Hydrating before, during and after is so important. I've learned that lesson more than I'd like to admit. Thanks for sharing that!

I had found this old video from a while ago. It’s a great video. Great scenery. Thank you Catherine.

Great video! This brought back a lot of memories for me. My first backpacking trip up to San Jacinto peak was in December, 1973. We came from the Idyllwild side out of Humber Park. Like you, we also camped the first night and went to the peak on day 2. It was cold but not too much snow on that trip. But very windy at times, especially at the peak. The sign you held up was actually anchored in the ground back then. It was a good way to hold on and steady yourself in the wind. I've since done several day hikes to the peak using the Palm Springs Tram during summer months. It never gets old. I'm very glad you mentioned hydration when it comes to altitude sickness. In my very early backpacking days I had a tough time with altitude sickness. Some stomach discomfort but more problems with headaches. BAD headaches. I did some research and discovered the link with hydration. After that, I drank constantly. I would even guzzle a quart of Gatorade at the start of the trailhead before heading out. And then drank constantly even if I didn't think I needed it. For a guy, relieving the bladder is obviously easier than for a woman, but drinking is the key to warding off altitude sickness. I never had a problem after that. Many years later I came upon a beginning backbacking group on the trail in the Sierras. It was an adult class from a local community college. I felt sorry for many in the group because they had terrible altitude sickness around the campfire that night. Several had to wander off to vomit. I knew what their problem was. They hadn't drank enough while hiking on the trail during the day. And the problem can be worse when it's colder because you don't think about hydration as much when it's cold. Altitude sickness can be annoying and uncomfortable, but it can also be deadly. Some people have severe reactions and the only relief it to get to a lower elevation ASAP.

My backyard... I live here in Idyllwild. I love the hike to the peak. A few epic stories up there. And, I did get altitude sickness up there once at the 9,000 foot level; can happen to anyone even though it may have never happened before. I remember a very bad headache that didn't get better till I went back down in elevation. And, water truly is key. I've really been enjoying your videos... very inspiring. I think I'm ready to get a pop-up camper and hit the road.

hi Katharine I love your videos thank you for sharing I love all the West

Really enjoying working my way through all these hikes. A moment of sanity in an insane world.

You’re videos are amazing and I love the energy. Gave great tips and info!

Great trip! Please reconsider ditching the trekking poles! They have saved my bxx sooo many times! Looking forward to next time!

Great video! Good advice about the water. When it’s cold we tend not to be thirsty but we still need to make it a point to drink. I’ve experienced this before. ✌🏽❤️🥾

Excellent video. I grew up in Idyllwild and Garner Valley. I miss the top country.

Great to see you out there with niece again. I've watched her stuff too. I hang out with nephew a lot too. I've got your same tent, and never go without my Big Agnes Blowdown tent anchors. They are easy to use and weigh nothing basically. I used them on a windy night at guitar lake and exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend them.

Wonderful Catherine, just wonderful. I don’t know what else to say.❤️🙏

So sorry you were sick this trip but glad you were better at the end of video. I feel the sane way if I drink too much water. But that’s good you made it to the summit. Congratulations!!

Love the topography...beautiful. Nice captures.

Awesome

Good advice about the altitude sickness. I've never had it bad. If I feel a little off I'll drink water till it goes away. Bladder issues at night are a drag. Hard to get out of that warm sleeping bag to relieve yourself. I have camped at Round Valley and had a rough night also. So cold. And we didn't go to the peak that trip either because it was blowing so hard on top. There use to be water at Round Valley.

Nice video. Don't ditch the trekking poles. More benefit than annoyance. You mentioned the lack of water sources. I see plenty....snow.

Catherine, really enjoyed your video... I have been to the peak three times and at 10,834' the elevation really does affect you. I did it from the tram once like you guys did but made it a day hike and i think 12 miles round trip. I made a video on my channel of hiking from Humber Park on the Idyllwild side up to where you camped at Tamarack, spent the night then hiked back to my car. From Humber park it's ton of elevation climb (I think about 4,000'). I too had a lot of wind which made it tough to sleep even with ear plug. I am glad you got out and backpacked but sorry you didn't feel well. And yes that view as you go up to the peak of the distance is amazing. Thank you for sharing!

It's hard to remember to drink when your cold. The feeling of thirst just doesn't come upon you. I experienced the same thing last weekend on Mt San Grogornio. Mostly altitude but hydration could have been half of it. Your lucky, I did a face plant into some granite when I stopped to rest. Should have taken my pack off and rested more I think :

Another awesome trip . Thanks for bringing us along. I always enjoy a trip with you.

Was so excited to see your first backpacking trip of 2018. Love you guys together and separately. Will totally be following you both this season. I have several trip planned this season - inspired by all of your videos last year. Thanks for reminding me about the water. Hydration is so important before during and after. Here’s to a wonderful season in 2018.

You had all the symptoms of AMS, I know have had it twice, I think the desert floor is about 475' elevation the tram starts at about 2600 then straight up to 8500 then you started your hike plus you were getting over a cold, I made the mistake of not knowing anything about AMS and trying to push through it lucky for me my buddy noticed I was acting strange and figured I was suffering from some type of altitude sickness were in Humphreys Basin about 11500 ft it was so bad I couldn't set up my tent had trouble filling my bottel with water he thought I was drunk ... Lol we didn't do what they recommend and turn around and get to a lower elevation, camped, I was fine the next morning.

AMAZING VIEWS COLORS SCENERY & VIDEO ! BE SAFE ! HAVE FUN ! GOD BLESS YOU BOTH ALWAYS ! ENJOYED !

The summiting of any mountain is something to be cherished and appreciated. Pushing through altitude sickness is no easy task. Outstanding views and proud of you for this wonderful trip. Also good call on moving your campsite

So proud of y’all!!!

Wow. That view at 11:18 is stunning. Thanks Catherine!

Catching up on your back videos. Yet another fabulous one. Sorry you were sick:( Your niece is a great companion. I'm going to try to get mine to go on a trip in Maine next year.

Wow! Great early hike. Both of you girls are tough. Lots of info on the trail and your sickness. I have learned hydration. Sometimes when don't feel thirsty you forget to drink enough. Now when I'm hiking uphill with a full pack I drink .5 liter or hour. Requires a lot more wait but worse it for better health. Thank you again. See you on the trails. We might have passed I. T hgv e GC. I.ll be in Yellowstone in two weeks.

I say this every video but you really do a terrific job. Love love love watching your adventures! Your niece adds a good touch too. It’s nice you two can do this together. I’m going to check out her channel. Love the campsite by the way. I gotta get out West, it’s absolutely incredible!

Awesome winter hike by you both, notwithstanding the altitude sickness. Just done my first hike of the 2018 season, a three days two nights trip to Emerald Lake in the Sequoia. Happy hiking!!

Just stumbled upon your channel Catherine. Keep up the amazing work! Looking forward to seeing more videos from you :)

Growing up we would spend vacations working and expanding a family cabin in Idyllwild. On days off we would hike up from Humber park and over look the Palm Springs area - long before the tram. Lots of memories there. For some reason we never went all the way to the top though.....

Another great video, Thanks...

Hi Cat...Way to get out there and hike / winter camp! It really did look like the Sierras! all that granite! Beautiful country and fun video.

Two beautiful young ladies on the trail fantastic work on video fantastic beautiful souls from the both of you excellent detail on all of your trip sections safeties is must and you took excellent care of showing sections that required extra safety attention good job to the both of you

I loved your video. Im going there on may 6 :D and this is going to help me a lot.

those spike for the shoes is very interesting!...beautiful area to hike and camp !.....oh camping on a mountainside is always a cold experiience.....the coldest night I ever experienced was camping atop Mt. Cheaha, the highest point in Alabama.....an ice storm knocked down all the trees...and a windstorm came through and it was impossible to light a fire...I had to line my tent with rocks to keep from being blown away!....good idea moving the tents!!!...the second campsite was beautiful I love to wake up to a new day out in the woods...always beautiful!.....what an awesome place to camp...."Good Medicine"

I t looks awesome

That mountain is beautiful and it's hard to believe while standing in the Palm Springs desert floor such beauty awaits you. I never camped up there, just enjoyed the 12 mile loop and ate in the restaurant. That "hawk" or wind can be brutal. I don't know if you hammock camp, Catherine, but oftentimes it's easier to find two trees than deal with the rocky terrain in those SoCal mountains. When I lived in Lake Arrowhead I used a tarp on 90% of my campouts. Great video!

Very good video and great scenery. Also thanks for the water tip. I'm hoping to go up Whitney this year so I need to remember things like that.

I’ve also learned the hard way! If I don’t hydrate deeply the day prior to and the morning before Plus, take in some electrolytes throughout the day, If I don’t do all these things I feel terrible!! I seem to handle altitude fine as long as I’m properly hydrated and I usually take an aspirin for good measure. Love both of you and can’t wait to see what’s next!

Thank you for sharing another trip. I always look forward to your next one. Beautiful scenery. I leave for the PCT in 2 months, your videos have kept me going through the winter out here in the Northeast.

Beautiful video Catherine. The tripod makes a lot of difference. In 2003 I left Knoxville at 6:00 AM with a girl I was dating and flew to Denver, where we rented a car and drove to Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. That night we camped at 11,500 feet. That night and most of the next day I was very dizzy and would have to rest about every 10 minutes. I drank six liters of water during the second day and was ok by the second night. I'll never do that again. Joey and I had a fun 3 night trip at Talladega NF. We had a little bit of rain the first two days with temps in the upper 60's and low 70's, which was nice after backpacking in the 20's and 30's for the last two months. Joey told me some very interesting information. I guess you do have some great trips coming up! I'm about 50% complete with the Talladega video and hope to have it uploaded in a few days.

Good job pushing through adversity. We all have good days and bad days out there but like you said it's always better than being indoors watching TV. I've had two very painful descents from that mountain (feet & knees).. I think I will try the tram next time. Really nice production too 🎥 Glad you have so many trips planned.. man, I gotta get on it! 👍

As usual Catherine this was another really good video. Beautifully shot. And always love it when Christine comes along with you. I subscribe to her channel too, so I'll check out HER video of this trip. :-) Sorry you got the double whammy of dehydration and altitude sickness. Waaaay back in the days of the dinosaurs I went through a USAF survival school and that was outside of Spokane, WA in January during the coldest winter they'd had in about 50 years. It was during this training that i learned the importance of hydrating in the winter. Don't beat yourself up about that. It's one of the most common mistakes people make in the winter. You don't feel thirsty, so you don't drink. To avoid dehydrating, you really have to force yourself to drink often. As for altitude sickness, I mostly avoided it when I moved from Austin, TX to Colorado Springs, CO back in '04. I probably had a chance to semi-acclimate as I drove there, and from TX to CO, you do gradually gain altitude. However once there, I drank a lot more water than I would normally and took aspirin twice a day to help thin my blood out. Seems to have worked. Also back in the days of the dinosaurs, I was a flight engineer on Air Force planes and would typically set the pressurization of the aircraft at about 5500 to 6000 feet altitude equivalency. And again, as in the trip to CO, it was a gradual pressurization. Of course the one big difference is that, if I felt a little light headed in the aircraft, I could always suck down some pure O2. :-) Well, glad to see you recovered and can't wait for all the hikes coming up! Cheers! DonP

Great video, Catherine. Wondered what it would be like this time of year. While you were setting up the tents, I thought "that site looks familiar". Then you said "Buckthorn". That was the site I stayed in last year. It was my first adventure in overnight backpacking. Good place to do it. Sorry to hear you weren't feeling well. I think your thoughts on hydration are spot on.

Isn't that xtherm amazing? It might be one of my favorite bits of gear. It's like laying on a car seat warmer. Sorry to hear about your experience with altitude or dehydration. I remember your comment from when you came back. You had some awesome views! 🙌🙌

2014 myself and a buddy stayed at buck thorn its a nice cite 📐🌲🏞️

i just hiked it this weekend and the snow is 2 feet deep in some area. :D

Congratulations on early camping. When leaving a tent for an extended time on windy days, one precaution is to undo the poles at one end. The tent lays flat, reducing its exposure. For really strong winds, string can be tied to keep material from flapping/abrading. It takes just a couple minutes to re-insert the poles and re-adjust the tie-downs. Detaching poles is also useful while in the tent when especially strong winds threaten to break the poles. To reduce concerns about hydrating before bed, an unappealing yet beneficial aid is a pee bottle. No doubt it's more challenging for women than men, but for freezing, extra windy or stormy nights, it eliminates the need to step out at night.

Great video. Absolutely beautiful up there. Hated you experienced altitude sickness. I am at sea level on the east coast. Anything over 6K and the headaches start along with lightheadedness and shortness of breath. Hydration is important but along with that I've heard Ginko can help if taken ahead of the trip. I'll be trying that out when we hit the Grand Canyon, ALSO in mid March 😃. When will you be out there? We'll be in the Grand Canyon for a few days, arriving on the 15th, then heading to Canyon-X or Lower Antelope Canyon on our way to Bryce Canyon on the 18th. We're big fans and love that you're getting into more backpacking. I love Christine, too, and we're so glad to see you both out there together again.

I live in San Diego and the first time I visited the Sierra, I had altitude sickness; a pounding headache, I couldn't catch my breath even while just lying in bed, anxiety, nausea, fatigue. It was really awful, I'm sorry you had to experience that. I'm going to San Jacinto next month and we are spending one night in a lodge in Idyllwild (around 5,400 ft) and our first night in the backcountry will be at around 8,200 ft. so I am hoping that will help me get acclimatized. I don't ever want to experience altitude sickness again.

Would definitely tire me out, that is for sure. Even though I am not ready for any solo overnight, need to see if anybody I know, that is an experienced backpacker, would like to go out on something like this. And help me put my tent together too.

I had my worst altitude issues on San Jacinto as well. For me it was from not eating enough (which I didn't realize was happening because I could barely stomach my food), so at the summit I ended up being completely out of energy and super cold and unable to get warm even in all my layers. Some of the best views in SoCal though, but I couldn't wait to get off the summit.

so open and wide

I've never experienced altitude sickness. Keep in mind on live on the gulf coast so I don't see the altitude you guys do. You always have the most scenic views, I'm so jealous! Nice to see you and Christine together again. I need to go check out her channel I haven't been over there in awhile. How far do you live from Joshua tree?

I live 200 yards from beach here in Delaware , sea level, recently flew to Steamboat Springs and within 3 hours of getting off plane made the mistake of a hike to some waterfalls, I think about 7000 to 8000 feet, I thought I was gonna die, couldn't breath , heart pounding, Didn't think once about difference between living at sea level to 8000'

Grand Canyon will be awesome...

One my favorite hikes. Love that trail. Is San Gorgonio on your list? 🤞🤞🤞

Another beautiful hike and video. Thanks as always for posting and sharing. So sorry you were not feeling well while on it. You are so correct at the end to stress the importance of drinking water at high altitude. I used to live and work at a ski resort and that is the first thing we would recommend to folks when they arrived....Drink Water! :-) Quick question....you mentioned at the beginning that you were purposefully not taking your trekking poles. May I ask why? Just curious. Can't wait to see your next adventure at the Grand Canyon! That will be magical! Now I'm headed off to check out Christine's channel to see her view of the hike. :-) Cheers!

One thing you did that was smart was how you climbed "high" and then went down to sleep "low" on the first day. That's a tried-and-true technique used by climbers and trekkers in higher altitudes. Drinking more water would definitely have helped the acclimatization, but you probably could have also benefited by some additional time in the area before bagging the peak. I used the climb-high-sleep-low thing in the Everest region of Nepal, on Mt. Shasta, and also on Kili. Thanks for posting this trip!

Neither of you mentioned (cold feet) while you slept, so it seems you were adequately equipped with the right socks, etc...Would you please describe the make & model of socks used, & any other items (down booties, etc.) you used that nite that aided your comfort. Hike On !

Cat, what a bold hike for winter! SJ can be brutal but looks like you prepared and survived fine. Did you get a pre-trip permit or just walk up? Looks like campground empty. I am going to try this weekend. I travel with my Service Dog (Ben, Border Collie on the Mountain) for hearing assist, so hope Rangers are savvy to ADA. Thanks for the preview and any advice.

DID YOU REMEMBER TO CHANGE YOUR SPOT ON THE RANGERS PAPER TOO ? AWESOME VIEWS & VIDEO AS ALWAYS! IS IT POSSIBLE YOU'LL LOST WEIGHT OR IT COULD BE THE COLOR OF THE CLOTHES / CAMERA LENSE ALSO.

There’s a street over by house and it’s name is San Jacinto. Like the mountain name. How cool is that?

Interesting, I sometimes forget that other places in the World may not have snow, it will be June before our mountain snow thins down here in Alaska South Central. But I am even more surprised that there is so little snow in February, after seeing so much there of the last year's videos from PCTer's in May.

Did you use a bear cannister for food storage or the ursak?

Hi Catherine! I have been watching both your videos and Christine’s, and I appreciate both of your channels. It looks like my partner and I were on Baldy while you were on San Jacinto...however, we are less experienced than you ladies. I have a question about how to overcome a fear we have of the very narrow trails we’ve been encountering on Baldy. I’m worried we will never summit Baldy because we are nervous about the Devil’s Backbone and the other trails which are almost as intimidating. Have either of you experienced this? Any advice for us? Thank you in advance, Patti

WAS THE GROUND A LITTLE HARD FROM THE COLD WEATHER !

HOW ARE THE MICRO SPIKES ON THE ROCKS ?

Yikes! I get altitude sickness easy and it is horrible. Hope you never go through that again.

San jacinto.. Is pronounced. San Ha sintoe... Not San Ya cinto. 🙄

Excuse me, I thought you women were back packing ? What is all these drama peaches ? Just back pack and get on with it ---OKAY ????