Customer Reviews

The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, and Trails

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4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you must own only one guidebook for the Sierra Nevada, this is the one to get. Here, Secor expands upon his first edition--itself being built on those which have gone before. With each new version, improvement comes from the additional routes, new information, more illustrations. And, errors are found and corrected.

The pictures are particularly good this time around, with many of the important routes sketched in. Many climbers will prefer to simply take along a copy of the picture (first getting the publisher's permission, of course) rather than the written description.

No matter what your reasons are for venturing into the high country, this book should satisfy all your planning and informational needs, and then some. An unfortunate byproduct is that--at over 460 pages and 2 pounds--few people will want to carry it on their backcountry trips.

Simply put, Secor writes excellent guidebooks, and his experience shows. If I have any quibble with his present effort, it is that a number of the climbing routes are unnecessarily detailed and descriptive, leaving little for the first-timer to discover for himself. However, I have heard others say that many route descriptions are too skimpy for their liking, so you just can't please everyone.

If you want to climb as many peaks as possible in the High Sierra, this is your book. Secor describes an enormous number of different hiking/climbing opportunities. He does not bother with the most obvious stuff, such as well-known trails that are easy to find, but instead tells you about places you might not have thought about. There is information on cross-country routes (such as George Creek, Tuttle Creek, and the Enchanted Gorge), which is important because these rough and difficult routes are not discussed in trail guides, and are also overlooked in climbing guides. This book might not be enough information for doing a technical climb on a big wall like Lone Pine Mountain or Tehipite Dome, but will tell you about the approach routes. This is useful if you want to get a good look at these mountains from some neighboring ridge, but don't necessarily want to scale the actual cliffs. It is better for wilderness trekking, off-trail hiking, and mountaineering than it is for pure wall climbing. It is therefore an ideal guide for people who want to cover a lot of ground and see some extremely remote and beautiful scenery rather than stay at one site and go up and down a wall.

I bought this book before heading out to the SF bay area for a summer project last year. I mainly used descriptions of off-trail routes to do some 1-day scrambles on various peaks in the Sierra as well as for an excursion off the John Muir trail on a backpacking trip through King's Canyon NP.
This book is meant for off-trail travel and technical climbing (and mostly the latter). If you really only want to stick to the trail it's the wrong guide, but the nice thing about the Sierra is that it's easy to leave the trail. I'm not a technical climber, but because the book is very comprehensive there's still lots of interesting stuff for me. It has shown me a side of the Sierrra that, being not familiar with this part of the US at all, I probably would not have seen otherwise.

This may be the most exhaustive climbing guidebook in existence. All bow down to Secor!

But I find myself wishing for a bit more. How many peaks are in there with a two-sentence review like, "First Ascent: May 13, 1897 by Elmore and Paola Bohunk. Peak X is class 2 from the north ridge." All this is true, but I could go for more detailed route descriptions of approaches, routes, and of the views from the summit. Some mountains aren't great climbs, but they have good views.

On the other hand, the book is already too heavy for most people to backpack with. Secor must have been tempted to add info and split the book into multiple volumes; I think he should keep entertaining that option. I would probably buy them all.

In summary, this book is NOT the one-stop-shop for trip planning in the Sierras. I invariably find myself scouring the web for additional, more detailed information than in Secor. But it is a truly unique resource, and I think it's unfortunate to criticize it too much for what it omits.

This is an excellent guide to California's Sierra Nevada. Secor provides a great range of reliable information. The first time I depended on him, I came to a high pass and wondered if it really was the class 2 he claimed (doable without equipment and great risk of falling off). It looked harder. I cautiously decided to give it a try--and he was right. His descriptions are brief, but sufficiently precise to be useful. Anyone hiking in the Sierra will want this book

There are just a few really good guides to mountaineering in the High Sierra and this book is the best of those. I've been backpacking the Sierras for 25 years and this book has become my #1 trip planning guide. Secor's detailed descriptions and breadth of knowledge, especially of the mountaineering passes provide indispensable information for anyone undertaking Sierra mountaineering travel.

Don't buy this book before flipping through it. If you're looking for a climbing guide along the lines of the typical area book, you'll be disappointed -- nothing in the way of route topos, and minimal route descriptions in many cases.

If, however, you're looking to get into the wilderness and do some adventure climbing/heavy hiking, this book is perfect. Secor must assume his readers are intelligent and have the necessary skills for backcountry travel, navigation and route finding.

The book is best as a general trip planning guide that one may supplement with other sources of information where more detail is wanted. Wouldn't take it on the trail with me, due to weight.

This massive tome is oriented to those who really want to stray from the beaten path and adventure the Sierra Nevada. The book covers the Sequoia/Kings Canyon region to realms north of Yosemite. Trails, cross-country treks, mountain passes and peaks not found in other guides receive mention here. The comprehensiveness of this makes it a singular achievement that stands out from the many other books on this region. Be forewarned though, because of the sheer scope here, a great deal of information can not be listed for each topic. If you plan to hike an established trail, you would be better served by any number of other guides out there. Secor's text is oriented more for the Sierra veteran, particularly the climber, and mountain peaks seem to get a bit more space here. Nonetheless, there is still plenty here for the non-technical backcountry adventurer. Despite the encyclopedic style of this thing, it's not altogether dry. Sample text: "The only thing 'enchanted' about Enchanted Gorge is its name. This is a difficult cross-country route..."

One clearly needs good topographic maps handy to make use of this book. Even so, the book could stand to have a few more maps. Furthermore, the text descriptions ought do a better job telling one where a particular entry would be located on a map (abbreviated UTM coordinates are sometimes as good as it gets). Nonetheless, this is the only widely-available book that describes so many remote corners of the Sierra. This book is kind of an updated and far expanded version of Steve Roper's classic "Climber's Guide To The High Sierra", whose "Sierra High Route" book is a great source as well.

Are you a technical climber going to or dreaming about the High Sierra? If so, this book is for you with plenty of details on mountain ascents. But, peruse another book if you a hiker, wanting to know in advance the sights to see, altitude to gain and miles to cover on the passes and trails of the HIgh Sierra.

The 2009 revision of R.J. Secor's The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, Trails is an indispensable reference book for any hiker or climber interested in this area. This edition includes a great deal of new material and, happily, many new photographs showing climbing and high country routes in detail. It is a treat for the armchair adventurer and a great tool for anybody planning a backpacking or climbing trip.

One change from previous editions, which will take getting used to, but which I think I will grow to like, is that all cross country passes are now listed with the peaks, arranged south to north, whereas in previous editions they were listed separately at the beginning of each chapter.

This edition is larger in format from the previous editions, but the binding and quality of paper are inferior. I worry the binding won't hold up to intensive use. The poor quality of paper used means that the beautiful photos are not well reproduced. This is inexcusible in a book that retails for $32.95.

Secor's work in compiling this treasure of backcountry information is laudable. But the tomb continues to be a little too "L.A.-centric" -- there is a lot more data here about the southern Sierras than about the northern Sierras. It is clear Secor tried to address this -- he's added quite of bit of information to the Northern Yosemite section (the last chapter), but a full 13 pages of this new material covers climbing routes on one mountain (The Incredible Hulk). It is clear Secor is more familiar with the southern Sierras and less appreciative of the areas north of Mammoth. He opens the chapter on Northen Yosemite by declaring that it is, "not as visually stunning as other regions of the range . . . ." Anybody who has hiked the stunning canyons of this region would beg to differ.

Inexplicably, Secor writes almost nothing of the big wall climbs in Yosemite Valley and does not address the area around Hetch Hetchy.

Other niggles and observations:

- Secor's route descriptions continue to be verbose, but he has made a real effort to be precise and his openness to corrections is obvious and appreciated. Roper was wonderfully succinct in his route descriptions and the contrast between the two authors is striking. Photos, though, are the best way to show a route, and this book does a great job of that in many cases.

- Stop renaming peaks and passes after your friends. Solomons Pass will always be Solomons Pass to me, not Nietzsche Col.

- Secor tends to bring a climber's bias to the work. He disparages a beautiful mountain like Mt. Goddard because it has few difficult technical routes. Describing one easy Goddard route, he says: "This is an interesting route on an otherwise dull mountain." This comment, left over from the earliest edition, is curious in that Goddard is in fact a beautiful peak, set off from the main Sierra crest, with one of the nicest views of any peak in the Sierras. But he discounts it because the easy route up is a rock hop.

All in all, a worthwhile addition to my library.