Taboose-apalooza
August 2019
In the past I’ve talked about the clarity that comes with hiking a lot of elevation gain (physical improvement) and simply existing in wilderness (mental improvement), so it only made sense to do both these things, but more. Go Farther, Stay Longer — and see how I felt. To put it simply, it felt really good.
The inspiration for this trip came partly from reading about Sierra Club high country trips in Francis Farquhar’s “History of the Sierra Nevada” and also from my friend Garrett’s conception of the 9-Peak Bonanza in the Whitney Region. The fates had not aligned for the 9-Peak Bonanza (and I certainly didn’t feel ethically or spiritually comfortable going for it without Garrett), and Bill and Craig had bailed on our planned trip for the weekend, so I decided it was a good time to put my theories to the test and rage over Taboose Pass. Basically just climbing as many peaks as possible over a ~5-7 day period.
The itinerary went as follows:
Day 1: Start hiking up Taboose Pass trail late in the day and camp wherever (very nice plan, as the sun goes behind the ridge in the late afternoon yielding sweet shade)
Day 2: Move camp up to the pass. Then, climb Striped Mountain and Goodale Mountain
Day 3: Climb Cardinal Mountain and move camp to Bench Lake (<– amazing !!!!)
Day 4: Climb Arrow Peak and Pyramid Peak and return to Bench Lake
Day 5: Climb Mt Wynne and Mt Pinchot and return to Bench Lake
Day 6: Enjoy the Arrow Peak view one last time …… and hike back over Taboose Pass back to the trailhead
The trip was eye opening. I am now completely convinced that 5-7 day trips are BY FAR the best way to enjoy the Sierra Nevada. Something changes around day 3 or 4, like a complete familiarity with your surroundings and calming of the nerves, that you just don’t get during a short two day weekend. To make this lifestyle work requires some creativity, especially given the insane work culture here in the USA, but it’s worth it. No job is worth sacrificing your mental and physical health. I got 10 vacation days per year at my corporate engineering job, and used 5 of those to see my family at Christmas. Now that I’m back in the “academic” world, I can take days as needed and work harder (debatable) the rest. Anyway, some of that can be discussed another day.
I’m already dreaming of the 9-Peak Bonanza next year …… and planning more of my own wacky adventures in the Sierra Nevada …… rage on friends ……
PS. The highlights climbing-wise of this trip include the NE Spur of Arrow Peak and the short but techy traverse from Mt Wynne to Mt Pinchot. The NE Spur is firmly within my top ten scrambles of all time — it is long, solid, aesthetic, continuous and challenging and fun. The traverse from Wynne to Pinchot was pretty good but quite short and on clinky metamorphic rock. I recommend weaving around to the east side of the ridge at the first major difficulty. After that, just follow your nose.
