Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline Country

by Steve Roper

* Author conceived and pioneered the Sierra High Route

* Covers Kings Canyon National Park to northern Yosemite National Park

* Each route chapter includes points of interest, maps, approach instructions, and directions



No ordinary guidebook, Sierra High Route leads you from point to point through a spectacular 195-mile timberline route in California's High Sierra. The route follows a general direction but no particular trail, thus causing little or no impact and allowing hikers to experience the beautiful sub-alpine region of the High Sierra in a unique way.



With access points noted along the way, the route can be broken into week-long segments, and hikers can choose segments for their skill level. Each of the five route chapters includes an overview highlighting geographical and historical points of interest, maps, difficulty ratings, approach instructions, safety considerations, directions, alternate routes, and accessible non-technical climbs.

Genres: Climbing

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Tinker · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book changed my hiking life.

sometimes it seems what he proposes will be impossible. but then you do it. i try to avoid trails now wherever possible. theres a whole world out there...

[Dayna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so want to do this, but realize I would be out of my skill set for a lot of it. And, I'd have a hard time convincing my husband. Perhaps I do sections of the PCT first, and see how that goes ...
Wow. Inspirational. I could almost visualize a lot of it.

[Richard]

I think I bought this just after I did the Rae Lakes loop, back in 2010, and decided I had to do the JMT.

But I don’t think I read much of it.

I hadn’t explored too much of the southern Sierras yet, and heading up Woods Creek (I think) I met another solo backpacker coming down who said he was completing the High Sierra Traverse, or something like that. I had the impression it was a route going across from east to west, and I was curious. Much later, I discovered he was probably on the High Sierra Trail (nps.gov, Wikipedia).

I think I picked this book up confusing the High Sierra Trail with the Sierra High Route. Can’t imagine why that was confusing, though 😉. I’d stayed mostly north of Kings Canyon until 2007, though, so both the HST and High Route were barely glimmers of curiosity.

Now, having done the JMT ten years ago, I’m planning on doing the PCT next year, and I’m spending a lot of time reading my trail books, hungry for my next backpacking trip.

I’m delighted at this one so far. I haven’t gotten to the route yet, though. The history of exploration has me absorbed. I was breezing through, recognizing many of the locations, but steadily growing more frustrated I couldn’t visualize each part within the widening picture.

So I’ve gone back to the beginning of Chapter One, “The Explorers”, and reading it again with my maps (or their digital equivalents 😞).

So far, I’ve discovered that John Frémont didn’t get too far, at least as a Sierra explorer. After “discovering” Lake Tahoe on his second expedition he crossed just north of Tahoe — presumably via Donner Pass, one year before the Donner party’s disaster gave it that name — and then headed south down California’s Central Valley, hoping to hook up with the other portion of his expedition.

Roper tells us Frémont headed back into the mountains until he got stuck at the headwaters of the North Fork of the Kings River. (Wikipedia says nothing of this, but their focus isn’t really about the exploration of the Sierra Nevada.) That would put him at Blackcap Basin, and it isn’t too surprising he didn’t make it further east, since that’s barren land just above the treeline at 10,000 feet. To the east is the sharp ridge of the White Divide, another steep thousand feet up.

If his crew had spent enough time up at Cathedral Lake (above Chapel Lake 😁), though, someone may have spotted Finger Col, which may have gotten them into even more trouble, since that’s really getting into no-mans land.

I can’t live-link to a great flickr image, but you can click through to it here. That’s the col center left, above Cathedral Lake.

Next up… Brewer and Hoffman.

[Laird Henkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been aware of the Sierra High Route for a while, but just got around to reading this book. I had assumed the book would be primarily technical (like Secor's guide to peaks, passes and trails), and I had plenty of on-trail trips to plan. But this book is a great read even if you have no intention of actually completing this trip. Roper is an entertaining writer and he includes excellent information on early Sierra explorers and fun tidbits throughout on natural history and geology. I was surprised to find this to be a book that I sat down and read cover to cover. Highly recommended for those interested in hiking in the Sierra Nevada.

[BA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am preparing for a hike in the high Sierras and read about this book online. I knew it wasn't a detailed account that you could use to plan out a trip, but still a great account of Steve's decades in the Sierras. It was very interesting to read about the early explorers that the various landscape features were named after, and this history of each of the summits. With these accounts, came a detailed background of each segment of the Sierra's. This is the perfect book to review as you look at the detailed topo maps and understand the layout of the area before you plan your route.

I highly recommend this for anyone who is planning a trip (or has previously explored the JMT area that runs south of the High Sierra.

[David Thomley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely unique hiking book relying on an expert's intuition and deep understanding of the Sierra range.

[Scott Sargent]

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[Bowen Dwelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guide comes as close to my vision of the high sierra as I've yet found. For someone interested in rambling through the highest of the Sierra high country, off trail and walking up 1st, 2nd and 3rd class peaks but not mountaineering, this is the book. Planning to do some of the route this summer!

[Tom Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have done much of the High Route but not all of it.