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?

03 goals:

-Hike up to San Jacinto by way of Marion Mtn Trail in 3hrs one way-done
-Hike up to San Gorgonio by way of Vivian Creek Trail in 4hrs one way-done
-Hike up to Half Dome in 3hrs one way-missed by 10 min
-Day hike main trail of Whitney in <5hrs one way, then bag Muir on the way back down-done
-Solo day hikes for White Mtn, Mt. Langley, E. Ridge of Mt. Russell, and Charlotte Dome-done

04 goals:

-Climb 3rd Pillar of Dana
-More day hikes in the Sierras
-JMT in a week or less, self-supported
-Williamson/Tyndall in a day
-And any last minute, unplanned adventure that comes my way

Good luck to all and remember to be safe!

The rest of you make me seem like a lazy cat laying around.

03 goal
Organize and lead a backpack trip up Mt. Whitney with 7 others (6 first timers)
I got sick and stayed at the Portal, but the 6 first timers made it to the top.

04 goal
Backpack from Toulomne Meadows to Happy Isles which will complete the JMT for me. Include a side trip to Half Dome, maybe Cloud's Rest also.

2003 was a great year. Highlights were
1. Mt. Hood solo
2. Mt. Adams solo
3. Mt. Thielsen (Ore)
4. Mt. Charleston
5. Mt. Wheeler (Nv)
6. Sacajawea (Ore)
7. Eagle Cap (Ore)
8. Mt. McLoughlin (Ore)

2004 goals:
1. Mt. Jefferson (Ore)
2. Mt. Baker (Wa)
3. Mt. Olympus (Wa)
4. Mt. Shasta
5. Mt Whitney (Mtn/R)
6. Boundary Pk (Nv)
7. Mt. Borah (Id)
8. Mt. Ritter

I got into county highpointing and found it to be a great pursuit. See cohp.org for more info.
Others on my hoped for list for 2004 will be White Mtn, Mt. San Gorgonio, and Glacier Peak (Wa).
Long term goal is to do all of the Calif 14'ers
and a bunch of the Colorado ones.

I just started to hike this last year (2003) at the young age of 38. I did a few warm-up hikes, like Baldy, between March and July. I stood at the top of Whitney August 5 (the day before my birthday - a nice present indeed) with my three friends.

2004 looks like Reds Meadow to Yosemite, and maybe in and around Trail Peak... we'll see!

VeloMan... this has been a fun thread to follow, but you never said what YOUR 2003 and 2004 goals were! C'mon...

Thanks for asking Rosabella.

2003 Goals:

1. Rehab my seriously injured left leg( on going process)
2. Start to take my infant daughter on day hikes( completed)
3. Not climbing related but, continue to loose the 30lbs that I gained from being layed up by bicycling more.( In progress, rode 1500 miles between May and New Years, lost 40lbs)

2004 Goals:

1. Do Whitney by main trail.
2. Continue to take my daughter and new son on day hikes.
3.Get my fitness level back up to where it once was.
4.Start to do more agressive routes on climbs that I used to do before I became injured
5. Hike, hike and hike some more.

These are just my fitness related goals.Next to the more aggressive members on this board my goals look kind of weak. But, I will have fun doing what I do.

2004 Goals:

1. Mt. Whitney via anyway that involves my feet and hiking.
2. Mt. Conness
3. Something with talls rocks in the Minarettes.
4. Start medical school.

Hopefully one of those will happen. Good luck to everyone in their goals for 04.

Not to get attacked by mountain lions, that is my goal.

Kevin,
At first I didn't know why you would say something that like, that is, until I looked in this morning's e-newspaper.Good Heavens, this reminds me of "The Ghost and the Darkness".

LOS ANGELES -- A mountain lion attacked and severely injured a bicyclist in an Orange County park and may have killed a man whose body was found nearby, authorities said.

Authorities shot and killed a 2-year-old male cat hours later near where the man's body was found. They were "pretty confident" it was the animal that attacked and took it to a laboratory for testing on Friday, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.

Anne Hjelle had been riding with a friend in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park shortly before dusk Thursday when the mountain lion attacked her, said Orange County Fire Capt. Stephen Miller.

The lion pounced on the 30-year-old's back, grabbed her by her head and began dragging her, said her friend, Debbie Nichols. Nichols said she screamed for help and grabbed Hjelle's legs in a struggle to free her.

"He dragged us down ... about 100 yards into the brush and I just kept screaming," Nichols said. "This guy would not let go. He had a hold of her face."

Other cyclists in the area threw rocks at the animal until it fled.

"I picked up a rock and threw it at the cat and the rock hit the cat right on the side of the head and the cat took off straight ahead and let go of the woman," Diego Lopez said.

Hjelle was airlifted to Mission Hospital, where she was in serious condition early Friday, a nursing supervisor said.

After the attack, the body of an unidentified man in his 30s was found at the top of a trail near a bicycle. Authorities weren't sure how long he had been there and couldn't confirm if the man was killed by the mountain lion, but Miller said, "it's pretty obvious that an animal was involved." An autopsy was planned Friday.

Authorities said a second mountain lion in the area was hit by a car and killed late Thursday and would also be tested.

Including Thursday's incident, there have been 13 mountain lion attacks on humans in California over the past 114 years, said Doug Up****, a biologist with California Fish and Game Department. In those cases, there were five fatalities, he said.

"The probability of somebody being attacked by a lion is extremely rare," Up**** said. "There is a better chance of being struck by lightning than being attacked by a lion."

Thursday's attack was in a southern Orange County park adjacent to the communities of Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills and Cleveland National Forest.

Although the number of attacks is comparatively small, there have been previous sightings and attacks nearby.

Last September, game wardens shot and wounded an aggressive mountain lion spotted near an equestrian center in San Juan Capistrano. The lion was later found and killed, state officials said.

In 1986, 5-year-old Laura Small was attacked while looking for tadpoles with her mother in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park in Orange County.

The girl's mother was able to rescue her daughter whose skull was partially crushed by the mountain lion's jaws. She was left blind in one eye and paralyzed on her right side.

Months later, a 6-year-old boy was mauled in the same park. County supervisors closed most of the park to children for nearly a decade. The ban was lifted in December 1997.

Three years later, a state law was passed prohibiting people from hunting or killing mountain lions.

The threat of mountain lions has become an increasing problem in Southern California as development encroaches upon rural areas that have been home to various animals.

Up**** estimates there are between 4,000 and 6,000 adult lions roaming the Golden State, with usually five to seven mountain lions per 100 square miles.

I read a article a few months back written by a zooligist I think that said mountain lions are begining to lose there fear of people and are seeing them as part of there food chain now. A few years ago a off duty sherrif disapeared in Angeles Crest while running a local trail and has not been seen since some think he is the victom of a lion attack. SOME experts think that attacks will continue to rise in the future. Do a google and look at the statistics of attacks in California it is scary. Fortunetly the whitney region has seen no attacks. Hike safe and carry pepper spray.

Talking about Mountain Lions in the Whitney Region; are there still lions in the Mt.Williamson area of Bighorn Park or did the FS remove/kill them all so they didn't feed on the sheep?

In John Muir's time the Whitney area must have been beautiful with all of the Bighorn sheep, mountain lions, bears, elk, the land was still green and had water, untracked mountains.Things have definately changed.It's still beautiful but in more barren desert way.

DH, While you are correct about the elk not being indigenous, let me clarify my statement a little. I wasn't referring to the black bears that have a strong population now, what I had in mind was the Grizzly Bear population that is non-existent.
The lions of the area are slowly regaining their population, but surely their numbers are nothing close to what they were in 1873 when Muir first visited the area. There was an article in my local newspaper a couple of years ago that talked about the lion and Bighorn sheep population and how they coexist. Basically, the sheep population has been on the decline in recent years and in an attempt to prevent further loses the Fish & Game Dept was either re-locating lions or killing the more aggressive ones in an attempt to bring back the sheep population.(Sounds like F&G are playing God)Maybe Bob R has an opinion on this being so close to the area.

As for the arid landscape, from what I have read and the pictures I have seen, the Owens Valley was different in a great many ways in Muir's time before William Mulholland and his LA cronies swindled the local growers out of their land(This is the late 20's, who knows what it looked like in 1873. Clarence King painted a much more colorful picture of the area in his book than what is currently seen). A number of years ago the FS office in Bishop had some before and after pics of the Owens River that snaked through the Owens Valley, it looked quite green in places with many trees and tributaries that branched from the main river. The green that you now see when you descend the final steep grade( heading south on 395) that takes you in to Bishop was no doubt many times larger than it is now and extended to Lone Pine, before Owens River was tapped and made an iron tunnel.

I don't think that Owens Valley and the Whitney area look today like it did in Muir's time, how can it? Owens Lake isn't the only lake that LA tapped and drained, smaller lakes are also gone too, China Lake and the rebounding Mono Lake are also victims. While the area is a high desert and is therefor drier than say Yosemite, I do feel that the Owens Valley does not look like it did in Muir's time in regards to both the flora and fauna.

As to Lion-urban interface the lions are now losing there fear of humans. Prior to the hunting ban they had good reason to fear human contact. Now they are losing that fear and see humans as a potntial food source and one that is easier to com by in many cases than say rabbit or deer. I think for both lion and people it may be wise to lift the ban and allow limited hunting. This would once again give the lions somthing to fear about humans and reduce the risk of further attacks. In the last 100 years there have only been 11 fatal lion attacks on humans but of those eleven 6 have occured in the last 5 years. And non fatal attacks have significantly increased in the last 8-10 years since the ban on hunting. Think about this. Lions have always been hunted whether by indians, settlers, early mexican inhabitants and then as game in the most recent
past. Now they have ablolutley no predetors and nothing to fear, as a result there numbers have sky-rocketed in the last few years and will continue to do so. This may sound great to some enviromenilist but this is not what nature intended. Lions are not intended to live in an environment with zero natral or un-natral predetors. There needs to be a common sense approuch in dealing with this problem. Sorry for the spelling errors.

There have been 13 mountain lion attacks on humans in California over the past 114 years, five of them fatal. (Actually, those numbers now have to be increased to 15 and 6.) The numbers are too low to draw a statistically valid conclusion, but there is no evidence that lion attacks have kept up with human population growth.

Although they are rare, and years go by with no attacks on humans, it would not be surprising if attacks were becoming more frequent, given the pressure on the lion habitat -- even without any change in lion behavior.

You are much more likely to be killed by bees than lions. Maybe we should open up bee hunting first. :-)

>The sheep are diminished, in part because of
>domestic grazing (which Muir helped bring to the
>Sierra)

I'd like to step up and defend John Muir on this point. While it is true that one time he led 2000 or so sheep up to Toulomne Meadows for summer, as recounted in <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/frameindex.html?http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/my_first_summer_in_the_sierra/">My First Summer in the Sierra</a>, he did so much in <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/frameindex.html?http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/life/">the rest of his life</a> to <em>defend</em> the Sierra from grazing (among other threats) that on balance this statement just isn't fair.

Read his biography (_Son of the Wilderness_); this same contention is refuted therein, as I recall.

Similar complaintts of Mr. Muir was made in regard to lumbering (because Muir operated a mill in Yosemite Valley for a few years). Those charges have been refuted, also (Muir cut only trees felled by storms).

MY goal in 2004 is to climb at least 20 14ers in Colorado, which would bring my total to 47. Should be quite doable, and by some chance I get my 20 done early in the season, heck I'll try more. Once I finish the 54 14ers in Colorado, I will move to california and do the 14 that are in the sierras.

Thanks for asking Velo,

2003 Goals:
Summit Whitney, every year, (met)
Summit Whitney with Bob R. (met)
Moonlight departure from Portal (met)
Langley-Muir-Whitney (met)
Summit Thunderbolt Peak (met)
Summit Mt. Russell (NOT MET!)

2004 Goals:
Summit Whitney, every year
Summit White Mtn Peak
Summit Mt Russell
Begin foray into winter moutaineering

long Term goals include hiking towards a summit when ever I can make time, enjoying every outing, bagging all of the California Fourteeners before i reach 50 years of age, Hiking the Muir Trail, and some point in my life, at least one distant exotic peak such as Denali, Acongagua, or kilimanjaro. These are my very modest yet realistic personal goals.

-Rick