did. Bob is an inspiration!

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How hard could it be? Some poor military sods at some distant time in the past were ordered to build a ROAD to the top of a high mountain. Yeesh!

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Bob kept reminding over the 3 days ascent that “he couldn’t do it without us”. He’s right. Bob did no more than 97% of the work himself.

It’s much, much tougher than I expected. Much tougher than it looks in this photo. At times Bob could gain only an inch or two for each wheel stroke.

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It was harsh. A monumental challenge, accomplished.

Congratulations Bob. And thanks.

I posted 50 photos of the climb on flickr.

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hiking the oldest trees in the world

While acclimatizing to altitude in preparation for an ascent of 14,000ft+ Mt. White in California we spent two days hiking photogenic Ancient Bristlecone Forest – Inyo National Forest – out of Bishop.

The Schulman Grove Visitor Center is situated way up at 10,000ft.

The oldest known live tree in the world is dubbed “Methuselah”. But the exact location is top secret. The Methuselah Trail passes within site of this tree. But you must guess which it is.

An even older one, nicknamed “Prometheus”, was cut down in 1964.

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Great Basin Bristlecone Pine – Wikipedia

Studying weird, warped trees is one of the great highlights of hiking the Sierras.

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Patriarch Grove – my favourite of the established day hikes

all my photos of hiking Bristlecone – flickr

Nature Ali (Alison Sheehey) also has a nice Bristlecone page:

I am on a quest to discover, identify and photograph all of the conifers of California. Part of my quest led me to the oldest living tree on earth. Estimated at almost 5000 years old, the most ancient of bristlecones are considered one of the oldest continuously living plants on earth.

But watch out, they are surpassed in age by the 11 to 12 thousand year old creosote bushes (clones of the original bush) in the nearby Mojave Desert. Amazingly many of the oldest living things on earth occupy a very small niche in central and eastern California.

Ancient Bristlecone Forest – Inyo National Forest

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Torngat Mountains National Park, Labrador, Canada

One of the classiest and best travel photo sites is BluePeak edited by Rogier Gruys.

He is one of the few who have travelled to remote Torngat.

Even better, Rogier created a superb landing page for the Park where the rest of us now have a chance to see that weird, fantastical landscape.

… The Inuit refer to the far northern tip of Labrador as Torngait, the place of the spirits. It is thought that it is the home of Torngarsuak, the Inuit Great Spirit. To outsiders it is known for its deep fiords, the highest mountains east of the rockies, some of the world’s oldest rocks, the only tundra-dwelling population of black bears, and polar bears. Lots of polar bears. …

Access

The park, 9,700 sq.km, is probably one of the most difficult parks in Canada to reach. Even the parks in Nunavut are easier to get to. It’s not only the remoteness, but especially the weather and fericious winds that make getting here an adventure in itself.

If the weather is good, then the park is about 1 hours’ flying or up to two days by fishing boat north of Nain, Labrador’s northernmost community. There are no scheduled flights or boats to the park, and once you arrive, there are no facilities.

Safety is a real concern, as polar bears roam throughout the park. Since only Inuit are allowed to carry arms, visitors should always be accompanied by an Inuit guide. A good idea in any case, as the area is also infamous for its quickly changing weather and strong “ghost” winds that can appear out of nowhere.

Visiting the park

Due to the difficult logistics and its reputation for bad weather, there are currently very few if any organized treks into the park. Nature Trek has led expeditions into the park, but in the future they may only plan occasional treks, due to the extreme logistical challenges involved with organizing them. …

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more photos – Torngat Mountains National Park – Rogier Gruys

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Ace The Himalaya photos

Great photos hiking in the highest mountains in the world.

Here’s a sample:

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Chomolhari Trek, Bhutan – more photos

An expensive guided trek to Bhutan would be great. But when will that country finally open to independent hikers?

I’d love to get to Bhutan myself the first year it opens.

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Patagonia or Yukon?

Where are these photos from?

Patagonia in South America?

Or the Yukon in Canada?

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While hiking in the Tombstone range of the Ogilvie Mountains in the Yukon I was struck at how similar were those mountains to Paine and Fitz Roy in Patagonia.

In fact, I came to call Tombstone the “Patagonia of the North”.

The first photo is Yukon, the second Patagonia.

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climbing White Mountain with 4WheelBob

Rick McCharles, besthike editor

Tomorrow morning Tom Mangan and I head out to rendezvous with wheelchair hiker 4WheelBob …

Read the details on Tom’s Two-Heel Drive blog (which is far better written than this one).

4WheelBob thinks he can wheel himself to the summit of White Mountain in the Eastern Sierra near Big Pine, CA. I’m going to tag along and document the experience here when we get back.

… We’ll be car camping at the Grandview Campground near the Ancient Bristlecone Pine forest till Wednesday morning, when we head up to the approach to White Mountain. Bob has a pass to park at the Barcroft Lab, six miles — and about 1,800 feet of climb — from the summit. He’s planning on camping on the mountain, summiting and returning on Thursday (he can go much much faster downhill). …

Two-Heel Drive: Where I’m going next week

Tom and I are the safety support team. Though this is the easiest high mountain climb in the USA, it’s not easy. The odds are against us.

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White Mountain – Wikipedia

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hiking out of Homer, Alaska

click for larger map

trail-map-gif.gifEvery tourist loves charming Homer on the Kenai Peninsula.

We did not have time to hike Kachemak Bay State Park but I would love to go back one day. A water taxi can get you there quickly.

One of the largest coastal parks in the United States, Kachemak Bay State Park offers glaciers, mountains, islands, lakes, rugged shoreline and beaches, plus over 80 miles of trails, 20 developed campsites and five public use cabins. Bay Excursions transports people to the various trail heads and campsites.

Kachemak Bay State Park water taxi – Hiking and Camping

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source

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Portage Pass Trail – Alaska

We enjoyed the short Portage Pass Trail day hike out of Whittier.

Hiking author Dean Littlepage:

… A half-day or overnight hike to Portage Pass, Portage Lake, and an overlook of Portage Glacier.

Portage Pass is a beautiful spot in its own right, and this hike is also the easiest way to get a good view of the face of Portage Glacier since it melted back out of sight of the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center, in 1993.

A moderate hike to an outstanding destination, this trip offers a reward-to-effort ratio that’s right up there with the best Southcentral Alaska has to offer.

Portage Pass is a gap gouged out of the earth long ago by a lobe of Portage Glacier and opened up for hikers by the glacier’s retreat of the last century.

The trail has history too; in the 1890s, when the Alaska Gold Rush brought in the first big influx of non-Natives, steamships docked at the foot of Portage Pass, where Whittier is now, and dropped off prospectors headed for gold strikes near Hope and Sunrise on Turnagain Arm. They hauled their supplies up the steep east face of the glacier with ropes and pulleys, hiked a beaten path across the ice through Portage Pass, and rambled down to Turnagain Arm and the diggings.

Special features: A glacial landscape, alpine scenery, and historic interest.

Portage Pass Trail | Alaska Hikes

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Recommended for the Portage Trail is Hiking Alaska, 2nd: A Guide to Alaska’s Greatest Hiking Adventures

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scramble Skookum Volcano Trail, Alaska

I was determined to trek rugged Wrangell-St. Elias in the summer of 2007. But which hike to chose?

The National Park website has a number of recommendations for hikes in Wrangell-St. Elias. (PDF files are linked from that page)

I was tempted by the Sanford-Dadina Plateau “Volcanic Traverse” — but did not have the 4-8 days needed. Ron Cosby hiked it in July finding it demanding:

“… the hardest part was fighting through the thickest alder I’ve ever seen on the initial part of the climb up to the plateau. It took us 10 hours (including breaks) to go 4.1 miles as the crow flies according to the GPS.”

Eventually we decided instead on a simple day hike volcano scramble, a very popular route off the Nabesna road.

The trail is 2.5 miles to a beautiful high pass. …

Highlights: Roadside access, wildlife, spectacular scenery, alpine plants, volcanic geology.

Access: The Skookum Volcano Trail leaves the Nabesna Road at mile 36.8. From the beginning elevation of 3,000’, it rises to an elevation of 5,800’. This trail leads through an extinct, deeply eroded volcanic system and provides an opportunity to examine picturesque volcanic geology.

NPS

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The highlight was close-up views of Dall sheep who seem quite accustomed to human visitors.

We did the standard Skookum scramble, in and out. But there is an off-trail loop option which puts you walking a road for 1.4 miles. (Not recommended.)

Better for overnight hikers is Skookum Volcano to Rambler Mine, 10-14mi, 2-3 days, depending on route taken. Transport needed between trailheads.