EISPIRATEN

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

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

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

Freakin' niiiiiiiiice!!!!!

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

HJ

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

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

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.

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

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?

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

HJ

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.

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.

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?

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#

Pretty darn nice!

HJ

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.

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

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

I'm going next time, Norma. 8)