Tried to save weight by bringing only a hammock on the JMT and forgot to check if trees exist above treeline

Spent three nights sleeping on rocks under a tarp because I didn't realize half the trail is above 10,000 feet with barely a shrub in sight... has anyone else made a dumb gear assumption that totally backfired on a high altitude route?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_ramirez1mo ago

Cringed so hard reading this. Three nights on rocks? That's brutal man. I remember my first time above 10k on the Sierra High Route and I brought a foam pad so thin it was basically a napkin. Woke up shivering every hour because the ground sucked all the heat out of me. Hammocks are such a trap for high altitude trips. You see all those YouTube hikers using them in forests and forget the pretty part of the JMT is basically a moonscape. Honestly kind of impressed you made it work with just a tarp though. Most people would've turned back.

faith6841mo ago

32 degrees was the night my NeoAir failed me above Bishop Pass and I woke up with frost on the inside of my bivy. So yeah @claire_ramirez I feel that foam pad pain deep in my bones. The weird thing is I actually switched to a closed cell foam pad after that and it sucked way less for insulation even if it felt like sleeping on concrete. Hammocks at altitude are basically a dare to the weather gods. I tried one once at 11k and spent the whole night swinging in the wind like a pinata.

caleb2621mo ago

Did you ever catch that old blog post from a PCT thru-hiker who brought a hammock for the whole trail and had to mail it home in Kennedy Meadows? I remember reading how they spent a week in the Sierra sleeping in a ditch under their tarp because every campsite was either solid granite or talus fields. That's basically the same mistake you made but on a bigger scale. The foam pad vs air pad debate is real too - I've heard from a few mountain guides that closed cell foam is actually warmer above treeline because the ground doesn't steal your heat through convection like an air mattress does. Your three nights on rocks sounds like a solid lesson in humility though.