Mt. Davis – Aug. 9-10, 2025
The hardest single day push I’ve done in the Sierra yet, featuring a heat wave, wildfire smoke, and caloric-deficit-induced altitude sickness. I’ve been getting out into the High Sierra more weekends than not this summer, gradually tackling harder and harder trips, and with that came the (mostly-justified) confidence that I could handle 12 miles and 4900 ft of elevation gain with a heavy pack. My plan was to take my overnight gear as close to the summit of Mt. Davis as possible and photograph both sunrise and sunset.
The trip started with me pledging to pack as lightly as possible. My prior trips this summer had been marred by long food carries (e.g. Ionian Basin) or heavy astrophotography gear (i.e. most trips, to be honest), resulting in total pack weights in excess of 33 lbs. On this weekend, the Milky Way would not be visible, which meant the star tracker and fast prime lens could go; my usual titanium water bottles were axed in favor of the more traditional Smart Water bottles; the comfort of my tent was swapped for a bivy sack. As a result, my total pack weight was about 27 lbs. when factoring in a full load of food (about 1.5 lbs per day) and water (1.7 liters maximum).
I set off from the High Trail at around 7:45 AM. This trail gains about 400 more ft than the parallel River Trail on its journey to Thousand Island Lake, but the gain occurs early in the ascent and offers better views than its lower counterpart. I should note that I was also unsuccessful in obtaining a River Trail permit so the High Trail was my Plan B. I wasn’t sure of how frequent water sources would be along the High Trail so I started with 1.7 liters, a mistake since I found almost every creek still flowing despite the below average winter and lack of snow anywhere on the adjacent slopes.
I figured it would be evident quite quickly whether or not the lighter pack weight made a difference in my performance. Indeed, I took my first break about an hour and two miles into the hike. The next break occurred at the 5.5-mile mark. By 11:30 AM I was traversing along the northern shores of Thousand Island Lake. I took only two breaks on this ascent, albeit long ones of about 20-30 minutes each, so my moving pace was probably around 2 mph, a Sierra backpacking record for me!
Banner and Ritter as seen from the High Trail. This was to be the last smoke-free view on the first day.
At this point, smoke started to blow in quickly from the west. I was fairly certain there were no nearby fires but sent off a few inReach messages to confirm. Armed with confirmation from multiple friends, I felt confident in my choice to continue onwards, especially since I had an N95 mask in my pack. About 45 minutes later, I reached the far southwest shores of the lake and began the ascent towards North Glacier Pass. The established bootpath made this task easy until about 10,600 ft where it petered out. From here, the talus was a bit obnoxious but I was buoyed by the fact that the pass was only 500 vertical ft away.
At the top of the pass, or perhaps even sooner, is where my nutrition woes began. I’d brought about 2500 calories for the day and had some far consumed maybe 1500 of them. My break at the top of the pass and again just before the final ascent to Davis’s upper plateau were longer than any others I’d taken so far. I was mildly nauseous by the time I topped out at around 11,900 ft. This would progress to a headache, shortness of breath, and loss of appetite quickly. I had wanted to camp just below the summit of Davis and then summit for sunset, but the views of Lake Catherine, Banner and Ritter, and Ritter Lakes from the lip of the plateau were phenomenal and tempted me into setting up camp prematurely. In some ways, the view of the Ritter Range’s backside from this plateau is even better than the summit.
I cooked dinner and set up my bivy sack while also scoping out a good spot to take sunset photos. The earlier wildfire smoke was still lingering unfortunately and muted many of the colors. At this point, my nausea was growing and I knew I likely wouldn’t be able to completely finish the dinner I’d just cooked. I half-heartedly snapped a few photos and downed a dramamine before falling asleep almost instantly.
For the first time this summer, I didn’t wake up in time for sunrise. I had secretly hoped the wildfire smoke was still present and made photographing sunrise pointless, but to my dismay the skies were clear at 5 AM. I snoozed all of my alarms and told myself that the extra sleep was very much necessary. By 7:30 AM, I was feeling amazing and packed for a morning summit bid, which consisted of monotonous-but-not-difficult talus hopping. I reached the summit shortly before 8:30 AM and spent a good amount of time soaking in the views before heading back to camp.
I was determined not to let myself go into caloric deficit again on the descent and made a very conscious effort to drink plenty of water and electrolytes and eat all of my snacks. This was a mostly successful effort and I made it back to the trailhead feeling great. I left camp at 10:30 AM and was back at the PCT/JMT trail junction by 1:30 PM (including a water filtering break and a half hour snack break). I made in down the River Trail very quickly and was back at my car by 5:30 PM (with a single 40-minute snack break in between).
Overall, despite the unexpected wildfire smoke and my nutritional woes on the first day, this trip went exceedingly well. I proved to myself that I can tackle harder days in the Sierra with an overnight pack and my body wasn’t sore in the slightest, even with 5000 ft of descent on the last day. I have plans to return to the summit for better sunset conditions but would probably think hard about doing this trip again in the late season. Definitely a trip better served over a good layer of snow on the talus.
—Justin
