[pct-l] Whitney and one's pack?

[ksorbello at hotmail.com (Kimberly Sorbello)]

We left our packs at the base of Half Dome for only about an hour, as a 
lightning storm was approaching.  No people bothered them, but one chipmunk 
and one ground squirrel each ate a hole all the way through the packs 
directly over our food and into our gorp bags.  radar.  The packs were 
repairable but the food is unsafe due to hanta virus.  Thankfully we were 
headed home late that same night.  It's not just the marmots or bears...
kim


From: Marion Davison <mardav@charter.net>
To: Robert Ellinwood 
<rellinwood@worldnet.att.net>,pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Whitney and one's pack?
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 19:39:26 -0800

Robert Ellinwood wrote:

>Given these conditions:
>
>Bear boxes at Crabtree Mdws and Ranger Station are full, either with 
>other's
>packs or garbage...
>Bear-bagging in Ranger station vicinity no longer recommended (as I did 20
>yrs ago)...
>You camped at Guitar Lake or slightly higher...
>Marmots (attacking your pack, either singly or in squadrons) are an 
>issue...
>
>WHAT did you folks do with your packs while you climbed Whitney?????????
>
>Surely you didn't climb with a full pack?  Or did you?
>With all the people these days, is theft an issue during the day?
>
>Bury it under a pile of rocks off to the side somewhere and pray the 
>marmots
>attacked someone else's pack?
>
>What have you folks in recent times done with your packs while you climbed?
>Have most of you carried everything up with you to the summit?  (Pant,
>pant...)
>
>Dr Bob
>
>
We carried our full packs on all four of our summit trips to Whitney.  We 
did leave 25 pounds of food in the Crabtree bear box on one of those trips, 
as we were headed north from Johnsondale to Yosemite and Whitney was a side 
trip.
We saw a lot of packs lying by the trail near Trail Crest and near the 
junction down to Guitar Lake, but we also noticed the Marmots were really 
thick.  I wouldn't trust the little beggars.
However, we did a side scramble up Mt Muir on one trip, left our packs near 
the trail for an hour or so, no problems. Marion
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