SummitPost.org

Maybe you can carry certain individual we discussed in a chat before. I need to lose some weight for you to carry me : ) I think he would be a perfect guy for it though..

I would think it would be very nice, skiing from Tom's Place some 18-20miles to Dade Lake

Snow mobile sounds more fun : ) (joke)

Vitaliy M. wrote:I also though fishhook was done for the first time in winter this year, but Chief said he climbed it in winter some time ago..do you have a FWA Chief? Very cool looking route, hope to try it this year..

I know for a fact that Chris Vandiver and Galen Rowel did the FHA in the winter back in the late 70's. It has been done by many in the winter as well.

Vitaliy M. wrote:Maybe you can carry certain individual we discussed in a chat before. I need to lose some weight for you to carry me : ) I think he would be a perfect guy for it though..

Only if we can toss him down to the base of the climb when we don't need him any higher up, just like the tools & crampons suggestion

The Chief wrote:

Vitaliy M. wrote:I also though fishhook was done for the first time in winter this year, but Chief said he climbed it in winter some time ago..do you have a FWA Chief? Very cool looking route, hope to try it this year..

I know for a fact that Chris Vandiver and Galen Rowel did the FHA in the winter back in the late 70's. It has been done by many in the winter as well.

When you say 'many' you are talking about 2-3 parties? I do not think it is done in winter almost every year right?

Who knows how many times. Does it matter.

There are many folks out there that climb hundreds of routes without publicly mentioning once their achievements. I know several here in town as a matter of fact.

Fact remains, it just doesn't matter.....

Exactly, it doesn't matter how many times. It seems as if it is not that many, although when I read your posts it sounds as if there is a whole army of people out in every drainage, all the time (which I do not usually see even in summer once you are 5 miles past the TH, especially before ALL the snow melts). It is not really important though just trying to get a feel for things, learning(remember I am semi-new to this).

Vitaliy M. wrote:I read your posts it sounds as if there is a whole army of people out in every drainage, all the time (which I do not usually see even in summer once you are 5 miles past the TH, especially before ALL the snow melts). It is not really important though just trying to get a feel for things, learning(remember I am semi-new to this).

This weekend being the last long weekend of the summer, is notorious for hordes of folks at all the classics and many of the highly frequented hiking, climbing etc areas throughout the US. That is why many of the locals stay home.

And what is with this "drainage" stuff. Not one of the areas that being discussed here are a "drainage".

The Chief wrote:And what is with this "drainage" stuff. Not one of the areas that being discussed here are a "drainage".

Drainage is a hydrological term. Every bit of land can be put into one drainage or another. BCS's N. Arete is part of the Rock Creek drainage, for example. Ok, back to the regularly scheduled program...

The Chief wrote:

Vitaliy M. wrote:I read your posts it sounds as if there is a whole army of people out in every drainage, all the time (which I do not usually see even in summer once you are 5 miles past the TH, especially before ALL the snow melts). It is not really important though just trying to get a feel for things, learning(remember I am semi-new to this).

And what is with this "drainage" stuff. Not one of the areas that being discussed here are a "drainage".

If you are below a crest or plateau, you are in a drainage, so any climb that ascends a face is in a drainage, and any climb that is not approached via a ridgeline is approached via a drainage.

Interesting how we now classify these areas as a "Drainage" when relating it to what Bob posted. In most cases, a "drainage" encompasses a "basin" where water flows collect, nor originates. Never once heard these areas referred to a "drainage".

I believe the verbiage of "Cirque" is more appropriate for many of these high Sierra mountain areas we are referring to, as they are the initial origins of the melt off as defined in "Cirque" and many originated from ice erosion via glaciers. Not a "drainage". Many in fact are officially referred to as cirques and not one as a drainage. Even the original Whitney/Brewer/King group states them as such as well as ampitheatres. Not once is term "drainage" ever used in the book which they describe the physical geography of the Sierra Neveda. Not once. Read the book.


"The alpine cirque gorges are usually wide and open, leading into amphitheatres, whose walls are either rock or drifts of never-melting snow. The sculpture of the summit is very evidently glacial. Beside the ordinary phenomena of polished rocks and moraines, the larger general forms are clearly the work of frost and ice; and, although this ice-period is only feebly represented to-day, yet the frequent avalanches of winter and freshly scored mountain flanks are constant suggestions of the past."

But, what ever floats your boat.

Edit: Additions

Drainage basin: A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean.
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Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a geographical barrier such as a ridge, hill or mountain.
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This map can be iterated on a smaller or larger scale, such as this alternative helpful picture:



Put simply, if water drains through it, it is a drainage.

Please use a physical geography ref/volume where any aspect that we are speaking in the High Sierra is termed a "drainage".

Thanks.

Even in this valuable historical volume, never once is drainage used to describe the physical geography of the High Eastern Sierra. Cirque on the other hand, seven times.

The Chief wrote:Please use a physical geography ref where any aspect that we are speaking in the High Sierra is termed a "drainage".

Thanks.

Rock Creek Drainage

Big Pine Drainage

Tuttle Creek Drainage

etc. etc.

This is a scientific paper with some cool 3D images of different drainages in the Sierra Nevada midway through the PDF document.

http://www.wmrs.edu/projects/cerec/pdfs/SmileyCEREC.pdf

Titled: Climate-induced Elevation Shifts in a Sierra Nevada Food Web: How Do the Predators Respond?

Official Physical Geography Refs (USGS etc) for the above please.

Also, please explain the Humphreys Basin, Evolution Basin, Granite Park Basin, Palisade Basin etc which are USGS terms for many of these areas. No where will you find any area in the High Sierra officially termed by the USGS as a "drainage".