imagine a top loading washing machine with the lid closed. Now, open
the lid only an inch. See how the top of the lid slopes gently down to
the hinge? That hinge is located on the west edge of the Sierras,
along the central valley of California. The mountains rise gently from
that hinge getting higher and higher as you move east, away from the
hinge, then when you reach the edge of the lid there is a sudden drop
off. So it is with the east side of the Sierras. It takes only 6-8
trail miles to drop from the very highest peaks of the range to the
valley floor on the east side while on the west side it takes about
70-80 miles to accomplish the same thing. Of course this makes the
east side incredibly steep and the west side quite gentle. Both sides
of our flat washing machine lid, the sloping and the steep have been
gouged by glaciers and rivers over the millinium so those nice smooth
surfaces you have been visulizing are actually very rough with tall
ridges seperated by deep valleys. Sally and I were camped in one of
those deep gouges on the steep eastern face of the range after our
climb.
The east face catches the morning sun rise and all the glorious color
that comes with it. That fact would get us up early to watch the
colors and light play on the walls of granite. It was beautiful.
We packed up and headed for Whitney Portal 6 miles by trail and a
drop of 3600'. We parked the van there a week ago.
Took us until 12:30 to get out. Washed in the van and headed for
Bishop to meet with my brother, Ken. He was headed on a hike out of
Bishop into the Evolution Valley area and we were going to help him
stage his car at the trailhead at South Lake where they would be
exiting.
We had a great dinner in town with them, got gear ready, then hit the
sack.
Chuck
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