2026 Jul-Aug SHR CopperCreek2Mammoth

  •   Category Price Weight
  • Food $62.41
    8.99 lb
  • Clothes, Worn $0.00
    0 lb
  • Water $2.00
    2.28 lb
  • Kitchen $184.00
    2.06 lb
  • Sleep $453.00
    1.71 lb
  • Pack $240.00
    1.22 lb
  • Clothes, Carried $280.95
    0.99 lb
  • Electronics $118.11
    0.86 lb
  • Shelter $329.00
    0.72 lb
  • Ditty $42.28
    0.17 lb
  • Navigation $65.00
    0.08 lb
  • Toilet $1.00
    0.01 lb
  • Total $1777.75 19.11
    lb
    • oz
    • lb
    • g
    • kg
  • Consumable 11.23 lb
  • Base Weight 7.89 lb

Prev: HDT/ARCH-CANY-Hite

Next: not sure yet...

Route

Sierra High Route CopperCreek2Mammoth

Roper's Sierra High Route is a spicier JMT. For anyone that does the JMT twice and wants something a little harder this is the answer. While they follow a similar line and share a day or two's miles whenever the JMT decides to go down into a nice valley the SHR goes up over a series of passes.

The goal is an ~7 day trip along the SHR/JMT. I think this is about long enough for me, I don't want to carry more food and I don't want to resupply and go back out. I also will be pretty tired by the end. One week in the high Sierra is a perfect adventure, I think. This will be my third trip along the JMT corridor, first in 2020 out-of-shape doing 15-20 mpd and got hurt, and again in 2022 where I was in-shape and did 25 mpd for a 5.5-day carry from Cottonwood Lakes to VVR with a BV450 in a frameless Pa'lante. In 2022 from VVR I took Cold Creek to Goodale Pass in the snow on a whim for variety and getting off the beaten path ended up being my favorite part of the whole thing. I also really enjoyed Knapsack Col on the CDT a few years ago. I want to pursue off-trail alts along the JMT corridor at a more relaxed ~15 mpd.

The dominant constraint of a Sierra trip is food. Resupply options are far from trail along the southern JMT corridor and so for a week long trip I'd avoid the need to exit/re-enter to resupply. And re-supply-less food carry is constrained by approved bear cans, so I need a bear can that can fit 6+ days of food and a pack that can carry it, one more day of food and everything else comfortably.

The BV450 is actually a possibility if I pack it carefully it can hold ~20,000 calories or ~7 days of food. A Pa'lante Desert would work ok if I can keep it under ~20 lbs. A framed HMG is a possibility but feels like overkill. The lightest reasonable option with a decent hipbelt is an MLD Prophet. The most interesting possibility, and probably the smartest, is a frameless Bears Ears pack + Bearikade bear can which I'm really interested in but the Bears Ears are extremely niche and in short supply. Such a pack would raise the ceiling of the resupply-less trip durations I would be able to make in the future, which is something I really would like.

Fly to FAT, taxi as far east on 180 as I can, then hitchhike to Road's End.

Oh! and I can ship my stakes inside the bear can. Z-pole will not fit but TSA rules have changed recently and I can carry it on!

Start Whitney Portal... Resupply @ MTR?

Research

Route and Itinerary

  • Day 0: taxi/hitch from FAT to Road's End
  • Day 1: Road's End / Copper Creek > Grouse Lake (7 miles, 6k vert)
  • Day 2: Grouse Lake Pass > before Frozen Lake Pass (24 miles total, 12k vert total)
  • Day 3: Frozen Lake Pass > before Helen Lake (45 miles total, 18k vert total)
  • Day 4: Muir Pass > Puppet Lake (64 miles total, 23k vert total)
  • Day 5: Puppet Pass > Mono/Mills Creek (80 miles total, 28k vert total)
  • Day 6: Bighorn Pass > Duck Lake (97 miles total, 34k vert total)
  • Day 7: Duck Lake > Mammoth Lakes (~100 miles total)
  • Day 8: flex day
  • Day 9:
  • Day 10: fly back(?)

These are conservative numbers for me, but I think the distance and vert is undercounted and off the JMT things will be slower-going. Bailout-wise I've got something pretty much every day if I need it.

If I run behind on time there are a variety of alts I can take to make up time or bail out early at Aspendell or Pine Creek Road.

In SEKI esbit stoves are allowed. For some reason I thought esbit wasn't allowed, I think it's just discouraged.

References

  1. https://andrewskurka.com/tutorial-smoke-forecasting-in-yosemite-the-high-sierra/
  2. https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature/fire-restrictions.htm
  3. https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/