EISPIRATEN

i'm in chicago for the weekend. it sucks not being able to be in cal and to hike... so instead i've decided to plan out some long trips and hikes. i was wondering if anyone on this board has done any of these? thoughts/advice?

relatively close to town:
1. Sespe Creek to Willet Hot Springs, in and back, 19 miles, not too bad elevation gain.
2. Twin Peaks from Waterman (spring)
3. Cactus to Clouds to the tram - April-May, 11000 feet elevation gain, ~20 miles round or back to trail head, 30 miles, 11000 gain
4. San Jacinto from Idylwild.
5. Olancha Peak from Sage Flat (Sierras) - 20 miles, 6000' elevation gain, 12,200' summit
6. San Bernardino Peak
7. Monrovia Peak, 15.5 miles, 5400' gain
8. Devil's Pbowl to Sturtevant (via Silver Moccasin and Burkhardt trails, 1-2 nights)
9. "Ojai Triple Crown" - Sisar road start, Hines, Topatopa, Chief Peaks, Thatcher school trail end, 28 miles, 7000' gain. http://davidstillman.blogspot.com/


further away:
mount elbert (colorado) 14,433' via south mt elbert trail (11 miles rt, 4800' gain. start early to avoid storms)

mount whitney - i know its common but ive still yet to get up there.

mount massive (colorado) 14422' via the main range/mount massive trail (13.6 miles, 4400' gain)

white mountain 14246' - easy 14'er

mount langley 14026'

mount humphries (arizona) 12633' via weatherford trail (18.5 miles, 4600' gain)

wheeler peak (nv) 13063' via the standard route (16 miles, 3700' gain)

kings peak (ut) 13512' via the henry's fork via anderson pass trail (24.4 miles, 5252' gain)

Numbers 4 & 6 are very enjoyable warmups for number 3. C2C2T and Whitney are both long days, as many can attest to - get as much mileage and altitude prep as possible for both these.

Regarding Langely, make sure you sleep at the trailhead or something. Driving from sea level, or 4,000ft in Lone Pine AND THEN up Horseshoe Badass Road to 10k is a great way to feel horrible. Felt bad the first time, took it easy and felt fine the second.

Olancha Peak is a more enjoyable as a backpack trip in the late spring/ early summer. There is an old wrangler camp at 9200' near the north end of summit meadow. Treat your water, there are cow paddies all over.

thanks guys, thats really helpful info. what did you think of langley, taco?

I have two near-summits of Humphries. Beautiful, wonderful place. Weather is a problem all the time. (snow in fall/winter/spring, huge thunderstorms in summer). Closest I got was 600' vertical, then turned around when my hair stood on end and I heard buzzing in the air. (summer) On my winter attempt, I lost the trail on my way down and got pretty freaked out. But I was a noob then.

Humphries is cool. If you get a good day weather wise, it's not a big deal. I think Whitney is a lot harder. I did an interesting loop over to Fremont Saddle and then XC to the Kachina Trail. Saw some really cool elk on the XC portion of the hike. Beautiful area.

I bivied at the trail head and got a really early start and beat the afternoon thunderstorms.

HJ

MattCav wrote: ↑thanks guys, thats really helpful info. what did you think of langley, taco?

I enjoyed it because I went with real good friends both times. I personally like technical routes, so I did not enjoy the route by itself. We did 32 miles above 10k on our second trip (got AMS first trip, stayed at the lakes, then did Cirque and Langely on the 2nd trip).