August 6, 2016 Day 0
Drove down to Mono Village, got in around 7 pm. Ryan arrives at 8 pm and we shuttle all the way down to roads end.

Slept at Convict Flat at 3 am. Popped my neo air in the first 5 minutes, slept on a blanket.

12 hr 56 min shuttle from Berkeley. Pretty exhausted getting in at 3 am knowing we had an exposed 5,000 foot climb the next day.

Day 1 – Mileage 17

Woke up at 6 am with probably 2, maybe 1.5 hours of sleep. Got permit and started at 8:30 am.

I underestimated the climb. My pack was heavy with bear can and enough food for 8 days. The last stretch killed me.

I have pretty bad blisters, like worst I’ve ever had… Just red/raw skin on both my heels… Kinda worrisome, it’s only day 1. Also pretty worried that it took us 8:30 am – 7 pm to go all of 17 miles. Have a big day tomorrow, not sure what expectations to have with the passes.

The blisters freaked me out but I just slapped a bunch of leukotape on them hoping for the best. At the moment I couldn’t believe the trip might be sidelined due to god damn blisters, the skin peeled right off, they were really really bad. Caused by the 5,000 dusty climb and my new montrails (walking in the backseat all day). More on those god damn shoes later.

Day 2 – Mileage 17

Up at 5:30 straight to Grey Pass, White Pass, Red Pass, down to Marion Lake.

These 3 were pretty straightforward. Then we started the climb to Frozen Lake Pass. It looked impossible from below – we were looking at the wrong notch at first.

My fatigue set in and I was going pretty slow. 2 hours of steep talus up and we’re at the pass.

We’re not down yet though – 2 hours of laborious and mentally fatiguing talus down. I’m exhausted and bummed about our low mileage so far.

Looking back at Frozen Lake Pass.

Then we hop onto the PCT for the next 6 miles. As soon as I got on trail it was like night and day. Graded tread was so so easy to hike on and I instantly got into a groove. Felt really good, finally. Cruised downhill on PCT to Lower Palisade Lake at about 8 pm.

We had our first real Roper ass kicker today.