September 1-2, 2002
The pictures for this "trip" are at http://www.pbase.com/samizdat/alpinism
I went to Alpine County to bag Sonora Peak, the highpoint of the county. Actually, I had wanted to do White Mountain, the highpoint of Mono County. I had tried for that HP a few weeks earlier, but my water pump blew out at 8000', forcing me to limp back to L.A.
This time, I was able to drive to 10,000', but, after driving up the bumpy dirt road after Shulman Grove a few miles, I decided to return as a passenger in someone else's car. I'd already lost a water pump to the paved section of the road, why chance losing an axle to the rocky section?
I had also made a rather stoopid mistake. The website for the White Mountain Research Station said they'd open up the road on September 1. Hey, that's Monday! I thought. I didn't discover my mistake until Sunday morning before leaving. Sunday was September 1, and thus Monday was September 2. I decided to go anyway. What's an avoidable extra 4 miles of fairly flat hiking in an area utterly devoid of any protection from lightning anyway? I can jog that no prob.
Anyway, after finding the road less than ideal, I went back to Shulman Grove and took the nature trail in an attempt to acclimatize.
Then, I just kept driving up 395, until eventually I reached a campground (~7000') after dark.
The next day, I tried for Sonora Peak. I made it from 9500' to 10500' before I decided to turn back, partially because there was no one else around. I made it a little past St. Mary's Pass, which is 1000' below the summit. I could have pushed on, I just didn't think it was such a judicious idea.
Perhaps the trip to 10000'+ had been cancelled out by me immediately returning to Bishop (4000'), and then sleeping at 7000' didn't do as much good as sleeping at 9500' would have. I also wasn't as, er, "clear and copious" as I could have been, and I hadn't eaten much. I tried this on Monday; Saturday night I drank a six-pack, then got less than 2 hours sleep. Then I took the long drive, and got less than 8 hours sleep at the campground. I was also carrying a heavy pack: many of the ten essentials; rain jacket; rain pants; fleece jacket; sweater; gloves; GPS; and, last but not least, that goshdarned 2-pound-or-so-with-spare-batteries Minolta DImage 5 with which I take these fine shots for you, the travelling commentary consuming public.
I wasn't using my trekking poles because I hadn't autoclaved them since this unfortunate experience.
Anyway, excuses aside, I decided to do the touron thing and took some pics of Mono Lake. When you find yourself panting while walking back up the tourist trail at (~7000') Mono Lake, something is the matter. I haven't felt 100% for the past couple weeks; gaining 1000' or walking on a tourist trail should have been easy for me. The panting also interfered with my attempts to do the Philip Greenspun thing with a visiting climberette who was also doing the touron thing. Hopefully I can return after that something has worked itself out. In the meantime, let's never speak of this episode again.