The alpine of the Eastern Sierra might be the most special place in the world to me. It is my most reliable place where “the magic happens” for true mountain adventures. As with any real adventure, it requires some amount of uncertainty and typically struggle. So its with this in mind and inspired by The Sierra High Route, I played around with the idea, “what would it look like if I created my own off-trail route through the Sierra via obscure, untraveled terrain with the goal of staying in wild alpine for as long as possible?”. I thought creating my own route and not taking someone else’s would provided the best test-piece for my own mountain skills and physical ability.

I definitely got an adventure. I planned for seven days, but completed this 80 mile, 23,770 ft elevation gain route over twelve 11,000+ ft passes, up six 13,000+ ft peaks over five physically brutal days which often left me in an under-fueled, exhausted state of delirium. Doing it solo meant I was responsible for judgment calls and also meant I really pushed it physically, often in a Type 2-2.5 “fun” state of mind to prove to myself what I could do. It was so challenging enough mentally that I thought about naming this The Sierra High Pout. You spend enough time in complex terrain and unsettled, long boulder fields and you also can get a lot of close calls. It will mark one of the my most ambitious adventures in the Sierra in the last decade and probably the next.

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