Читать книгу The John Muir Trail. Through the Californian Sierra Nevada онлайн

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Which direction?

Any long-distance path can, of course, be walked in either direction. So it is possible to walk the John Muir Trail either from south to north (Whitney to Yosemite) or from north to south (Yosemite to Whitney). Hikers walking the Pacific Crest Trail usually walk the JMT section of their route from south to north, as most PCT ‘Thru-Hikers’, for logistical reasons, travel from Mexico to Canada. But for those walking only the John Muir Trail it is far better to hike the Trail from north to south.

Mount Lyell, the highest peak in Yosemite, with its small glacier, towering above the head of Lyell Canyon (Day 5)

If you travel from south to north, beginning at Whitney Portal, there are four major disadvantages. The very first stage is a climb of over 6000ft to the summit of Mount Whitney, at the seriously high altitude of 14,496ft. At this stage you will not be altitude acclimatised and so run a serious risk of suffering altitude sickness, which at best would severely affect your ability to continue northwards along the JMT. Secondly, there is no point along the route of the JMT between Whitney Portal and Muir Trail Ranch where further food supplies may be picked up, so the poorly acclimatised and unfit trail hiker would have to begin the walk by carrying a heavy load of 10 days’ worth of food from the very beginning of the trek. Thirdly, the southern half of the JMT passes through areas of total backcountry wilderness, where escape routes are relatively few and far apart (a list of escape routes is given in Appendix 3), and where even these usually require at least two and often more days to reach civilisation. So the most serious part of the Trail is encountered at the beginning of the trip when the overseas walker will be unused to the American wilderness and so less able to cope. Lastly, the southern section contains a half-dozen high mountain passes of over 10,000ft which come in quick succession, almost one per day. Again the walker not yet trail fit and altitude acclimatised will find the crossing of these high cols extremely arduous.