Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Secor or Harrison: Who Do You Trust?

When Secor gives different mileages than Harrison, which do you trust (if either)? One fast example: Secor gives the distance from the Pine Creek trail head to the junction with the Italy Pass Trail as 5 miles, Harrison gives it as 6.4. That's a 28% difference. In this example on clear, maintained trail, the difference isn't going to hurt anyone, but a similar difference if you are trying to work a cross-country route could be a problem.

Also, I found a bad typo in the latest edition of Secor. On page 316 the distance from Italy Pass to Lake Italy is given as 10.5 miles. It should be 1.5. Now that's a mistake that could hurt someone.

Thanks,
Burt

I have found the mileages on Tom Harrison maps very accurate compared to my own mileages from GPS. I heard he uses a measuring wheel and GPS to estimate mileages on most trails.

I have found Tom Harrison's work to be very precise. I'm met Tom, and he is a professional cartographer, so you'd expect that he'd have pride in his work as a mapmaker.

That having been said, things change: trailheads, trails (both have on the main Whitney trail), so maps may become dated. This is where oft updated online resources like climber.org can be very helpful.

Secor has a much larger task, in what his book encompasses. He is the prisoner of the best information that he can get on a huge volume of information. I've always viewed it as a general guide. In the interests of disclosure, I think he lists several things in there that I've told him. I personally can't imagine someone going on a hike in deep backcountry like Italy Pass without looking at a map, and just going by a guidebook. That said, it probably happens.....

If it says the climb is class 30, I think I'd check another source.

I'm kind of a "trust but verify" kind of guy, though.

I've been using a website to figure cross-country ski distances for my planned April 2011 ski tours West of the Crest:
www.mapmyrun.com
you can navi to terrain maps and work from there. assuming rarely is Point A to B a straight line I can at least get pretty good idea of how tired I'll be at the end of the day. I'm always amazed how far the distances are and how small I am in the big scale of the Sierra.
hope this helps