SummitPost.org

Hi everyone

We get conflicting reports regarding the Aspen Fire near Huntington Lake. Some people say that the smoke is affecting the eastern Sierra quite a bit...We see from the Web cam that Mammoth area looks quite hazy, what about Bishop Pass, Bishop town and areas south to Lone Pine. Anyone cares to comment? Thanks, Alois.

BTW Has anyone been near Huntington Lake during this latest fire? How bad is it now?

SWFRS: http://sierrafire.cr.usgs.gov

West Side Cams:
http://rockyags.cr.usgs.gov/dashboards/WebCam.htm?date=20130728

East Side Cams:
http://bishopweather.com
http://www.whitneyzone.com/webcam/will/willi.jpg

I use all these cams plus fire and NOAA (NWS) forecasts to get a pretty clear picture of what's going on, which it wasn't earlier today. Though I expect it's only smoky locally above mid–elevations, it looked so awful this morning from Yosemite to Sequoia before mixing out, that I am delaying a trip for a few days.

It is smokey in Bishop....when it's not raining. I even smelled smoke pretty strongly in Williamson Bowl Friday. Friends in Mammoth are staying inside today, they say the smoke pretty bad up there. Rain is good for something.

Yesterday was pretty smokey with the west wind blowing. All depends on the wind.
It's out of the SE at 6mph now and helping. Later in the week there's going to be a stronger west wind flow (Howard Sheckter) and more smoke on the eastside.
Check out the Weather Underground link, it has a active fire map and shows the direction and smoke coverage. Click "Fires", "Active"

http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/

Here was our view of Tuolmne Meadows on our ascent of Tuolmne Peak. Cathdral Peak would normally be visible center.

It is SO smokey today, I can't even see the Whites, Mt Tom, or even across the fairgrounds from home. Yuk
Hey Crack, why haven't we met - we're neighbors!

Choice of inhaling a few hundred packs of cigs simultaneously up north or dodging lightning down south... hmmm: how about both?

Last Wednesday did a fun loop with a good buddy over the Glacier Divide. Perfect conditions all day:





Until about 3pm when the wind shifted, and the view as we came back over the Keyhole was completely obscured:



Yesterday was a totally different story over Kearsarge: sauna and tropical first thing, then the sky dogs growled just long enough to keep people awake. Cleared nicely for my trip back up and over.

Yes, indeedy. We came across huge lupine meadows all day.

As for the smoke: I'm up in mammoth today to see a patient. From the Von's parking lot, you can't even see the Mountain, and it reeks of campfire.

Thank you all for the info and the links. Pen loved the wunderground map, she wants me to mention it here. We have a whole week off and if possible, would like to go to Sierra, so that was the reason for this post. Looks like the north might be out...

Thanks Ms Castro, Princess and all you guys chiming in. We appreciate your posts and info.

3Deserts

Honnold's and Wright's ascent was the 3rd documented ascent of the route since the FA in 1999. It was also the 1st Solo of the route. We never quite "mentioned" the route much over the years, most people don't even know it is there. But it is a good route, some good climbing on it. It is our typical route. Trail-less approach, backcountry route, in the middle of nowhere, good, steep climbing, good terrain, 5.10 at or close to 14,000'.

Aren't these guys something? I was amazed to read what they did. I thought my friend Jack McBroom doing the regular routes in 6 days some years ago, was rad. Lately, it has been 3 days and now these guys just blow it all wide open. I think everyone should read their account of the 10 day trip, this is so inspirational, so clean, so powerful. So much skill was thrown into this and traveling between these peaks on a mountain bike, how rad can one get? What an awesome trip by those two.

It's a shame I already did all those peaks plus Humpreys on my unicycle back in '73...Shet!

Most days the northern boundary of the smoke is Bridgeport. Blue skies north of there for the most part.

Air quality is shit up here in Tahoe.
Conflicting reports if this is due to the Aspen fire or the fire in southern Oregon.

We have been tracking the fire on the Wunderground/WunderMap. The link for it is in this post on the first page (SP member "Say yes to crack"). This is really a great tool. Set it up to track fires and it will show you the smoke levels throughout the Sierra. If you are concerned about the air quality for your next (weekend?) climb or hike, this neat website can be of help. This could actually supplant the old fashioned weather forecasts. Check it out...