2026 Jul SHR CopperCreek2Mammoth

  •   Category Price Weight
  • Food $74.57
    9.03 lb
  • Clothes, Worn $0.00
    0 lb
  • Water $2.00
    2.28 lb
  • Kitchen $85.00
    2.16 lb
  • Sleep $462.89
    1.99 lb
  • Pack $180.00
    1.35 lb
  • Clothes, Carried $295.95
    0.99 lb
  • Electronics $118.11
    0.86 lb
  • Shelter $332.00
    0.73 lb
  • Ditty $142.28
    0.19 lb
  • Navigation $65.00
    0.08 lb
  • Toilet $1.00
    0.01 lb
  • Total $1758.80 19.67
    lb
    • oz
    • lb
    • g
    • kg
  • Consumable 11.28 lb
  • Base Weight 8.39 lb

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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 class 1-3 routes in the high Sierra at 10-15 mpd.

Long summer days, nearly 16 hours of light just 8 of darkness. So figure out how to spend them best. I find I like getting started early, so be OK with the idea of stopping "early" and hanging out for a few hours at camp if we make good time. Other days the mileage may be agonizingly slow, it's ok, just take it as it is and stay on the right route LOL.

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 25L Bears Ears pack + Bearikade bear can which for just a few oz give you a great hipbelt, more comfortable center-of-gravity and easier packing for the bear can. I'm really interested but the Bears Ears are extremely niche and in short supply so it's not a certainty I will be able to snag one. Such a pack would raise the ceiling of the resupply-less trip durations I would be able to make in the future, which is the sort of strategic optimism that I love.

Fly to FAT, then hitchhike to Road's End. Chat up anyone else with a backpack and try to make friends. Carry cash and offer to pay for gas. Apparently this is a fairly routine method of getting to Road's End so it should work.

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!

Forecast: Cedar Grove

I am debating between shorts and pants as primary bottom. I will have some sort of shorts and pants, I just don't know what I'll hike in the most. On the one hand, the weather should be quite warm and shorts will be more comfortable, on the other the UV exposure in high summer is intense.

Gear Questions

  • pack: hoping to pick up a Nunatak Bears Ears pack this spring. If I do I might rent a Bearikade and then eventually buy one maybe next year. If I can't grab a Bears Ears I'll probably do a Pa'lante Desert Pack and my BV450, I think my HMG would be overkill but we'll see.
  • shelter: do I need bug protection? How miserable might I be without it? The weather is usually great so I'd love to go minimal as long as I won't be miserable...
  • stakes: I prefer the DAC stakes now. I've used titanium shepherd hooks on my 2 previous JMT hikes and they worked fine, but the SHR will have camps in rougher terrain and I'll bring sturdier stakes
  • pants: Dan says there isn't enough granite-scraping even in off-trail Sierra travel to justify pants over the weight of Patagonia Terrebone joggers, which are about 6 oz. this suggests either dance pants or maybe joggers? but as a weight weenie, I think I'll do shorts + dance pants.

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 - hike or rest
  • Day 9: travel / rest day
  • 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/