Pear Lake & Winter Alta

calicokat · Post by **calicokat** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:30 pm

Norma and I took advantage of the incredibly mild sierra winter conditions of late and took a winter backpack trip into the Pear Lake, Emerald & Heather Lake basin this past weekend. The weather was great, the food was great and the company was great. Just a great weekend.

Giant Sequoias

Norma climbing up "The Hump"

Me at "The Hump"

Sunset From Our Site

An Empty Pear Lake Ski Hut

Mt. Brewer Peaking Out From Above The Ridge To Winter Alta

Last Bit Of Work Before The Saddle

Looking Up At Winter Alta From The Saddle

Black Kaweah, Mt. Stewart, Eagle Scout Peak & The Great Western Divide

Looking East: Mt. Whitney, Table Mtn. & Many Others

Me & Winter Alta

Our Last Night's Sunset

rokclimbr · Post by **rokclimbr** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 8:41 pm

An empty Pear Lodge Ski Hut!? That must be rare! It looks like you had a great trip. What a beautiful area!

lilbitmo · Post by **lilbitmo** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:24 am

Very Nice report Calicokat, pictures are always great as well.

How far from the car did you guys travel, round trip wise, summit wise, was it snow shoes the whole time?

That looks to be a great place to do some winter climbing in a mild winter

Great job all around

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 7:19 am

Freakin' niiiiiiiiice!!!!!

Man! I gotta get out and do a winter overnight. Chompin' at the bit here.

HJ

Illusive · Post by **Illusive** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:09 am

That looks like it was a really fun trip. I love seeing the contrasting snow and dusk sunset.

Dave G · Post by **Dave G** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:10 am

Nice snowscapes, Calico! Odd that the hut was empty--was there any gear in there?
Were you able to summit Winter Alta?

Burchey · Post by **Burchey** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:18 am

Man! Snow! I gotta get up there, I tried to get up Mt Alta a couple years ago in the winter, I think that was my first experience with winter in the mountains. I came from a different angle, didn't have crampons/ice axe, so I wasn't able to summit. I think I took the Panther trail or something (under 4-5 feet of consolidated snow), only got to about 9500 feet before I turned around - picture below is from some saddle there.

calicokat · Post by **calicokat** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:42 am

Thanks for the comments all.

Trip data: 4.0 Miles, +2200' To Heather Lake Camp, 3.5 Miles, +2600' To Winter Alta. Total For The Trip: 15.0 Miles, +5600' (Lots Of Up And Down After Heather Lake)

Dave, I summited Winter Alta. Norma who is much wiser than me

stopped and waited for me at 10,300' to have lunch and soak in the views.

Getting ready to maybe (weather depending) head up to Yosemite next weekend and camp on top of Sentinel Dome, winter camping and great photography

Burchey · Post by **Burchey** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:11 am

calicokat wrote: ↑ Dave, I summited Winter Alta. Norma who is much wiser than me stopped and waited for me at 10,300' to have lunch and soak in the views.

I've read that, although there are some decent views from Alta, that the actual ascent is not that great. NOthing to write home about.

THoughts?

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:17 am

What it "Winter Alta"? Is that just a winter ascent of Alta Pk?

HJ

calicokat · Post by **calicokat** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:30 am

Winter Alta is the highest point on the Alta ridge. It is about a hundred plus feet higher than Alta Peak. We chose this peak due to Avy concerns in the bowl above Pear Lake. I was able to climb to the top with snowshoes on the whole way, don't think that is possible on Alta Peak due to its class three summit block.

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:56 am

it was a geat weekend! plus the terrain and the views were awesome. 3 days in snowshoes makes for strong quads! i came home to "stuff" so i haven't had a chance to load my pix and then yesterday did a suicidal 21 mile hike in the Sespe Wilderness. hope to get my pix up tonight and get back to the western Sierra someday soon to tag Alta and Winter Alta and savor the views i missed from their summits.

thanks for being a great winter partner Jim and your beautiful pix!

Burchey, great photo of you. That's what it's all about... the mountains, the views, the experience.

TracieB · Post by **TracieB** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 5:33 pm

Really nice photos, Jim. Thanks for sharing. Such a beautiful area and I love the views from the west side. Strange that the ski hut was closed. Wonder if it has anything to do with budget cuts in CA?

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:09 am

Tracie, there were 8 people staying at the hut on Friday night. We passed 3 of them as they snowshoed out while the other 5 were skiing down. Saturday there were no guests. Such a shame since it was a beautiful weekend. Perfect weather. Here are a few of my pix:

Me with my favorite tree in the whole world, a Giant Sequoia.

The alpenglow on the Silliman Crest across Tokopah Valley from our camp.

Alta Peak rising above Emerald Lake basin.

The Matterhorn. Cool peaklet above Pear Lake that i would like to climb from every direction.

Icefall above Pear Lake. This one's for you Taco!

Jim breaking trail. We wore showshoes for 3 days. Never touched our axes or crampons.

Winter Alta elev 11,328 stands before us. We will ascend just under the cliffs and then traverse left (east) to the low point in center.

Jim working his way up to the aforementioned low point, while i sit back and wait.

The beautiful open bowls of The Tablelands. A back-country skiers paradise. This one's for you Fritz!

Mount Silliman, elev 11,188 feet

The Watchtower stands like a sentry above Tokopah Valley.

Cheers to a great snow camp. I will be back!

rest of my pix are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma ... eatherLake#

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:30 am

Pretty darn nice!

HJ

mcphersonm80 · Post by **mcphersonm80** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:31 am

Awesome, awesome shots and trip report. Alta Peak is a favorite of mine, proposed to my fiance up there last September. Sitting in a cubicle in the Valley, these pictures are making me extremely jealous.

Burchey · Post by **Burchey** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 1:13 pm

Such nice pics, I'm grinding my teeth right now that I can't be out suffering up those slopes right now. I'd like to try and melt all that snow and drink it with the Reactor HJ sold me...haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Some more from my solo trip of old to that area, it was late winter so the snow was super-solid and deep...no snowshoes required (only postholed once or twice, if memory serves)

Keeping it real near a large tree

Got lucky no weather came through - had a lowly tarp shelter in my pack "in case" - 9500 feet

This guy was hoping I'd have some leftover Buffalo Chicken hurl

Post by **Taco** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 2:32 pm

Tokopah Falls forms up every so often, and has a great view of the Watchtower.

I'm going next time, Norma. 8)