I was in Lone Pine just 10 days ago. It feels like ages though, the amount we’ve seen and the passes we’ve climbed make it seem like a whole month. We’ve climbed over 30,000 feet in those ten days, and postholed hundreds (if not thousands) of times. There were some painful miles, but some of the most rewarding. The snow slowed us down considerably (there was a big storm around May 20th that dropped several feet). Averaging 25-30 mile days before the gauntlet, we dropped to 20-25 miles getting over the passes. We even had one sub 20 mile full day (19 miles, the horror!).

This was our Sierra resupply strategy:

Kennedy Meadows to Lone Pine (via Kearsarge Pass).
Lone Pine to Vermillion Valley Resort (via the lake trail). We were going to skip VVR, but we wanted beer and cheeseburgers (calorie deficit can do amazing things).
VVR to Mammoth (via Red’s Meadow).
Mammoth to Tuolumne Meadows.

I’ve quite enjoyed slowing down a bit in the Sierra, this is a world premiere trekking destination. My crew through this section was stellar, I hiked quite a bit with Tiny, NotaChance, and Mac. Tiny always knew exactly where we were so I didn’t have to pay attention to maps, Mac would distract us with his New Zealand sense of humor, and NotaChance would push us through the hardest miles (“Why don’t we do two passes today?”).

Caitlin picked me up in Tuolumne and we spent a much needed zero day being tourists in the Eastern Sierra. Lee Vining, Hawthorne, hot springs, Bridgeport. I think I’ve gained back the 10 pounds I lost in the high Sierra!

High Sierra panorama

Kearsarge Pass

Glen Pass (and what I like to call Gatorade Lake).

The descent off of Glen.

It got steep.

Really steep, I was thinking I wouldn’t even ski down this.

Our path off the north face of Glen.

The approach to Pinchot Pass.

Climbing up Mather Pass got a little sketchy as we lost the trail in the snow.

The top of Mather Pass.

Mather Pass.

The descent off of Mather. These would be many miles of postholing if we attempted it in the afternoon. One of the reasons our mileage was limited in the Sierra was to avoid afternoon postholing (so we would only do one pass, early in the morning when the snow was still frozen).

Went swimming here. This was of course snow runoff, a tad cold.

The approach to Muir Pass.

NotaChance, Tiny, and Mac. After Muir pass, the big ones were out of the way.

Evolution Basin.

Evolution Creek.

Getting below snow line was always a relief.

Tiny, Mongo, and Rafiki near Iva Bell hot springs.

Donahue Pass at sunset. This is the entrance to Yosemite National Park. I got over the pass at dark and found some weekend backpackers who couldn’t understand why I was hiking at night (Are you OK?!?). Slept there and did the 12 miles into Tuolumne the next morning.

Very excited to get into the northern area of Yosemite, the northern Sierra, and Tahoe!

andrew batjiaka

pacifc crest trail 2014

pct