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The Haute Route in the Alps is the gold
standard for ski mountaineers to prove
their mettle. Here in the US, the High
Route holds a similar cache. Although
the original Dave Beck route uses
Shepherd Pass as a starting point, the
Sierra Mountain Center picked a Kearsarge Pass variant. It was a 37 mile
trip over 9 passes, including Erickson
Col, Milestone Mountain and Triple
Divide Peak. The end of the trip was at
the Tablelands, above the Pear Lake Hut.
A plane from Fresno took the skiers back
to Independence. Afra was advised that a
good training regimen for this trip
should include skiing with a 40 pound
pack from the top
at Mammoth. One of the team used the
new SPOT gps transmitter, which sends
preset messages (such as OK) to
satellite on a daily basis. This can be
read by family and friends back home to
be sure things are going well. This
locator can be used by search and rescue
if some mishap occurs. A fun way to view
the trip is via goggle earth, using the
SPOT file for the trip as input. Contact
the webmaster if you want to play with
this file.
A more conventional way to
vicariously enjoy the trip is by viewing
Afra's pictures, which includes many
descriptive titles:
Compilation of Trans Sierra pictures by
Serge
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