I awoke to sunshine on my sleeping bag, except on my face. I had moved some rocks from a small flat spot partially under a small white bark pine tree last night for my sleeping quarters. No one else was moving so I ate breakfast, dried out gear on large rocks surrounded by snow, then got back in the sleeping bag for a few minutes until everyone else got up. Around 9:15am I began the remaining ascent to Glen Pass, with a promise to my friends that I would wait for them before reaching the first major snow field. The climbing was moderate to steep, but I felt better than yesterday so I pushed on alone until I reached steep a steep snowfield followed by a rock outcrop followed by another steep snowfield. At the rock outcrop I waited for my fellow thru-hikers to catch up.
We all ascended through a long, moderately steep snow field before finally reaching bare switchbacks on the steep face of Glen Pass. Below the summit we had to negotiate two more small snow fields on switchbacks, and finally reached the top of the pass at 11,978 feet. The other side of the pass, the north side, appeared to be one continuous snow field for at least a thousand feet down. We snacked and relaxed for a bit and watched fellow hikers, Solid and Stripes, make it up to the top of the pass. Solid is a fantastic yodeler, so Batteries did a video tape of him yodeling from the top of the pass. Appropriately I felt as though I was in the Alps, calling the cows down from the mountainside. Man that guy can yodel with the best! We asked Solid how he acquired his talent...turns out he downloaded several lessons from the Internet and practiced in the car while commuting to work and back! Batteries then videotaped us beginning the steep descent in the snow.
Thankfully the snow was deep and the footsteps there from previous hikers sank down so that if we slipped we would already be low to the snow for a fall or slide. Still, ice axe use was mandatory and we eventually began stepping straight down through snow, which required lots of concentration. I was feeling nauseous and weak, but the dizziness, thankfully, had subsided with a good night’s sleep and with the attention I had received from my friends. We eventually lowered in elevation to a point where we had intermittent snow fields broken up by rock piles which I found equally difficult to hike on given the steep angle of descent.
Eventually we reached two beautiful lakes where we stopped for a lunch break. Pepper Jack did her thing again, peeling off for a brief swim in the snowmelt lakes surrounded by snow. No one else dared take a plunge. I was cold just watching her as I sat in the sunshine enjoying a slight breeze. Solid and Stripes caught up and passed us while we were eating as did a new thru-hiker we hadn’t met before named Scotland, appropriately because that’s where he lives. I forgot to mention, by the way, that some other European thru-hikers, Emmy and Robert from Holland, were in Independence while we were there. Also, as we were hiking up to Kearsarge Pass yesterday, we passed Evan, Charles (Little Big Man) and Good To Go, who were headed into town. We heard from Tyvek, who caught up to us today, that Nitro, Nightingale, and Bono summited Whitney two days ago, so they should only be a couple days behind us.
I would love to hike with Good to Go and Nitro and Bono and Nightingale again and am sure we’ll get the chance after the Sierras.
All afternoon we descended, eventually getting out of the snow and entering grassy meadows, forests, and lots of snow melt fords which kept our feet wet. At 4:30pm we reached the low point for the day at Woods Creek at 8,500 feet where we stopped for water resupply and to cook an early dinner. There had been hope earlier in the day that we could make it over Pinchot Pass this evening, but we were still 7.1 miles from the summit with a 3,600 foot climb and that just wasn’t going to happen.
I left first to begin a 2,000 foot climb to a junction trail. Still feeling a stomach ache, I hiked up along a roaring whitewater river for the first 3 miles, with many snowmelt fed streams and one whitewater river to ford as I hiked. I made it all the way to the junction around 7:30pm without my fellow hikers catching up to me, and I began feeling better physically than I’ve felt since we left Independence. I waited 15 minutes for the gang to catch up, then we all hiked together for another 15 minutes, looking for a suitable campsite for the night. By 8pm we stopped alongside the trail and for another night, like last night, are cowboy camping in the cold evening chill. The combination of camping at high elevation (tonight at 10,540 feet) and cold temperatures has kept us from having to deal with mosquitoes for several nights.
Tomorrow our plan is to start earlier (with cold, wet, and maybe frozen shoes?) and to go over Pinchot Pass (12,130 feet) and to try and get over Mather Pass as well. We need to pick up a bigger mile day so we won’t run out of food, but the going has been very slow with all the snow, rocks and water and not much bare trail to hike on. I’m feeling positive that I’m getting re-acclimated to the high elevation and am more happy now that I feel better physically that I chose to go straight through the Sierras, despite difficult conditions. Time for bed!
Today’s weather: sunny, low 28, high 68. Today’s mileage: 13.7. Cumulative mileage: 804.7.
