- Date: 2023-06-26
- Pct day: 52
- Start: Mile 743
- End: Mile 756
- Distance: 13 miles
- Ascent: 2736 feet
- Descent: 1614 feet
- Start name:
- End name:
- Wake up: 04:55
- Start hiking: 05:45
- At camp: 19:00
- In bed: 20:30
- Where I slept: tent
- Shower: no
- Best thing: the sierras are gorgeous
- Worst thing: it’s cold and it’s hard to hike in the snow
Key moments
- Woke up to my alarm and promptly went back to sleep, oops. Woke up again at 455 and rushed to get my stuff together by 0530 so we could leave
- We saw two folks we met at Grumpy’s on the way out in the morning. They were cowboy camping and woke up totally covered in frost. They were bailing out of cottonwood pass. They were cool folks, and it felt nice to see some familiar faces.
- The snow was beautiful but I really regret not taking my micro spikes - I took crampons instead, and didn’t think I’d be needing the micro spikes. Crampons are really good traction on snow and ice but they aren’t great on rock and dirt - just a bit unwieldy. Basically it’s like walking with a bunch of small poke knives on your feet that snag on things, including yourself. There’s a lot of track that is going from snow to dirt and rock and that’s much better to travel on for micro spikes. Wearing my canvas gaiters with my crampons was basically my insurance policy against stabbing myself in the leg. Definitely wish I had proper boots.
- The snow turns quite mushy by 10am so it was just very slow going past this time. It’s hard to describe but basically constantly sliding around on a slippery surface and being tensed up so you don’t slip into a tree or onto a rock or whatever is both mentally and physically exhausting.
- However the views were spectacular.
- Bumped into granite man, Tom, a hiker I had met many weeks ago at Nitsy’s back in Cabazon around mile 200, and then again later at Walkers Pass, where he was wearing crocs.
- Granite man hiked from Kennedy Meadows South to Cottonwood Pass, then back through cottonwood pass and was going for a Mt Whitney summit and push to Kearsage pass. He came in by himself, which was a bit of a worry as the mountains are an isolated place. Plus this year on the PCT with 90% of people skipping the Sierras you might see 1-2 other people a day, compared to a typical year you’d see 40-80 people.
- But Granite Man is made of tough stuff, he is (I think?) 66, and he seemed to know his way around the mountains.
- We sort of hiked together until a spot called chicken spring lake - the first alpine lake of the trip, very nice spot for lunch. We all had a bit of a snooze. We hung out in a tree well, which was a nice source of dryness in the snow.
- I had some snow cone syrup my friend Flora gave me, dug out some clean snow and had a snow cone. Was delicious. Can recommend.
- I went to chicken spring lake, which is the first of the alpine lakes in the Sierras. It wasn’t quite all frozen over. A swim was out of the question though.
- later in the day we came across some other hikers who were turned back at Forester pass, which is the way out - apparent the ranger said it wasn’t ok to cross it at the moment. In retrospect I think it’s possible that a friend of mine, Alex, could have been in that group but we shall see - I’ll get in touch once I’m back in reception.
- The trail fades away in the snow super easily, and you have to find ways around - this turns the whole track into a bit of a route finding adventure in the snow. It’s kind of fun but it’s also tiring. Like really tiring.
- I found myself getting a bit frustrated that the group was splitting up a bit as we went off trail in the snow to camp. I was going slow with my crampons on my trail runners plus I seemed to wearing a small hole through the ball of my foot because of some gravel finding its way there.
- It felt frustrating to be the person nagging everyone to stick together, but all it takes is for someone to be out of line of site and they slip down a hole in the snow and you will have a very, very, very hard time finding them again.
- Holes in the snow occur above trees or rocks/boulders. They are basically where the snow melts out faster there because the rock/tree melts the snow out from under it. You can think of it like swiss cheese, where the holes occur where there are rocks and cheese. You walk above the holes and then you can collapse through.
- They’re dangerous because you don’t know how big the hole could be - or what is under it. You could fall through and land chest deep in snow with your feet dangling into a space, or you could sink a little bit. Or you could pop down and roll or break an ankle.
- When I did a little mountaineering course in NZ the guide told me to walk a certain way to avoid the boulders as someone in front of us landed up to their chest. But he was slightly off, and I fell straight through also chest deep, my arms holding myself up.
- So I was a bit cautious with travelling with the group that we stick together, but there seemed to be this strong energy/focus on moving quickly and fast, which was starting to grind against my values of, well, surviving. And having fun.
- Franck stuck with me when I voiced this concern. And later on he fell through a hole. Franck is a great dude.
- We found a beautiful new PCT blaze and took a group photo together, we decided the trail family would be called “the glissades”, said with a posh accent.
- The team is Owl, Fancy Pants, Cukes, and Pulse.
- Getting into camp I bumped into Trainwreck, who was headed back out to Cottonwood pass, he said that the ranger said there was a literal wall of ice on forester pass that the ranger couldn’t even get his ice axe to bite into, so it’s kind of not passable right now. Good god. It could all change in a couple of days, but there’s a lot of hikers turned around at the moment.
- I felt kind of sad about this and just generally felt kind of tired and exhausted and wanted nothing more than to be at home with Katie, curled up watching a movie. Or parks and rec. The last few weeks there hasn’t been much phone reception and it’s been hard to stay in touch. I was really missing her. I felt like if she was here we’d have a really good plan and I’d feel safe.
- It was nice to get a campsite that wasn’t in the snow. I was worried that I’d be camping on snow, but there was enough dry spots around.
- It’s ok to want things like that and for the trail to be hard. I came here for adventure. But boy, this is hard.
Plan from here
- Wake up at 2am to get out by 3am. We need to get moving on the hard snow otherwise it’s a nightmare during the day. Hopefully this means most of our hiking will be done by midday. Hopefully.
Animals sighted
Gear thoughts
- I may have packed too much food
- Crampons are great when it’s continuous travel on hard snow, and also really good for going up steep slopes.
Physical condition
- Right blister seems to have gone away, well the pain was just replaced boy other random pains form the crampons. I’m fairly sure the clamps on the front of the shoe are crushing my toes. It hurts. A lot.
- Lots of the random niggles I had in the desert seem to be gone now. Replaced by new pains between the shoulders and new emerging pains from carrying so much stuff and hiking through the snow.
Thoughts and Observations
- I hope Alex is going OK.
Some of the bad things
- I’m a bit scared, and worried that my group doesn’t have the same safety values as me.
Quotes of the day
#pct #pct2023 #pctclassof2023
