I awoke at 4 AM, and steeled myself for the tackling of the technical Glen Pass. We’d been able to camp 1.1 miles below the pass itself, so it wasn’t far to go. There were many, many other hikers camped as close to the pass as possible, but we were among some of the first groups to get going.
The patchy snow was hard and there was less snow on both the approach and the ascent than I could’ve hoped for! Reaching the pass itself, I looked over and saw that I would not be so lucky on the descent. We stopped to put our crampons on, and trade trekking poles for ice axes, before beginning the climb down from Glen.
Although there was less snow on the trail overall, there were still frequent water crossings. I honestly lost count of how many. Some I was able to hop on rocks across, some were straightforward enough that I could take my shoes and socks off to cross, but some I had to cross in my shoes for safety.
I was glad to have my tramily to cross with, but some of these water crossings are no joke even with a group. The water was cramp-inducing, ice-cold snow melt, and the current was often fearsome. We took our time and scouted up and down stream before selecting where to cross.
After all the wet feet, we were excited to see a bridge, which we safely traversed one at a time.
