Onwards it is! After a freezing night that cost us all some sleep, we continued. There was a little side trip on the horizon: the hot springs near Muir Trail Ranch called Blarney Hot Springs. On the way I encountered Stinger, Mouse, Fitz and Hanna, our latest (and as would soon become clear, also shortest) …
Muir Pass had an infamous reputation. Several miles before and after the pass, the trail was covered in slushy snow, according to what we’d heard, meaning there would be postholing for a long stretch. On arrival, none of this turned out to be true. Muir Pass was even my favourite so far. The other passes …
Mather Pass is known to be one of the more difficult passes. Mostly because of the steep incline and the amount of snow on its sides. Luckily, ours is not a heavy snow year and only the north side, the side we descended, still had snow. Going up was a breeze, I’m definitely getting over …
The climb up Pinchot was endless. Even though it was not hard, it tested all our spirits. It was probably the most beautiful day so far though, with icy lakes and green meadows popping up everywhere. Spice told me a hilarious story about how her rabbit, Milwood, would have a litter with his sister and …
We left Bishop and went back up Kearsarge Pass to continue to our second pass of the day: Glen Pass. The altitude gets to me less and less, but carrying six plus days of food up two passes was still straining. Half and Half wasn’t feeling good and we left her at Kearsarge Pass. She …
All the usual today: resupply, checking gear, buying new stuff etc. As the mosquitoes had targeted me last time I bought a headnet for protection. A few surprise people arrived at the hostel. The first two being Disaster and Big Oil. The third I hadn’t seen since Idyllwild: Gopher! Gopher wasn’t the most exciting person …
The food supply dwindles. Whiffs of our own smell make us wince. Salt stains from sweat stand out white on our clothing. Yes, it is that time again, time for town. Bishop is the place this time, a mid-sized city right next to the Sierra’s. To get there, we need to cross Kearsarge Pass, a …
In the Sierra’s, hikers have to go through a series of high altitude passes. These passes are often covered in snow and afternoon storms gather there in the summer, so they require some logistics to get through. Today we did the first of these, Forrester Pass, the highest of them all at 13120 feet. Lucky …
4421 meters, I did it! Our march up Whitney (or Hwitney, as Coyote would no doubt prefer) started at 1 am, in pitch black darkness. A train of headlamp lights formed along the slopes of the mountain. It made the walk feel like an expedition into the unknown. Periodically, I ran into others, always checking …
The altitude is kicking in hard. Small climbs that I would have been able to run up now require great effort and make me run out of breath. Positive thought is that we will be flying in Northern California with this kind of training. I guess I have the hiker’s legs but not the lungs …
