Quite thick in the Valley ,started yesterday Friday 6 Aug. More this AM. Not that bad in the Portal Sat morning but until the wind shifts it could get Smokey in the Portal and upper elevation,a good N95 mask should be handy .Bears still active breaking into cars nightly. Taking packs left out.

When will there be peace in the valley?

Was in Onion Valley Saturday 8/7 climbing Independence Peak. Morning was mostly blue skies with some haze but the valley was thick with haze/smoke (basically smoke that was a bit less dense in color). Barely smelled anything at first then the smoke smell came and went a few times throughout the day.

There is a KN95 mask (get a box of them for cheap at Lowes) that were absolutely essential on Cirque Peak last year with the Complex fire to the west. But the masks do not protect the eyes. On Cirque it was great most of the day then afternoon we were moving as fast as we could as the smoke dropped in big time. We had the KN95 masks, which, yes, they suck to wear at altitude, but they helped cut down on the smoke a lot.

The fire up north is going to burn for quite a while. The amount of smoke in the Inyo Valley and Whitney areas will vary. It was pretty thick haze this past weekend. And the upper elevations were not spared.

Did 3 days up and down Baxter Pass. Going up on August 6 to a blue sky, looked back down valley and what appeared a thick fog bank filled the valley...almost like the wall of smoke that stopped our HST attempt last year. Over the next couple of days we had haze but never a smell of smoke (with very early mornings more clear). Can't even imagine having to climb that pass in a N95!

Harvey came by yesterday on his way east , best smoke report "why bother can't see , can breath and hot" we had 17 drops of rain yesterday, wind and cloudy until late aftenoon .This AM smoke in the Valley not much in the Portal and a light breeze , Heard LP set a heat record yesterday but then we hear bears are taking packs , How could that be when the packs are secure in the bear lockers?

The bears are competing with each other to see who can be the first to steal 200 packs. They call it the Crazy Pack Challenge.

Thought I might get away from the smoke in Death Valley...


Looking down towards Badwater.



The Sierra should be out there...

At least it didn't smell like smoke on the Tele Trail.

Oh, and on a positive note, the Park Service has a contractor out there grading the dirt roads...up to Mahogany Flat with a normal car is possible for at least the short term... (graded on 08.19.21)