Elavation for wood stoves?

imported
#1

does anyone know the elavation for wood fires on the JMT?

JW

#2

Fires are prohibited above 9600 feet in Yosemite and above 10000 feet in most other sections of the JMT. There are some exceptions which will be posted on the trail. Also, no campfires allowed on the Mt.Whitney trail.

usedtocould

#3

There is no need to burn wood to cook on the JMT. Use a stove - canister, white gas or alcohol. It takes way to long for wood to grow and die at higher elevations.

Booger

#4

thanks for the info. the reasoning why is because i was thinking of using wood to boil water at lower elavations and eating dry/cold food at high elavations. your thoughts on how many nights one might have below the minimum elavation would help out considerably.

JW

#5

Once you lay out your itinerary with proposed camp locations each night you’ll have a better idea regarding possible permitted campfire locations. Last year while doing 25 days on the JMT I think we built campfires no more than 5 times. Besides the restriction related to elevation there is also a requirement to build fires only in established fire rings. One of my pet peeves was finding campsites that were ash dumps where stealth fires had been built and the evidence later spread all over the ground. What kind of wood cooking system are you planning on? If you are using a wood burning stove then it might be debatable as to whether your building a fire or not. You would have to check this out with the jurisdiction having authority.

Don

#6

I hiked the JMT in 08 and I beleive there were just two nights where I was camped in fire restricted areas, Cathedral lake and Guitar Lake. I used a cannister stove on that hike.
This year I plan to hike the JMT again and will use my Zip woodburning stove. I will experiment with using Esbit in my zip for any fire restricted camps or I will eat cold food.
I recollect reading somewhere that the Zip is considered a campfire in the Sierras although in many Forrest juristictions it is considered a stove. I will research further before my hike.
The Zip uses only twigs and produces very little smoke and ash.
If you hike Southbound I would say it is very easy to camp in fire allowed areas for the entire hike except possibly for the last night at Guitar lake.

RichardD

#7

I have used a wood stove on three JMT hikes. At my pace the trail takes me 20 or 21 days. With this pace it has rarely been an inconvenience to wait on spots to cook that are below the legal elevations.

Of the three backcountry rangers that I asked none said they’d have a problem with me using the stove in higher elevations since the amount of wood these stoves consume is minimal. one ranger suggested that I carry a small bag of wood chips from lower elevations if I wanted to play it safe. All three said to bury the ashes or to spill them into a steam at higher elevations to avoid unsightly burnt wood piles. None of the three rangers thought that using these stoves up high was issue that they would object to.

Steve