What is the Sierra High Route?

The Sierra High Route (abbreviated SHR) has been described as the most remote hiking route in the lower 48 states. It is a 200 mile mostly off-trail hike starting in Kings Canyon National Park and ending at Twin Lakes about 30 miles north of Yosemite National Park. It parallels the more popular John Muir Trail, but unlike this more traveled trail, the SHR stays mostly above 10,000 feet and off trail. The originator of the route is Steve Roper, a legendary Sierra vagabond and climber who pieced it together making it public in 1982. He had three primary goals; stay off trails as much as possible, stay above 10,000 feet and keep it technically to class 3 rock scrambling (more on that later). His aim was remoteness, solitude and unparalleled beauty. Those who have finished it have describe their experience as almost mystical, requiring both sustained mental and physical acuteness. They wear a finish as a badge of mountain honor. The remoteness of the route in conjunction with it’s vague location requires preparation, navigation and scrambling skills, weather prediction, mountain first aid, gear mastery and a comfort level in the high mountains. I’ve been drawn to this route for years, it meets all my favorite things in this world; Sierra Mountains, solitude, remoteness, artistic opportunities.

Over the years I’ve hiked micro sections, linking parts with various trails along the boundary of Yosemite National Park.

I’m a nature artist and mountain nomad and my project is to disappear into solitude for 18 days on this route with no electronics and my only camera being a 6x12 medium format pinhole film camera. It’s creatively terrifying to limit my photography on this project to an unpredictable output, so why do that?

I’m doing it because I want to let go and grow as an artist. In reducing my photography to its most elemental, its most basic, I’m hoping this reduction parallels the simplicity in my approach to the hike, to be there with no connection to the outside world. A removal of the last 150 years when these mountains were tramped in with an elegance that’s too often lost today. And in this simplicity of mind to see how and where my art grows.

As I prepare for the project I’ll post more about the process and preparation, so stay tuned!