(+7.5 miles up and over Kearsarge Pass)
What a beautiful and challenging day, filled with literal highs and some lows, and the most wonderful day-changing surprise.
Ollie, Bianca, and I planned to leave camp at 5 AM in order to climb up and over Forester Pass before the snow began to melt and become soft. I woke up at 4 AM to a small nosebleed, and ate a quick breakfast before beginning to pack up. My tent was covered in frost, my sleeping bag was slightly damp, and my shoes and socks were frozen solid.
Wearing most of the clothing we had on us, we begin the climb to Forester Pass, which is the PCT highpoint at 13,200 feet. The snow was hard and windblown, and we traveled over it fairly easily, as we admired the colors of the sunrise. Streams were frozen overnight and I slipped on a patch of ice and fell on my hip and fingers.
We stopped just before the ascent to put on our traction devices and pull out our ice axes. The climb was incredibly steep, and I misstepped and both my water bottles fell out of my pack and rolled to the bottom. Ollie guided me to use my ice axe to help me climb up, and it was a much firmer climb after that. We reached dry trail near the top, and followed deep boot tracks across “the chute” area. We made it to the top!
The descent was… unpleasant, for me. Bianca & Ollie had crampons, which was a way more appropriate gear choice for this section. My microspikes could not get any traction in the now slushy snow, and so I turned on my stomach and descended the steep slope on my knees using my ice axe. We saw many glissade tracks, but those routes looked terrifying. At one point, I tried to scoot down in a “controlled glissade” but I gained speed so quickly that this was clearly not an option. My wonderful tramily waited patiently at the bottom.
To make matters worse, the tread on my shoes was becoming detached (which has never happened to me before), and bits were flapping when I walked. We continued hiking in the snow until we reached the treeline in the valley. We took our shoes off to cross another creek, before I said goodby for now. I planned to hike to town, while they wanted to camp another night.
About an hour after leaving my tramily, I spotted VERY fresh bear scat. Luckily there were no other hikers around, who would have otherwise had to suffer from my loud singing! I reached the side trail, and began pushing on through now extremely soft snow. The trail was difficult to follow, as it was covered in snow and any previous tracks had melted away.
Struggling to keep moral high, I finally reached the ascent for Kearsarge Pass – just 0.5 miles more, and the rest of the day would be downhill! I reached the top, and and was welcomed with views of the trail – still covered in snow. I carefully followed the deep boot tracks down. Thankfully, someone must have been not too far in front of me now, and I could follow their tracks!
I reached a dry section of trail, and looked up. IT WAS TOM!!! He had climbed over 1,650′ in 3 miles to an elevation of ~11,500′, just to hike back out with me, because he knew the day I had had. He brought water in a bottle, so I no longer had to drink out of my bladder (although I hadn’t yet told him about my bottles).
Following him down, I was so elated I felt like I could do another 15 miles. We took turns pointing out various aspects of the beauty of the pass to each other. I think he had also somehow melted the snow on his way up, because the trail was relatively dry after that.
Just about 3 years ago I left the PCT after Kearsarge Pass, injured, discouraged, and sentenced to three months of minimal activity. Now I’m feeling strong again, and the next steps I take on trail will make this the furthest I will have made it in a single trip! The trail from here to Bend, OR will be totally new to me.
After a sampling of the snow and water conditions in the Sierra Nevada, my tramily and I decided to wait another week for the high creek crossings to subside, even if just a little bit. We believe that they are at their peak for the season, and waiting a little longer to cross them will result in safer crossings – our priority!
Instead of sitting around, we decided to use this time to hike a low elevation (i.e. notoriously hot) section in Northern California. You know what that means… road trip!
