"Greatest 24h door-to-door day hike ever"
Alta Peak Trip Report, Sequoia National Park, CA
January 30th - February 1st, 2004
Greg Walker & Andrew Yue

This winter I knew I had to get back out to Cali where this summer I grew to love 
the Sierra Range visiting both Yosemite and Sequoia.  Knowing that Greg would 
never truly organize a trip, I hoped an opportunity would come.  So it did when 
Raytheon invited me to interview with them the last weekend in January.

My original intention was to visit Yosemite.  Greg mentioned XC skiing at 
Montecedo in Sequoia or hiking Alta.  Surfing Greg's summer Alta pics and a 
backcountry ski site revealed Alta's coolness and thus our journey began.

The trip began about 2:20am on Saturday.  We hustled out of LA hitting the park's 
entrance around 7:00am.  Winding up the General's Highway up towards Lodgepole 
visibility dropped as clouds, fog, and rain engulfed us around 2500'.  Soon 
enough, it turned to snow and the chains went on.  Greg confidently boasted that 
even though he'd never installed the chains before, he was sure it was "easy".  
Around 6000' we found close to several feet of snow.  We played around at the 
Sherman tree then hit off to the Wolverton trailhead [7280'].

Starting exactly at 8:00am (after some pork buns) we barebooted on the 
hardpacked/icy trail.  No more than half a mile in, we decided on crampons as the 
trail was slick (crampons #1).  Another half-mile later Greg announced he was 
post-holing and thus changed in snowshoes near a huge fallen tree.  Views through 
the woods revealed blue skies and the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Range.  The 
trees surrounding us were covered with light green moss/lichen perfectly 
contrasting the darker pine needles and Sierra background.  No more than a few 
hundred yards down the trail, we hit a large frozen cascade of streams.  Since the 
snow was becoming deep I put my snowshoes on (snowshoes #1).  

Making it up to Panther Gap [8500'] was difficult, as the trail was all but 
impossible to follow as we repeatedly lost the single set of boot tracks.  Soon we 
made it to the gap, only to be greeted by a wall of clouds dumping a light snow on 
the southern side.  Our views of the Kaweah Canyon were nonexistent as visibility 
was only about 50m.  As the path fell off the ridge and traced the southern slope, 
the exposure grew to hundreds of feet (at least that's all we could see).  The 
trail became dangerously icy and after passing the lone hiker (who turned back 
because she lacked crampons), we decided to switch back to crampons for safety 
(crampons #2).  

Safely passing the exposed section of trail, we again hit the woods to deep snow 
and decided to go back to snowshoes as postholing became tiresome (snowshoes #2).  
Minutes later, still under the clouds and snow, we reached Mehrten Meadow [9040'] 
for a quick break.

Pass the meadow, we kept losing the regaining the trail in the woods.  Confident 
in our topo/compass skills we plodded along (Greg cheated with his "gips" [GPS] 
and Asian-made altimeter) to reach an opening revealing the shortest route (as the 
crow flies) up a basin to Alta Peak.  Realizing it was near noon already we 
decided on this shorter route.

With visibility still less than 100m, we started up the slope that grew 
increasingly steep.  Trudging along in our snowshoes, we couldn't see how far up 
the slope went as we lost sight of what we covered.  For the next 2.5 hours we 
climbed as the slope slowly became increasingly concave laterally.  We switched to 
crampons as the slope became more and more steep (crampons #3).  Greg already was 
using his axe as support, and I finally traded my trekking poles for the axe as 
the slope became dangerously steep around 45 degees [10,200'].  In addition, as we 
climbed the clouds that were being pushed up the slope on our backs thinned 
revealing a very intense (and warmly received - pun intended) sun.  Thus, the 
thick corn snow and softer underpack (we were not in avalanche danger we assessed) 
and our crampons began to ball up every few steps.  We were impressed at a 
sometimes visible rock formation on our left that very similarly resembled a 
smaller El Capitan.

We reached a small shelf at 10,600' to reveal what looked like a mini "Tuckerman's 
Ravine."  After breaking for food and water in complete and total silence (aka 
peaceful serenity), we headed up the "ravine" and followed the safest looking 
(e.g. from avalanche danger, though we heard rocks falling, hmmmm...) route up 
what we called the "left gully".  Greg lead and was first up to the lip [11,000'].  
Our first views of the Sierra's were amazing as the moon shone in the super-blue 
sky and the breaking clouds revealed glimpses of the canyon to our back and 
Tharp's Rock immediately to our southwest.  I pushed pass Greg who was toying 
around with his camera and headed up to the final 240' to the summit.

Not until I was about 10 feet from the summit rock did the views of the entire 
Sierra range come into view.  I was breathless as I was amazed at my first real 
sight of the range in the winter.  Snow and ice covered slopes were everywhere, 
with the uber-cool effect of clouds hiding the lower peaks and most of the peaks 
to the south-southeast (Kaweah Peaks).  Whitney and the southeast portion of the 
Great Western Divide were still cloud-hidden as well.  It was close to 4:00pm, 
some 8 hours after our start.

We took a bunch of pictures and climbed up the 30' summit rock.  Using some mixed 
rock/ice moves, Greg dared me to climb the top rock and sit at the edge of a 2000' 
drop.  The register was buried in about 4 feet of snow and there was not a 
snowball's chance in hell I was going to dig around on the 2' ledge that hid the 
box.

We took some more pictures (see the footsteps pics) and headed down off the summit 
rock to layer up and begin our plunge-step descent of the "ravine".  Donning 
shells from head to toe, we began our journey home "into the clouds".  Heading 
down proved relatively easy as the snow was soft and our crampons sliced easily 
through the surface.

Near the base of the ravine, we tried to practice self-arrest but the snow by now 
was so soft that we wouldn't slide.  Finally, we reached the shelf around 5:00pm.  
As we took our final break, the clouds amazing began to break revealing the Kaweah 
Peaks where just beyond the Mineral King Area lay.  The clouds seemed to magically 
disappear at a very fast rate revealing the ravine we just travelled, Tharp's 
Rock, and the psuedo "El Cap."  Greg smartly suggested we wait the next 20 minutes 
to watch an "sweet" sunset and I wholeheartedly agreed.  

It was one of the most beautiful sunset's I have witnessed.  The sun fell under 
cloud cover probably around 6000' hiding all but the highest peaks (a  true Kodak 
moment).  Snapping the very last pictures my batteries would give, I quickly began 
down again (after changing back to snowshoes - snowshoes #3).  I would have 
dawdled longer but I was getting cold and sick.

We both raced down donning headlamps with Greg getting a few last silhouette pics 
in.  Finally reaching the woods [10,100'] and trampled along agreeing to the 
importance of staying close together in the dark.  Thankful of our tracks from the 
morning, we made good time (though it seemed like forever) to break at the meadow 
junction (3.7 mi from Wolverton) and switch back to crampons for the exposed ridge 
section (crampons #4).  

This time, however, the Kaweah Canyon and peaks were in full sight under the 3/4-
to-full moon and brightly shining stars.  We stopped several times to fully 
immerse ourselves in the beauty of the mountains and nature.

After reaching the gap, we made our final change back into snowshoes (snowshoes 
#4).  We left the gap (and breath-taking "midnight" views) and headed down.  What 
seemed like eternity elapsed until we reached the Pear Lake junction.  Twice that 
elapsed before we reached the trailhead.  I was partially dehydrated, cold, sick 
with a hacking "altitude cough", and mildly hallucinating when I reached the 
Golfy-golf.  But I was ecstatic at the trip we had just completed.  It was now 
exactly 8:00pm, 12 hours had transpired since we left.

We drove off alternating the captain seat as the other crashed hard in the 
passenger spot.  With only the loss of one set of chains, we made it back to 
Greg's Rochester Ave apartment shortly after 2:00am thus concluding the "greatest 
24h door-to-door day hike ever."

Trip Stats:
Length:				14 miles
Elevation (gain and loss):	3960'
Max Elevation:			11,240' (Alta Peak)
Animals spotted:		Small cougar and coyote