Saber Ridge Traverse - LYD Grant Trip

September 28-29, 2019

At the very least, I can say I learned some things. Not so much about climbing, but about planning and about myself. There were two main factors in my decision-making process for the trip date. The first was that permit quota season ended September 21; the second was that my partner would be out of the state until late September. I chose to gamble a little on the date and plan our trip for the last weekend in September, since September/October in the Sierras is often still good weather for climbing.

Alta Peak - Someday I Might Summit Something

Planning a backpacking trip with someone for a third date is possibly not the best idea I’ve ever had. By far not the worst, but also not the best. I think by that point it wasn’t really a date though. The someone in question had just moved to California a month ago, and despite living on the road for a year of climbing, he had only spent time in the Valley, not the High Sierra. Therefore my concerns about snow above 8,000’ were disregarded, and we decided to climb Alta Peak in Sequoia National Park. At 11,204’, it was well above what seemed to be the 8-9k snowline for much of that portion of the Sierra, but I assumed he’d found a weather report indicating there wouldn’t be much snow where we were. My warnings were less certainty and more erring on the side of extreme caution and assuming the worst. Someday it would be nice to actually have some confidence in what I think conditions will be like for a trip.