Day 56, The Snow Field

Part 2, The Sierra Nevada, Day 56

Muir Pass

Miles: 17.51

PCT Mile: 845.98

I had a very late start to the day due to some confusing planning. Last night, there was talk of doing a half day to set up for Muir Pass, so I woke up early and read in my tent for a few hours. When I looked outside, everyone was gone. So I started hiking around 8 am, and I felt like I was late for work.

The scenery made my face melt!

I don't even know how to describe these views.

I knew early on that something was brewing up in the sky. Their were low clouds gathering and it was clear a storm was coming, but for the moment I was just enjoying the land. My back was killing me, but it usually goes numb after 5 miles, so I ignored it.

I saw HummingBird messing around near  this big rock, so I stopped. The rock looked like a monster with big teeth, so we took some pics of it:

There was nearly 3,000 feet to climb today to get to Muir Pass, and it went by pretty quick. At least, I started moving quicker because of the darkening sky.

The air got colder as I ascended. The trail was extremely wet from the snow melt, so I knew it was just going to be awed day. I had to cross many streams that ran across the trail. 

Just when I thought I'd be alone all day, I saw Shepherd and KC waiting below the pass. I joined them and we headed up into the snow.

We passed a few frozen lakes.

Here is frozen Helen Lake:

There was no trail, and this was a massive snow field, so we had to pause and plan a route. Shepherd took the lead and we made a beeline toward the pass. It was 1pm and a bit late for snow travel, so we post holed quite a bit. It was tiring.

We all glissaded down a steep snow bank and if was a blast. Glissading is when you slide down a snow field on your butt, and you can really get going fast. I walked carefully here, since I could here a river running under the thin snow. We were hiking on top of a river!

It took a couple hours to get up to the summit, but we soon saw the Muir Hut and we celebrated. This was our last major high pass, and it was quite an adventure getting up top.

This hut sits atop Muir Pass. It was pretty spacious inside, and the group originally wanted to sleep inside, but we didn't. I'm not into the slumber party stuff with 8 filthy hikers. We stayed at the top until everyone arrived.

There was an epic storm to the North, and we didn't want to be that high in a storm, so we began to descend into the snow.

The trail passed right by these beautiful frozen lakes. 

We were all making bets about how soon until it would start raining. It was already snowing back on Muir Pass. 

This was absolutely gorgeous, but I'd heard that this stretch was special in the sunshine, so I couldn't help but feel like I was missing out a bit, but it was special in its own, raw way. 

Everyone was moving quickly trying to out-hike the storm. It was really cold too.

I was so tired, so hungry, and so cold by this point, and I was eager to get to camp. 

It began to rain right after I set up my tent, so my timing was good. We all ate together in the light rain and retreated to our tents. My tent was under a few big Sequoias, so I had pretty good rain protection. I went to sleep slightly nervous about the storm, but at least I was off my feet.