Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board JMT/Mather Pass info needed pls....

Our Kings Canyon loop has been moved up to Labor Day weekend.

We will need to go over Mather Pass in the dark heading north. Anything tricky or any details I need to know?

We will depart Roads End at midnight, head up through Paradise Valley before jumping on the JMT north bound. Pichot Pass will be in the day light, but we need to get over Mather and down a few thousand feet before resting for a few hours. Day two will bring us west and then south into the middle fork - through Simpson and back to where we started after clearing Granite Pass.

Any info on Mather or on the route in general would be appreciated..............................................DUG

try and get an early start coming out of Simpson meadow, its a real slog (and HOT) going up to Granite Basin

I dayhiked Simpson once - well I at least tried to - took 25 hours.

We will start our day two north of Mather Pass some where. From my failed dayhike, I know that we need to be leaving Simpson by 10:30 or 11:00 at the latest.

We have 48 hours for the 76 mile loop. Sleep is optional. ........................................DUG

I just went through there last month, sorry you will be going over Mather Pass in the dark - the Upper Basin was one of my favorite areas. If you see ranger Rick Sanger say hello.

You mentioned stopping to rest below Mather northbound. Upper Palisades Lake rather than Lower has flat areas to rest/tent. I've never camped there, just passing through. Harvey

Mather would be no problem in the dark. The south side has a few long switchbacks. On the north side the Golden Staircase has many short switchbacks.

If you get well past Palisade Lakes before you want to stop for a rest, there are many suitable locations to crash for a while once you get down to Deer Meadow (and lower) along Palisade Creek.

The Middle Fork trail down to Simpson is a good trail with very little up and down and would be easy to follow in the dark - that was a welcome change for me because the Middle Fork trail from Tehipite to Simpson is very bad, easy to lose even in daylight, and full of up and down.

Make sure you stop for a minute to enjoy Devil's Washbowl. There won't be much water this time of year, but it's a nice spot.

Harvey/Lambertiana - Thanks for the great info. Schedule has us around Mather at 8 PMish. We expect to bivey around 11 pm for 3-5 hours. Still undecided if I'll bother with a sleeping bag/pad this year. Seems a waste to carry something that uses so much room in my pack and only use it a few hours. The plus side is they will make that few hours so much better...............DUG

Was up Mather Pass a few days ago. Don't remember it being tricky. From my experience of being out on the JMT the last two weeks, sleeping above 10K without a sleeping bag would be difficult.

Aug 6, it snowed.
Aug 7, I awoke to ice on the lake and 18F at 9,000 ft. T-shirts by noon, tho.

other than that, it was usually low 40s in the mornings.

Harvey

We are going to get as low as possible after Mather, considering we will have been hiking for over 22 hours at that point. IF we stay on schedule, we will have about 4 hours to rest/sleep. So, about the time we might start getting too cold, it will be time to roll out anyway. My bag usually works to about 30 or so (rated for 20) and I can always sleep with my clothes on. As long as I have my wool cap and clean, fresh socks I stay warm. Plus I have a cheapie bivy bag and a decent pad. We woke up covered in snow at Crabtree a few years ago - dusted off, packed up and hiked away.

Thanks for the advice - everything helps...................DUG

At 18F and inside my 20F bag, I had socks on feet, liner socks on hands, balaclava, t-shirt, shorts, no long underwear. Get up, get moving. You should be good - Exception would be if injured, wet, or bad wind, but then I had rain/wind gear.

If injured I won't be comfy, but I'll survive. Not bringing rain gear, but I'll have a couple big trash bags and a 99 cent poncho. I'll also have my light weight wind suit. I'll have gloves and my wool cap. Extra socks too. In addition to my under armour shirt I'll have my light weight REI sweater and an under armour long sleeve hike shirt that I really like. I'll be able to go four layers on top and two below. That with my bag and bivy and even trash bags if it got bad will keep me alive.

Falling asleep will be NO problem after such an exhausting first day. If it's too cold we will have to pull out early and get going. We can nap again a few hours later.

Right now my gear, including bag, pad and bivy all fit in my day pack. Haven't really figured out where to put the food yet. .................................DUG

DUG... take the frosting out of the plastic containers and put it in ziplock baggies... that way you can squish and form it to whatever spare air pockets there are around your gear! Food problem solved!!!

I so wanted pop tarts to go with my frosting. No room. Though I do have pants pockets.....................DUG

Poptarts squish pretty good too

If you push on for a while after Mather, you will be able to rest along Palisade Creek somewhere below the Golden Staircase, there are a lot of good spots all the way down to the intersection with the Middle Fork trail. Immediately after crossing Mather there are some long switchbacks and a gradual descent to Palisade Lakes. After passing Palisade Lakes you get to the Golden Staircase. When you get to the sign for the Middle Fork trail just turn left and it is easy to follow. It now crosses Palisade Creek a little downstream of where the bridge used to be. At this time of the year it will only be ankle deep.

There are no really good spots to sleep all the way down the Middle Fork trail to Simpson, unless you want to sleep right on the trail.

Thanks for the good info. If we hit Mather as scheduled we will have been hiking for 20 hours. Not sure how much longer we can continue after that. If needed we will take a couple hours rest and then a couple more maybe right in Simpson..............DUG

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0GBpe0a2qeC1Cu479BoDJER1V58HFRrWo

If you're bored. Should start tracking on my way to KC. Hopefully the reception will be better than the Bubbs section of the last hike. Less than 28 hours until start time..............................DUG

If you checked the Spot link you will know that I made the loop and I was way over 48 hours. 62 hours to be exact. There were a few issues with my partner and I ended up solo after Pinchot. I had a little trouble finding the Middle Fork Trail (trust the GPS - NOT the sign). Sausage will indeed go bad by day two and I can tell you this - Simpson Meadow is not the place to find out. I was forced to bivy again below Granite Pass to regain the strength to climb out. Once in the Granite Basin I hooked up with a couple of great guys who stayed with me to make sure I made it out ok. Once over the saddle and down a few thousand feet they stopped for lunch and I made my way to the car.

Mather in the bright moonlight was amazing. The Devil's Washbowl was the highlight of the trip. I guess you could call it a failure since I took 3 days. In the end, what I went through on this trip will make me even better for the next............................DUG