Todays hike brought us over the highest pass on the PCT. Forester's Pass is 13,200'. This is the pass that in a snowy year would require the use of crampons and an ice axe. We have neither this year due to the lack of snowfall here. A good thing because that is just more to carry and our pack weight just seems to be getting heavier due to more food needed to be carried. The resupply points are getting farther apart so more food is needed. Nothing like being in the wilderness and being short on food. A real bad combination. We have had that situation already and said we would not let that happen again. Now we carry extra and deal with an heavier load.
It took us about 7 hours to climb from Crabtree Meadows to the summit of Foresters Pass. The climb was very steep especially towards the top. We had to traverse a lot of snow ascending the pass. Once we reached the summit of Foresters we had two miles of heavy snow many feet thick to descend the north side of the pass. This got tricky and somewhat dangerous if we just made one wrong move. We descended slowly and carefully along with two other hiking friends Michael and Lady Pants. The scenery was outstanding and rivaled yesterday's Mt. Whitney. We safely made it back down to the valley floor and are continuing hiking the John Muir Trail section which shares the PCT for over 200 miles. It's going to be an incredible experience hiking these next few weeks. A lot of highlights to come.
Blogging is getting tough out here due to the lack of cell service. I'm blogging everyday but can only post it with service. If you don't see an update for awhile it more than likely means we had no service.
Y-Knot making the approach to Foresters Pass.
Not a bad break spot. Balance having a snack.
Amazing beauty. Foresters Pass is still miles away. This climb never seemed to end.
A lot of snow crossings during our ascent of the highest pass on the PCT. balance trying to keep her balance during sections like this.
Balance pointing to the summit. The summit is in the middle of the "V" which looks to be a little snowy at the top. Still miles away, and very steep switchbacks to get there.
Balance throws her hands up in victory just feet from the summit of Foresters Pass. An amazing day of climbing and sights.
We did it! We climbed the highest pass on the PCT. this is the summit of Foresters Pass at 13,200'. Absolutely amazing views from here. Now the hard part. You thought ascending this pass was hard? Well descending this pass was harder. The reason is the descent of this pass is on the north side. Which means it gets less sunshine, which means more snow to deal with going down. I mean feet of snow. 4 to 5 feet of snow towards the top two miles of this descent. We headed down very carefully.
This was an extremely steep slope with a lot of post holing. That's when your foot and leg drops deep into the snow and its hard to get out with a 35 pound pack on.
Our hiking friend "Michael" leads the way. He would point us around the deep postholing, which helped.
The spectacular Sierras.
It doesn't get any better than this. Desert? What Desert? How soon one forgets. This is on our descent of Foresters Pass. What a day it was. Another one not to be forgotten.
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