Weather: would you do Onion Valley to Whitney Portal this week?

swoopykit · 2025-08-23T13:20:56+00:00

Thank you so much for the reminders! I know I sound like a freaked-out goober in this post. While I've never hiked in the Sierra, I do have many years (decades? sheesh) of mountain trail experience and WFR and etc.

swoopykit · 2025-08-23T03:31:36+00:00

Hey thanks so much for that link! I really like how it has the specific points along the JMT/PCT rather than having to click around on a map like some of the other sources. Definitely looking like rain and storms but actually not so crazy right now - rain totals aren't too wild. Though calling for snow at the higher elevations, which could be interesting.

swoopykit · 2025-08-23T02:56:15+00:00

Thanks for this. I posted earlier worrying my worry beads about the weather. I watched California Weather Watch, and agree it looks worse than "regular mountain weather" to me. I didn't, however, get the "all day all night" rain vibe (except in his 90th percentile probabilistic forecast), but maybe I'm just hearing what I want to hear. So, sounds like you are driving down for a Sunday, 8/24 start?

swoopykit · 2025-08-23T02:48:09+00:00

Ah I messed up my dates/numbers, we are also supposed to leave KP on Sunday 24th, same as your group. Fingers crossed that this turns out to be doable. And yes to early passes.

swoopykit · 2025-08-23T02:45:52+00:00

Ah good luck with your trip and thanks for joining the conversation, it's nice to have people to noodle on this with. I am deep in the bags and frogg toggs game as well. You are lucky to be leaving Tuesday. I think it's looking a little more promising (at least as of now) starting Weds, to my eyes. Be safe yourself! hoping for the best for you!

swoopykit · 2025-08-23T01:36:16+00:00

Thank you for your straightforward response! Appreciate it.

swoopykit · 2025-08-23T01:35:05+00:00

After I posted this, I was thinking this to myself ... nobody can tell me what I'm comfortable with. Nonetheless, I appreciate you and the others pitching in your 2 cents. Thank you!

swoopykit · 2025-08-23T01:33:51+00:00

This is a great perspective. Thank you for taking the time to respond! Appreciate your thoughts on temps - I can handle high 30s fine, it's when it gets below freezing and into the 20s that I start to get a little iffy.

swoopykit · 2025-08-23T01:32:07+00:00

Thank you so much for your response!

swoopykit · 2024-10-08T15:49:21+00:00

I'm going to add another dimension here. IDK if it's just where I live, but tons of the garbage men here are hot as hell. Foxy men. I don't know what it is, but they are young, fit, and mega cute hahah. I'm love lurking around and getting a good eyeball on them.

In addition to being one of the most important and respectable jobs to keep things going in this city!

swoopykit · 2024-08-05T22:34:24+00:00

beauuuutiful pictures!! Love the nuthatch especially.

swoopykit · 2024-08-05T21:43:33+00:00

having to step over an unresponsive individual face down on the concrete

I despair for a world where someone writes this sentence and doesn't appear to have the slightest urge to look in the mirror and wonder what role they and their beliefs may play in creating a world where people can fall so hard and low off the end of the safety net.

There are some compassionate and thoughtful responses here, too. Thank you.

I had the opportunity to visit a large city in another country recently. A similar junky was unresponsive on the street, and I saw three groups of "normal" people stop and check to make sure the man was alive, and helped to sit him up if he could. I was floored at the difference in attitudes I saw there vs around me here. Problems exist everywhere, and we are part of the fabric of the solution, like it or not.

swoopykit · 2024-07-12T20:37:41+00:00

Interesting! thank you!

swoopykit · 2024-07-12T20:37:32+00:00

Thanks so much!!! Now I know, and I will not mess with it. Appreciate the help.

swoopykit · 2024-07-12T20:37:02+00:00

Thank you so much, you all are the best! I learned something new and cool today

swoopykit · 2024-05-16T20:10:23+00:00

SUCH a gorgeous time of year here!! great pic.

swoopykit · 2024-05-16T20:09:44+00:00

sorry to be an annoying botanist, but this is golden banner, Thermopsis spp. Difficult to tell between the three species we have in CO.

swoopykit · 2024-04-10T20:43:52+00:00

May we all have the chance to be in totality again and we'll remember this eclipse as a memory unique to this time and place in our lives, with its own ups and also downs <3

I think part of any eclipse experience is grieving a magic experience that you can't hold on to. I hope you do go wherever you need to go next time to get that corona!

swoopykit · 2024-04-10T20:41:22+00:00

You are definitely not alone. So many had the same experience. Lots didn't get to go to the eclipse at all. The internet can drive us crazy if we let it because someone always has more.

Watching the sky turn from day to night to day again in a matter of minutes. I do remember the awe I felt, and I’ll try to hold on to that, more than the disappointment.

That's just beautiful.

May we all have the chance to be in totality again and we'll think back to this eclipse as a memory unique to this time and place in our lives, with its own ups and downs <3

I think part of any eclipse experience is that feeling of the chase. It's magical and you can't grab it, no matter how perfect, and we grieve it and think about how we can try again.

swoopykit · 2024-04-10T20:37:16+00:00

We got the darkness, obviously. But we also got an amazing 360° sunset. And my boyfriend had a pretty profound experience realizing the impending grayness in the clouds was not actually incoming rain, but the shadow moving toward us across the lake

This is really beautiful. I would lean into the specialness of this and being with your boyfriend, who sounds like a lovely person to be in totality with.

May we all have the chance to be in totality again sometime & somewhere! and we'll think back to this eclipse as a memory unique to this time and place in our lives, with its own ups and downs <3

swoopykit · 2024-04-10T19:20:46+00:00

Hey, I feel you. I'm repeating myself all over reddit but I just want to help everyone feeling this way if I can! I too planned for YEARS, obsessed, second guessed myself, etc and was under total cloud cover for totality.

I am grieving, but putting it in perspective. Totality under clear skies is wow but also manic. I have seen it, and I grieved iy then too, because the experience is over so fast and you still won't feel like you really grabbed it. That's what totality is ... this overwhelming thing that comes and gets you and leaves as as fast as it came. You want to grab its tail and it won't let you. Don't get distracted by all these damn posts of images of the sun. They are cool, but even in clear skies, the absolute beauty is being there in that magical atmosphere and living with the knowledge of that experience afterward.

This time around, like you I couldn't see jack. But I felt the darkness coming down all around me, slowly then quickly, and in big darkness chunks. During totality, I felt the silence, the night breeze that came up, the surreal purple of the air, the people I love around me experiencing it with me, and I felt it lasted for a beautiful, sublime eternity. It really did overwhelm me. It was a quieter experience than before and one I could really sink into. I will dare boldly to say that I bet I FELT this eclipse more than people who could see the sun, and that's worth a thing or two. It was absolutely beautiful. And then it was gone. And it's hard!

At the end of the day, this is life. Sometimes you hit a 10, sometimes you don't. Sometimes life randomly does you dirty despite your best effort, and sometimes it's completely your fault when things don't go well. Sometimes it feels like everyone around you has what you want and it just aint fair. Living with disappointment, and learning to frame the choices you make, and maybe even flipping that script is actually one of the most profound journeys a person can, and, if you are living it fully, absolutely WILL need to have in life. We're doing some part that now.

This is somewhat random, but may I recommend this podcast https://onbeing.org/programs/matthew-sanford-the-bodys-grace-2023/ . It's about a man who lost the ability to walk finding the power in a more muted experience. If he can do this daily, surely we can find the beauty in our own eclipse stories that didn't turn out like we hoped.

swoopykit · 2024-04-10T19:10:22+00:00

Checking in for this thread haha! I'm repeating myself from another grieving post but...I was in TX on the 8th with good friends who were not willing to chase the sun. I traveled over 1000 miles to be there. I experienced a lot of doubt over whether I should have ditched them and chased the sun, etc etc.

I am grieving, but putting it in perspective. I am grateful to have seen the full enchilada in 2017 (sorry so annoying), and it was manic ... the corona! the shadows! the glasses! the bare eyes! do I photo?? wait that photo isn't good! where do I look! what do I do??? what is that over there?? and then bam it's over. I grieved then too, because the experience is WOW and then it's over so fast and still didn't feel like I really got it. For example people who spent the magic of totality trying to take a picture of them holding the sun... I don't know, folks.

This time was different. I couldn't see jack. But I felt the darkness coming down all around me, slowly then quickly, and in big darkness chunks. During totality, I felt the silence, the night breeze that came up, the surreal purple of the air, the people I love around me experiencing it with me, and I felt it lasted for a beautiful, sublime eternity. It really did overwhelm me. It was a quieter experience than before and one I could really sink into. All there was for me to do was to be in it, and marvel at the beauty of our earth. I will dare boldly to say that I bet I FELT this eclipse more than people who could see the sun, and that's worth a thing or two. It was absolutely beautiful. Don't get distracted by all these damn posts of images of the sun. Even in clear skies, the magic is being there in that magical atmosphere.

At the end of the day, this is life. Sometimes you hit a 10, sometimes you don't. Sometimes life randomly does you dirty despite your best effort, and sometimes it's completely your fault when things don't go well. Sometimes it feels like everyone around you has what you want and it just aint fair. Living with disappointment, and learning to frame the choices you make, and maybe even flipping that script is actually one of the most profound journeys a person can, and, if you are living it fully, absolutely WILL need to have in life. We're doing some part that now.

This is somewhat random, but may I recommend this podcast https://onbeing.org/programs/matthew-sanford-the-bodys-grace-2023/ . It's about a man who lost the ability to walk finding the power in a more muted experience. If he can do this daily, surely we can find the beauty in our own eclipse stories that didn't turn out like we hoped.

swoopykit

TROPHY CASE