Road Ride Report Sierra Climbing - Horseshoe Meadows & Whitney Portal

Thanks for sharing the great RR. I've done the Whitney Portal ride and have been dying to try the Horseshoe one. The Portal Store burgers are the best. After a several days in back country with little protein or fat, you can feel the nutrients flowing into body.

 

Curious to know what gearing you guys were running? :drunk:

 

Ultegra compact crank (50-34) and Ultegra 11-27 cassette.

 

Great job.

I've done the descent from Whitney Portal, but I don't think I'd want to climb it right now.

 

Wow!

I hear Nick bought some razors on the way home.

 

Standard (53x39) with 12-27.

 

I did Bishop to Whitney Portal a few weeks ago. I felt like I was speeding when I cracked 3 mph. 4 mph? You must be Superman.

It's a good road to practice track stands on, albeit unknowingly.

 

I embedded the KML for the route in my blog here: http://mtbmaven.vox.com/library/post/horseshoe-meadows-rd-mt-whitney-portal-climb.html

The KML can be downloaded here: http://sites.google.com/site/mtbmaven/home/kml-warehouse

The route can be found on GeoLadders here: http://www.geoladders.com/show_route.php?route=29240

Finally my stats for the ride can be found here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17208984

Hopefully permissions should be set to allow access to all of the links above.

 

You now have my admiration!

 

First off, wow, that's a big ride to bag; road or dirt. Hats off to you youts. Maybe in another life time (with my white tennie's and 150 cadence.)

Now on to the smack-talkin' (just ignore this part, Brian)...

What the fock is with SB posing with his big-ass exaggerated and looking fruity? I'm certain it was by design, which concerns me a bit (okay, concerns me a lot!).

Are your ribs still sore, mister 5-11?, (FTW!!!)

 

You guys are animals!!! Good job.

 

NICE! and Sol is a crazy one.

 

great post....epic ride

 

Its not me, its the Assos. I don't expect you to get it, cheerleader.

 

No, SB it's your big ass. :lol:

 

im not a roadie but hell yeah!!!!!!!!:beer:

 

Sorry to chime in so late...I haven't had time to thank the fellas for allowing me to partake in the Sierra Adventure!!

Truly one of the most spontaneous epics I've done! I realized friday night that the wife was busy doing bridesmaid stuff all saturday and that I had the whole day to ride. I frantically texted, pm'd, and called every cyclist in my small sphere of friends and got a reply from Bergsteiger (Krisztian) at around 9:30 pm Friday night. I contemplated for about 30 mins and finally pulled the trigger at 10 pm. I packed up my car and was on the road to Lone Pine by 11 pm. Made it to camp by 3:30 am...I think the only thing keeping me up was the excitement of the ride to come. I think we all woke up around 7 am and began our Sierra Epic!

I had a blast. Couldn't of asked for 3 better dudes to ride with. Thanks again fellas! I would definitely try a compact crankset next time around...standard was a bit tall for Whitney Portal....especially after climbing Horseshoe first.

 

-Nick is crazy...you should see this guy on the descents. I think he beat me down the mtn by a few minutes! 55 mph...I was shi**ing myself at 45. I thought my bike was going to fall apart.

-Props to Krisztian...He wins KOM for sure. He kicked our asses up the mtn.

-Brian...I'm glad we finally got to ride together. I have always lived vicaroiusly through your ride reports.

-The drive home was brutal. 7 hrs in the saddle and over 9000 ft of climbing and only 3.5 hrs of sleep. Thank god for Red Bull.

 

Next time you can sleep, I am always the designated, self appointed driver. I don't mind.
I have done some rough math in the past and added up my 20 years of US395 driving. Its around 200 times between Orange County and Mammoth.

 

Sounds like a deal to me. Lets bag some more peaks!