Silent Hiking the John Muir Trail for 21 days

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Hope you all enjoyed this film! This was the longest and most remote hike I've done so far. It was a beast to edit, taking me several weeks to complete. Before going on this hike, I never had a clear answer when people asked me 'what is your favorite hike?'. But after completing the JMT, I can say that the JMT is my favorite hike in the world. It has all the elements of a good trek – beautiful nature, remoteness, solitude and wilderness. What amazes me is that you can hike over 350 kilometer through the Sierras without crossing a single road or passing a single building. Especially if you realize that within a 350-kilometer radius over 40 million people live! That's conservation!

Here are some random facts and more chapter markers I thought you might enjoy:
0:56 Day 1 – Yosemite Valley & Half Dome
2:08 It's rare to see the cables without people! The secret: go just before sunset.
3:27 RightOnTrek.com was so nice to provide me with a bunch of meals for this trip! However, I mistakenly assumed I could eat them out of the bag, they are best enjoyed and ready faster after cooking in a pot.
3:40 Day 2 – Sunrise Meadows & Cathedral Lakes
5:09 Compare this shot, to to this one: https://youtu.be/rqkMiisWdEg?si=MJOUbM_0iKcwHm2d&t=420
5:22 Compare this campsite, to this one: https://youtu.be/rqkMiisWdEg?si=mcHKPqufOq09_LGV&t=669
6:28 Day 3 – Tuolumne Meadows & Lyell Canyon
7:18 This is a Belding Ground Squirrel. In late summer you only see the young adults under 2 years of age. The aldults are already in their wintersleep by then.
9:49 Day 4 – Donohue Pass & 1000 Island Lake
12:56 Day 5 – Alpine lakes & rain
14:46 I honestly enjoyed the rain, especially from a filmmaking standpoint: blue skies for 4 days is not very cinematic.
16:31 Day 6 – Devil's Postpile & Mammoth Lakes
18:36 Day 7 – John Muir Wilderness
18:38 This is officially not the JMT, but a (more beautiful) detour via Duck Pass merging with the JMT at Duck Lake.
19:32 Day 8 – Duck Pass, Lake Virginia & Tully Hole
23:03 Day 9 – Silver Pass & Bear Ridge
24:38 This was one of my favorite campsites on the JMT. I spotted it just down the trail when taking a short brake in the afternoon. When I saw it, I couldn't keep going, so I decided to make it a very short day and enjoy the beauty of this campsite.
26:41 Day 10 – Marie Lake, Seldon Pass, Muir Trail Ranch & Blaney Hot Springs
30:44 Day 11 – Sequoia National Park
31:52 This is Scott, a good friend of mine and the 'Sierra Expert'. Check out his work on https://www.youtube.com/@Sheety33.
32:45 Day 12 – Goddard Canyon, Evolution Valley & Wanda Lake
35:23 This is Wanda Lake just below Muir's pass, named after John Muir's daughter. The lake on the other side of the pass (38:10) is named after his other daughter: Helen.
36:33 Day 13 – Muir Pass, Le Conte Valley, Bishop Pass & Bishop
37:24 The Muir Hut on Muir Pass is the only pass hut on the JMT.
41:28 Day 15 – Bishop Lake & snow
42:46 I'm layering 2 quilts together here. A synethic quilt below with a down quilt on top. The best way to stay warm at -7ºC (19ºF).
44:12 Day 16 – Bishop Pass, Golden Staircase & Palaside Lakes
45:15 #TeamShorts
46:33 Compare this shot with 39:21.
47:21 This is the Golden Staircase — a marvel of trail engineering characterized by its steep switchbacks through narrow canyons. This segment stands as the last part of the JMT to be completed, a full 22 years after the trail officially opened.
48:07 I'm packing up my tent again. While pitching my tent the wind started picking up to the point where my tent started collapsing. With only rocks to secure my tent and an exposed spot, I decided to move my tent to a more sheltered spot.
48:26 Day 17 – Mather Pass (3,396m, 11,138ft) & Pinchot Pass (3,422m, 11,226ft)
52:24 Day 18 – Rae Lakes & Glenn Pass
54:20 Seeing a helicopter in the Sierras is rare. They only fly for search and rescue operations, to drop supplies at ranger stations once a year and pick up trash from ranger stations once a year. The latter was the case here.
57:24 Day 19 – Forester Pass (4,009m, 13,153ft) & Bighorn Plateau
58:29 This is a pika. One of the only animals in the Sierras that doesn't hibernate. Instead, they collect grass and flowers during the summer (you see them often with a flower in their mouth – so cute) that they store under talus (large boulder fields). All winter they live under the talus with several meters of snow above them.
1:00:03 The descent from Forester Pass is quite an engineering marvel. The trail is blasted out of the granite and makes an almost impossible gentle way down to the valley floor.
1:00:40 This is a (dead) Foxtail Pine. A rare pine at only grow in California in Sequioa Kings Canyon National Parks and surrounding forests. On the JMT it's only seen south of Forester Pass.
1:02:40 Day 20 – Mount Whitney
1:05:30 You might recognize the last 2 songs from this film, they are identical as the last 2 songs from my Yosemite film. It was in Sierra Mountains where my backpacking adventures started, and that place holds a special place in my heart.
1:07:46 It was freezing cold. Just after sunset all the mosture on my quilts turned into ice crystals almost instantly (flash freezing). Temperatures dropped far below zero that night, but it was so worth being up there. Once in bed I stared at the night sky for over an hour before even attempting to sleep. There was a perfect silence, not a single breeze out there. And since I was alone, I can say I was the highest person in the contiguous USA that night (and most likely also in the all of North America). (;
1:08:11 Day 21 – Sunrise on Mount Whitney
1:09:51 What followed was a long 2,200m descent down to Whitney Portal via hundreds of switchbacks. A beautiful section, but I didn't film any of it. Mount Whitney is the official end of the JMT, so I wanted the film to end there, not at an anti-climaxal trailhead.

What kind of camera do you use? Or does anyone know any good cameras for shots like this ? Thank you!

And the stars were waltzing
As he slowly drifted away,
On the edge of the world,
Serene.

What kind of tent is this on all these trips?

simply extraordinary, masterfully filmed, beautiful music

보는 동안 얼굴에 웃음이
걷고싶다 걷고싶다를 몇번이고 되뇌이게 됩니다
경이로움~

Such beautiful shots, very well shot

This is next level.

Who filmed you?

Visuals were outstanding, although I took a short nap during it. Complimented.

Waaw amazing vibes and video❤. I hope I'll be able to make such long and wonderful content.. I'm still a beginner 😂

Love the video and the music. The songs that you use, are they part of a subscription, or are they songs that are free to use on YouTube?

Silence and disconnecting from the world can be so underrated. Just you and nature seems like a return to how we were supposed to live, not trapped inside large cities.

Video laaargo para fans pero entretenido.Te has manejado bien con los "tobys" sueltos.Un señor entrenamiento de resistencia y de exploración. Todo sea por mantener el tono muscular y no perder combate.Manu Badaloní. Suerte!

Absoloute cinematic masterpiece. I know a camera will never do justice. The outro pictures are top tier.

Appreciate all the hard work time and dedication put into this.

how was there not a single person on half dome while you filmed?

Fantastic. A masterpiece. Thank you.