Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Alta Peak

I'm thinking of hiking Alta Peak on Saturday, July 5. Does anyone know if there are fires in that area that might restrict access or cause problems to hikers?

Rafael...

Rafael, if you are able to get to Alta, and you have some seeability and a compass, try to spot Whitney 20.6 miles away at 78 degrees magnetic north (MN), between Triple Divide Peak (75 degrees MN) and Lion Rock (81 degrees MN). Mt. Whitney will appear lower than Triple Divide Peak and Lion Rock, but if the seeing is okay, you can spot it between the two peaks.

Will do! I enjoy taking the compass occasionally and so does my friend Matthew. He doesn't like to rely solely on his GPS and I don't own a GPS. If you ever make it back to Kern county for a visit you should climb Sunday peak. It is very easy but from the top you can take bearings of many Kern county peaks as well as Olancha, Cirque, LeConte, Langley, Muir, Whitney, the Kaweahs, and other spots in the High Sierra.

Rafael...

Rafael, Sunday Peak looks like a great place.

For your viewing pleasure, I compiled a list of 337 named peaks you can see within 60 miles from Sunday Peak. The listing shows exact compass degrees (TN and MN), miles away, and how many degrees above or below eye-level to each peak.

I would be happy to send you a copy in Excel or Word format.

PM me so I can email the file to you. I think you'll have a lot of fun identifying all those peaks.

So has anyone seen Whitney from Alta Peak? Got a picture? I was there a couple of years ago in the snow, took pictures from Alta with my broken camera, had good readings on where Whitney was but was unsure I saw it after I thought some discussion on the board indicated Triple Peak was in the way, and had someone else tell me it can't be seen. With that and having no pictures I can't exactly recall what I saw or didn't. Dang, I'll have to go back.

Awhile back Wayne got me interested in where one can see Whitney so I went through a lot of my photos.

Here's Whitney as seen from Alta (far right of photo):



Here it is zoomed and cropped:



-Rick

Wow, most excellent, Kent! Great work, as always, with your photography.

Rafael, today I Google-Earthed to Sunday Mountain. Now, I am REALLY impressed with the views from that mountain. Until I Googled over there, I did not realize you could see across San Joaquin Valley all the way to the coastal mountains, from Monterey down to Santa Barbara!

I just sent you a new list of 247 additional mountains I calculate that you can see from Sunday Peak, bringing the total to 584 peaks.

One peak is Mount Carmel, south of Monterey, 183 miles away! I think this could be spotted on a perfect-seeing day.

The highest appearing peak you can see from Sunday Peak, as far as eye-level is concerned, is Siretta Peak, which is 17.1 miles away at 42 degrees magnetic north, or 55 degrees TN.

Have fun spotting all those peaks, including Mt. Whitney just 57 miles away at 3 degrees MN. (Four closer mountains appear higher: Sieretta, 42 deg., 17 miles; Cannell Peak, 52 deg., 14 miles; Mt. Kaweah, 353 deg., 52 miles; and Sherman Peak, 21 deg., 19 miles, with all degrees magnetic north.)

Thanks Wayne,

I think few people know about Sunday peak in the Southern Sierra. It is easy to ignore since it is not a high altitude peak but the views are great and it is an easy hike that can involve the whole family. Everyone that lives within a two to three hour drive should definately check it out. It is a Sierra club HPS peak. Anyone wishing to make it a challenging hike could also bag Bohna Peak, (Rick Kent's first peak), and Portuguese peak.

Rafael...

This is from the summit of Sawtooth Peak, out of Mineral King. Taken about two years ago.

You can see the Peak of Needham Mountain in the low left corner.

Rafael sitting on Alta Peak with Whitney viewable just to his left - no good resolution shot. Thanks for putting this trip together. We did a great loop trip going up over Panther Gap and descedning down the tables to Pear Lake and taking the Watchtower Trail back to Wolverton TH. First hike I have done in over a month where visibility was not hampered by smoke. San Juaquin Valley was it's usual layer of smoggy haze though.

Well, since someone already covered the view of Whitney from Sawtooth, I'll throw this one in. Here is the view from Florence Peak above Mineral King. It's wide angle so it makes Whitney look smaller.

Thanks Rick! Great picture.

Hey Tom, Rafael and group. Nice job on Alta. Enjoyed your pix, Tom. Lots of flowers; is that standard for July?

MC

Great pictures tomcat!

My brother and I hope to take your Alta Peak loop route in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, the air will be clear enough to see Whitney.

We've read a little about the route from Alta to Pear Lake and understand that it's an off-trail scramble. On the top you have to go along a ridge to the East and then descend North West towards Pear Lake.

What route did you take? Is it class 3 or higher? How narrow is the top ridge? Is there a steep drop-off towards Pear Lake or a narrow gradient? Is it easy to go in the right direction or perhaps end up at the wrong destination (e.g. Moose Lake)?

Thanks

MC - thanks - yes I expected to see lots of wildflowers - I was thrilled to see columbine & leopard lillies - I was hoping to see some sky pilot as well but I guess 11k is just a little too low.

Whit - from the saddle just below Alta Peak is was fairly obvious. Head along the south side of the ridge to avoid the worst boulder scrambling and then drop down and over into the cirques bowl - a tablelands type area that is almost directly east of Peak Lake. From the table lands we headed somewhat north near the tarn/drainage continue north and west as you make your way down and finally descend some ledge system that drops down into the Pear Lake campsights near the solar toilet. From here it was all maintained trail back to Wolverton. Not sure how easy the tableland ledges are after the snow melts out. We had the added advantage of mixing some class II scrambles with some class fun boot and butt glissades. Water is plentiful so we did not have to haul heavy amounts - although Rafael wanted the extra training weight so he hauled +5 liters for his journey.

If you are interested in a GPS type track line - send me a message and I can forward it along. What a fun day on the mountain with a great group of people. Although this was a west side peak - I am still an East side guy at heart.