Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Survey: What are your hiking/climbing goals for 2004 & did you meet your 2003 goals?

Survey Says: What are your hiking/climbing goals for 2004 & did you meet your 2003 goals, what were they?

My goals for next year are:

-Backpacking in Glacier National Park

-Winter backpacking in Yellowstone

-Day hike Whitney

-Continue bagging peaks on the Hundred Peaks and Lower Peaks lists.

2003 goals were Black Mesa, OK (trivial dayhike, 4,973'), Wheeler Peak, NM (not so trivial, 13,160') and Mt. Elbert, CO (nice and tall at 14,433'). Three for three, read all about it under "highpointing" on my <a href="http://www.mtritter.org">WWW site</a>.

2004 goal was to have been Rainier, but Scout camp schedules nixed that (summer camp the week of the Highpointers Club convention in WA state). Revised goal is to head out to Salt Lake City the last week of June and climb Kings Peak, UT (13,528', 3-day 24-mile RT backpack) and Borah Peak, ID (12,662', relatively short but very steep day hike). Maybe, time permitting in May, fly out to Portland and do Mt. Hood, OR (11,239' of snow and ice).

...or something like that...

Good question, Veloman!

My 2003 goals were:

1. Do the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim (with a one night lay-over) twice (Accomplished this)

2. Conquer my fear of the Half Dome cables (bombed on this one, in three attempts)

3. Do Shasta to the summit (couldn't do this because of crummy weather near the top)

4. Section hike 100 miles of the JMT in various increments (did this)

5. Do Whitney day hike in 10 hours or under (missed this by a half hour)

6. Do Mt. Baldy, San G. and San J. in three consecutive days (did this, but took the tram down on San Jacinto, so I didn't count this as accomplished since it's cheating).

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2004 Goals are:

1. Do Pikes Peak without using the tram to descend

2. Day hike in Glacier, Yellowstone and the Tetons

3. Try to conquer my fear of the Half Dome cables yet again.. I have tried every year since 1985 and never can do it... pathetic.

4. Do Whitney in 10 hours or less

5. Do at least 3 fourteeners in Colorado
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2003 goals:

day hike whitney MR route (met)
Climb at J-tree (met)
solo leaning tower w. face in a day (rained out)
Do a big wall climb (did not meet)

2004 goals:
climb a Mescalito (el cap route) solo.
Climb fishhook on Russell
Climb E-face whitney
Solo N. ridge lone pine peak
Do a long traverse with a friend ideas:
evolution traverse
palisade traverse
mathes crest traverse
Climb Whitney MR and Russell E ridge in winter
lead more 5.10 trad climbs

I'm sure I'll find others but that is it for now.

Matt

Candace: From this board I have learned Pikes peak has some exposure...master that an Half Dome Cables may not trouble you again.

Also drop into Leadville and hike to Elbert (Colorado's highest) and Mt. Massive next door. Both start at about 10000 feet and use the same access road.

That would give you 3 out of about 53 peaks in Cororado over 14000 feet. As I remember it Leadville is an old mining town, kind of interesting. It is probably the highest town in the nation...at about 10000 feet. It seems like it is about 45 minutes from Vail to the trail head of Mt. Elbert, if I remember correctly.

My main goal is to find a good partner for climbing more peaks. The destinations will just follow, hopefully. I want some more High Sierra peaks to backpack, at least once. I'd love to do some more class 3 peaks, or even brush up on my climbing skills, starting with some class 4.

Going over Taboose Pass is a desire, again, and doing a peak or two there. I need Mt. McAdie, too. Although I'd dayhike that.

I like at least one good day with lots of gain, say Harrington in one day (7,000' gain, class 3).

But, I climb/hike year round, so I hope to shortly make a visit to Eastern Utah to catch the snow on red-rock, for this upcoming holiday. A summer climb in the Winds and San Juans is a long standing goal as well.

Oh, yes, all done safely and successfully, with minimal cost. But it seems few climbing plans work out, so I wind up road tripping, which I find enjoyable as well. Another 12,000 miles of safe driving, hopefully!

2003 goal was to do a thru-hike of the JMT, which I did...sort of. I started in Yosemite, but I had to exit the trail at South Lake when my boots gave out. This put me behind schedule, so I opted to skip that section of the trail, and re-entered the JMT via Kersearge Pass to go on to Whitney from there.

2004 goals are to climb Rainier in July, and do the MR up Whitney.

My main goals for 2003 were (in no particular order):

White Mountain Peak
Mount Whitney
Mount Tallac
Mount Keith
Mount Charleston (Las Vegas)
Turtlehead Peak (in Nevada's Red Rock Canyon)

I did the first three, and will be attempting Turtlehead on Christmas Eve. I saw a report on the news a couple days ago about Red Rock Canyon being closed because of a couple inches of snow (wimps! ), so I don't know if I'll be successful there. I haven't really thought about my goals for next year, but I guess I could start with the ones I didn't get to this year. I'd like to do Half Dome, too.

Thomas,

Mt. Tallac is one of the great under-rated hikes in California. The summit view is great, though the scree and loose rock throughout the hike make it mentally a little bit wearing. When you're in Tahoe, also do Mt. Rose (another fantastic view)and Tinker Knob.

Here's a great page which trip reports and pictures of some of the premiere Lake Tahoe hikes:

http://kevingong.com/Hiking/LakeTahoeHikes.html

Our goals for 2003 were;

1 Ice climbing , Lee Vining canyon (done)
2 Mount Whitney MR ,(done)
3 White Mountain ,(done)
4 Mount Rainier , (done)
5 Mount Shasta , (Did not try)
6 Half dome , (turned back by lightning)

Our goals for 2004 are;
1 Mount Shasta , ( winter ascent)
2 Mount Whitney MR (again)
3 Mount Williamson
4 Mount Rainier ( again)
5 Aconcagua Argentina and more more next year...

2003
-Mt Whitney(dayhike to 13,000ft, went back again for a solo 2 day summit hike)

2004
- Ohlone Wilderness trail
- Mt Tallac
- Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, East Africa

2003:

finally got in the october ascent that completed the cycle - a Whitney ascent in every month of the year

finally had the opportunity to summit Rainier

one of the best trips i've had recently with Rockwell and friends to Williamson/Tyndall

2004:

if i'm still up here, a winter ascent of Baker, Adams and St Helens. the ride down is supposed to be loads of fun on these mountains

a one-day ascent of Whitney in december. that would complete a one-day in each month of the year

Candace,

For scenery and the views, I think Mt. Tallac is probably my favorite of all the hikes I've done. It's one of my most popular Webshots galleries, too (at http://community.webshots.com/album/81806507BGxwcs if you'd like to see it). Mt. Rose and Tinker Knob sound interesting. I'll put those on my "must do" list, as well. I'm looking through the pictures on that site you mentioned, now. I'm getting a lot of ideas! Too bad I live about 500 miles from Tahoe, or I'd go much more often.

2003 Hike Whitney solo (19th time) completed
fish Hitchcock Lakes completed
fish Crabtree Lakes fires discouraged me
unpack my pack uncompleted

2004 High Sierra Trail
More solo hikes over Whitney
no time for any more

Pastor Keith

Thanks for asking.

Goals 2003: Hike up Langley and then Whitney in 3 days. Acomplished but felt a little sick hiking up Whitney in the dark.

Goals 2004: Build up abdominals after my emergency appendectomy (last week). Do some more day hikes between Telescope, Horseshoe, Whitney Portal. Maybe Arc Dome.

For 2003:
Climb Mt. Whitney a few more times (met).
Meet a few more neat people on this board, and climb Mt. Whitney with them (met).
Climb 10 Sierra peaks I hadn't climbed before (met).
Get through the year without an injury (didn't meet).

For 2004:
Same as above - except for the last one - plus being able to sit here on January 1, 2005, repeating this exercise.

Bob - I always enjoy reading your posts. Thanks for your positive spin on whatever you write about. Keep it up.

CaT

2003 goals
day hike Whitney (failed, stopped at trail camp altitude slowed me to a crawl, should have spent xtra night at portal)
Kilimanjaro (summited, awesome trip)

2004
day hike whitney (but with 1.5 days at portal)
MT FUJI (I am in Japan in June)
one more TBD,

03 Goals

- Red's Meadow to Happy Isles with side trip to Cloud's rest (done)
- Lead six friends up Whitney main trail who had never been there (done - all six summated)
- Whitney via MR X2 (done)
- Russell (stopped at the east peak)
- Muir (Wind prevented)
- Gorgonio in March via Vivian Creek and ski off the north side (done)
- Three day ski tour Crystal Craig in Mammoth (done)
- Three-day ski tour Tuolumne Meadows (stopped by weather)
- Thor, Whitney, Muir and Russell in November (stopped by weather)

04 Goals

- Thor, Whitney, Muir and Russell in on trip.
- Five day hike of the "Grand Canyon" of Tuolumne
- Lead five friends up MR who have never been there.
- Hike and ski Gorgonio in March
- Hike and ski the "Negatives" (June Lake)
- Ski tour out of South Lake
- Palisades in April
- Rainier in June