Day 41: Pinchot and Mather

Our crew grew late last night. Two hikers, Wildlife and Slab, met up with us at camp around 9pm. We all awoke to hit the trail at 5:15 to tackle another 2 pass day. The first pass, Pinchot, was a big 3,600 foot climb over 7.5 miles. Basically, we walked uphill for a solid 3 hours to reach the pass. My legs were slightly sore from the day prior and the climb was mind-numbing. Within the first 3 miles, a creek didn’t have an option to rock-hop over so we forced to walk straight through in our shoes. Wet shoes in a cold morning.. gah. The Pinchot ascent was relatively straight forward but long.

The descent was mostly snow free so we made good time on our way down. Next up was Mather Pass, which was an easier ascent compared to Pinchot because it was shorter and less gain. I began to feel slightly nauseous and extremely exhausted on the climb down from Mather, which I think was due to altitude sickness. As we dropped elevations, I felt better. We postholed quite a bit down Mather, and once free of the snow, we stopped at an alpine lake to rest and wash off. It was freezing!