2026 Jul SHR RoadsEnd2Mammoth

  •   Category Price Weight
  • Food $65.13
    9.04 lb
  • Clothes, Worn $0.00
    0 lb
  • Kitchen $184.00
    2.06 lb
  • Sleep $453.00
    1.71 lb
  • Pack $240.00
    1.22 lb
  • Water $2.00
    1.18 lb
  • Clothes, Carried $208.32
    1.15 lb
  • Electronics $118.11
    0.86 lb
  • Shelter $419.00
    0.74 lb
  • Ditty $27.78
    0.2 lb
  • Toilet $1.00
    0.01 lb
  • Navigation $65.00
    0.01 lb
  • Total $1783.34 18.2
    lb
    • oz
    • lb
    • g
    • kg
  • Consumable 10.23 lb
  • Base Weight 7.97 lb

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Next: not sure yet...

Route

SHR Kearsarge-Mammoth

The goal is an ~8 day trip along the SHR/JMT. 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 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 but strain the shoulders. 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 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 RNO, shuttle to Independence, hitch to Onion Valley.

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 1: Road's End / Bubbs 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)

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.