Past the break is a very long quasi chronological sequence of photos following the 2017 Wilderness Travel Course in Orange County with most being specific to Kaweah Group led by myself and Paul Warren along with a staff of extremely hard working volunteers.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts on WTC by me can be found here.

This was the sixth year since we launched Kaweah Group as the third group in the Orange County section of the Wilderness Travel Course.  After having such a strong group in 2016 this year's had a lot to live up to.   Fortunately we ended up with an amazing group of people who blew us away the very first night with how much fun we were having and followed that up with one of the most active years on record.

This was also the end of an era as it was the last year volunteering for a good number of the staff including long time Whitney Group leaders Edd Ruskowitz and John Cyran and Kaweah staffers and personal friends Paul Warren and Laurent Hoffman.

Due to this 2018 will see Modjeska Group and Whitney Group being retired and the launch of two brand new ones named Olancha and Ritter.  And of course the concentrated awesomeness that is Kaweah will continue.

Mount Starr King is a granite dome located near Half Dome and is one of the 247-ish peaks on the Sierra Club Sierra Peak Section list.  It's higher than Half Dome though it lacks the massive cliff overlooking Yosemite Valley which makes the other so iconic.

Also unlike Half Dome there are no cables or other mechanisms to get to the summit of Starr King except for doing a bit of 5th class climbing.  This means it's visited a lot less often than it's neighbor.

This would be the 4th time on the summit for Jack Kieffer and I.  We've been leading it biannually for a number of years now and have settled on a relaxed 3 day schedule camping well off the trail.  The nature of the climbing lends itself to being able to safely bring along a decently large group of varying experience levels which makes it ideal for an exciting Wilderness Travel Course Experience Trip.

This time around we had along a group of 16 people with an additional 30+ more who had requested to join but we didn't have room for them on the permit.  And this time it got interesting right off the bat when our trailhead ended up being closed due to to both being technically on fire while also covered in snow...

September 22nd to 24th, 2017

Mount Starr King (9,092')

Day 1: 10 miles, 1,800'

Day 2: 3.3 miles, 2,000'

Day 3: 8.2 miles, 1,700'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This trip came about as an attempt at finding something WTC Experience Trip friendly using a less heavily utilized trailhead without repeating a peak I'd done before.

Koip Peak is on the Sierra Peak Section list while Kuna is the 3rd highest peak in Yosemite behind Lyell and Dana.  Since the peaks are only about 500 ft apart they're easily done together once you get all the way up to 13k.  As an added bonus there's a plane wreck to explore on the saddle between them and some mining ruins at Mono Pass.

September 16th & 17th, 2017

Koip Peak (12,962')

Kuna Peak (13,002')
Day 1: 8.4 miles, 3,300'
Day 2: 16.3 miles, 3,700'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Baldwin has been on my radar for a number of years.  It's most commonly done from the top of Convict Canyon which is an area I looked up at for years while fishing with my father at Convict Lake.  I finally got to go up there in 2010 when I led a trip to climb Laurel and Bloody.  The area was spectacular but the creek crossing on the way had caused us a bit of trouble.

Jeff Atijera and I had tried to do Mount Baldwin a few years later only to be told by the permit office that the stream crossing was too difficult and they wouldn't issue us a permit.

Kristen and I decided to try again this year scheduling it in September when theoretically the stream crossing would be at its most manageable.  And as an added plus we got a nice view of the peak from the top of Red Slate a few weekends before.

September 9th & 10th, 2017

Mount Baldwin (12,598')
Day 1: 6.35 miles, 3,100' gain
Day 2: 10.93 miles, 2,500' gain

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Labor Day happen later enough in the summer that we're all usually in fairly good backpacking / climbing shape. After a particularly memorable outing to Seven Gables and Gemini a few years back a few of us made a minor tradition of going out and doing something fairly significant with the weekend.

Last year's Labor Day trip had been a rough one after we froze our butts off on Royce and Merriam and ended up coming out a day early. This time we were hoping for something a bit more pleasant.

Jeff hit on the idea of approaching the SPS peaks Rogers and Electra from the south via the Isberg Pass Trailhead. This had the advantage of being a less heavily used area (we barely saw anyone) and getting us a fair amount of new trail.

He did happen to slightly underestimate the mileage to Twin Island Lakes but hey, what's a few bonus miles between friends...

September 1st to 5th, 2017

Electra Peak (12,442')

Rodgers Peak (12,978')
Day 1: 16.1 miles, 4,400'
Day 2: 7.3 miles, 3,100'
Day 3: 7.1 miles, 3,600'
Day 4: 15.4 miles, 2,100'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Duck Lake Peak isn't on the Sierra Peaks List (or any other lists that than I'm aware of) but it's a moderately accessible named peak in a spectacularly beautiful area of the Eastern Sierra that lends itself to a two day overnight backpack with the option to camp beside a lake.  So pretty much exactly what I look for in a WTC Experience Trip except for the fact it's too high for campfires.

I was also particularly excited for this trip because we planned to hiked between trailheads of Lake Mary and Lake George in Mammoth Lakes.  I've been going to that area for fishing trips with my dad since long before I started climbing mountains and I was looking forward to finally getting a good look at the terrain I'd been staring up at for all of those years.

This was also the trip that resulted in Jen Blackie having to sell her trusty Toyota Scion after mechanical issues stranded us on the way back home.  Because you can't have things going too smoothly.

August 26th & 27th, 2017

Duck Lake Peak (12,051')

Day 1: 5.3 miles, 2,000' gain

Day 2: 11.2 miles, 3,000' gain

[Pics] [Caltopo] [Map]

I'd been back in town for three whole days following last weekend's trip to Red Slate so of course I was chomping at the bit when Thursday night came around and it was time to head for Mineral King!

This was a repeat of a trip I'd led back in 2011 which I'd really enjoyed despite suffering through legions of mosquitoes.  In addition to including my namesake peak it's just a really pleasant three day trip on the easier end and the Mosquito Lakes area seems to be a little less trodden than a lot of the other areas where we run comparable experience trips.  And of course it's Mineral King so the views are always spectacular.

August 18th to 20th, 2017

Hengst Peak (11,146')

White Chief Peak (11,159')

Miners Ridge (10,823')

Miners Nose (9,423')

Day 1: 6.4 miles, 2,100'

Day 2: 7.7 miles, 2,400'

Day 3: 6.4 miles, 700'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Red Slate is another one of those peaks that I've had on my radar for a number of years there was always some reason it didn't happen.  There's also the rather rad looking technical snow route from the north that was always damn tempting to attempt vs the walkup route from McGee Pass or Lee & Cecil Lakes.

But this year I was on a roll and looking for non repeat trips that would work as Wilderness Travel Course Experience trips.  Red Slate makes for an almost ideal 3 day that gets you over the Sierra crest and has the added advantage of taking you up McGee Creek which is one of the more spectacular trails on the east side.

So when Ross Doering showed interest we threw together a trip and a few short -ish months later we were off!  We'd planned it for August figuring the snow on the pass wouldn't be an issue but the winter of 2017 turned out to be a very high snow year with snow lingering until the end of summer.

August 12th to 14th, 2017

Red Slate Mountain (13,123')

Day1: 12.5 miles, 4,200'

Day 2: 7 miles, 3,000'

Day 3: 12 miles, 1,500'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

After last weeks car stranding adventure in Mineral King I was looking forward to a nice straightforward buttkicker.

Enter GOOOOOOOOOOOAT!  Two days!  One peak!  5k up the first day followed by 2k up and 7k down the second!  Most of which was to be done with full packs.


Despite some initial skepticism potential participants were eventually won over by my constant wandering around yelling GOOOOOOOOOAT! at them and we ended up with 11 people meeting us at the trailhead at the end of the 180.

August 5th & 6th, 2017

Goat Mountain (12,207')

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

The first thing that always occurs to people when you mention Mineral King is the ever present threat the marmots pose to vehicles left at the trailhead.  So when I say we ended up with a vehicle dead in the water and having to be towed down you (and my Facebook feed) would probably assume marmot damage.  Aaaand you'd be wrong...

This trip was heading in specifically to climb Vandever Mountain which Kristen and I previously attempted in 2014 and failed when we couldn't find a route up the northern ridge.  This time we were planning to do the allegedly 3rd class (it's not) northwestern ridge and use the approach as an excuse to look at the White Chief Cave system.  I wasn't expecting too much there but it ended up being the highlight of the trip!

July 28th to 30th, 2017

Vandever Mountain (11,947')
Cirque Cave
White Chief Cave
Day 1: 4.5 miles, 1,900'
Day 2: 5.48 miles, 2,700'
Day 3: 2.85 miles, 0'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

After last weekend's mosquito fest of an attempt on Stanford North was turned back by snow I was just a bit concerned for this weekend's trip to Warren.   But not enough to do something drastic like not go to the mountains of course.

Mount Warren seems to be done more popularly as a dayhike from Tioga but there's a route up from Lundy that climbs Lakes Canyon past a really nice lake called Oneida.  Even better the trailhead is non quota and you're allowed to have campfires.  Mileage was extremely reasonably making it seem like an ideal candidate to make a two day WTC Experience Trip.

July 22nd & 23rd, 2017

Mount Warren (12,327')

Warren Fin (12,160')
Day 1: 3.9 miles and 1,950'
Day 2: 10.06 miles and 3,000'

[Pics] [Caltopo] [Map]

Thanks to the heavy snow year regular backpacking trips to the Sierra had been pushed back a bit.  But here we were in the middle of July which is when I'd conservatively hoped the snow would be manageable and it was time to finally start climbing high!

This was also a Sierra Club I provisional for Gracia Plascencia.  I was here to eval which is why I was attempting this peak for a third time.

The first time I turned back 200 ft from the summit with some students who were really struggling and ended up not getting them back to the trailhead until midnight and not getting back to Orange County until 6 am.  The second time I made the summit only to be nailed by a rainstorm which proceeded to soak us for the entire 5 hour hike out.  Then there was this trip where the mosquitos were epic, we nearly lost someone during a stream crossing, and we couldn't summit due to a section of steep snow.

I'm really starting to think this area is just bad luck for me...

July 15th & 16th, 2017

Mount Stanford (Attempt) (12,838')

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Iiiiiiit's Sierra trip season!  Kind of!

Hockett isn't on any peak list I'm aware of it's just one of those out of the way named bumps that is just prominent enough to make it interesting.  I've been eyeing it for a few years but it was always an aggressive bonus peak on longer trips and never worked out.

So we decided to make a weekend out of it.  The Jerky / Lloyds Meadow trailhead is nice because it's a non quota trailhead that seems to open relatively early compared with some others in the area *and* the only major stream crossing has a bridge!  Perfect for an early season backpack.

The only downside is you need to get there before it gets to warm and we were pushing it here going in late June with forecasts going into the 90s thanks to a heat wave hitting California.  But we figured we could manage.

June 24th & 25th, 2017
Hockett Peak (8,552')

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This trip was originally a two day to Kern Peak led by Garry McCoppin and Ross Doering.  That changed to Deer and Crag after the trailhead for Kern still wasn't opened a week before the trip.  And then when Garry needed a last minute replacement leader I jumped at the chance to get out from under the aftermath of moving the previous weekend.

I'd already been out this same trail just one month earlier scouting route options on Crag which was a bit of a bummer but on the other hand I already knew a really nice campsite and a pile of firewood that hasn't been used.  And as this trip was primarily intending as a Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course experience trip we had a nice diverse group.

Friday night 13 of us drove for Kennedy Meadows and spent the night at the campground.

April 30th, 2017

Scodie Mountain (7,294')

9.8 miles, 2900' gain

[Pics] [Map]

This was another Sierra Club I provisional for an Orange County Wilderness Travel Course staffer and this time it was Dennis Loya aka Bear from Modjeska Group.  Since it was just a day hike this one didn't count for students needing an experience trip but it was a good chance to get out and hike a pretty area that's only a few hours from LA.  Plus they got to hang out with us!

This was the second weekend outing of the 10 week Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course (aka WTC).  Previously the group had joined us for a long dayhike designed to give everyone an idea of the fitness level required to complete course and now we would be spending the weekend scrambling around on rocks in Joshua Tree and practicing navigation using compasses and topo maps.

And since we're Kaweah Group (one of the three groups in the Orange County area of WTC) we like to throw a theme into the mix for our summit shot and potluck.  Themes are suggested and voted on by the class and previous years have run the gamut from simple to elaborate and we carry the costumes with us to the summit of the peak.  This year the winner was a combined theme of enchanted forest / animals the result of which you can see above.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts on WTC by me can be found here.

February 11th & 12th, 2017

Peak 4377 (4,377')

[Pics] [Map]

February 4th, 2017

Mount Wilson (5,713')

[Pics] [Map]

This was a free weekend for me WTC-wise falling between the conditioning hike and Joshua Tree for Orange County.  Normally I'd run out to the desert and climb something however those plans were killed at the last minute due to the need to stay local and reserve WTC campsites for next year.

Jack Kieffer was nice enough to invite me along to do the conditioning hike with his group so I decided to take the opportunity to see a new trail.

The 2017 Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course has been running down here in Orange County for three weeks which means it's finally time to start hiking!

For the next 2 months in addition to class on Tuesday night we'll spend every other weekend hiking, rock scrambling, doing map and compass navigation, snowshoeing, and finally backpacking for two nights and three days into the snow at 9000 ft.  And if you've been paying attention to the snow levels this year snow activity is looking damn promising.

But first we get everyone out for a good long dayhike to prepare them for what's to come.  This year the heavy rains caused us to make a last minute change from Santiago Peak via Holy Jim to Mount Wilson from Sierra Madre.

January 29th, 2017

Mount Wilson (5,713')

[Pics] [Map]