Day 41

Mile 772.2 to mile 790.1

PCT Miles: 17.9 (28.6km)

Total Miles: 790.1 (1264.2km)

I knew I had a very challenging day ahead.

It was the earliest that I left camp so far, around 5:30. The day started with the river crossing that ended my day yesterday. This morning the stream was indeed slower. I tried first to use a log to cross, but it was frozen and slippery, so I went for it and crossed walking. Refreshing feet (and shoes) wash!

My day was 90% hiking on snow. In the morning, when the snow is still hard, it’s almost as easy as hiking on ground. It took me around three hours to finally put my crampons on. The day was going according to the plan!

Then it was time to cross the Forester Pass. The highest point on the PCT.

There was absolutely no trail to follow. The whole thing was covered in ice. Instead of hiking, the ascend was climbing on ice. It was the first time in my life that I had an ice axe in hand. And I was so glad I did.

I completely ignored the trail, which was full of switchbacks (i.e. zig-zags), and went straight up following some footprints. In one moment, I had to use my ice axe as a third contact point to be able to push myself up. It was freaking crazy scary. Now, looking back, I would say it was fun. In the moment, I was so tense and so scared. I took my time and eventually succeeded on the ascent!

Going down was a completely different story. I glissaded (sit on the snow and slide down🛝) the first part of the descending (that was fun!!), but it was a long way down still after that. The snow was already softening with the sun so it became more difficult to hike.

Besides the early stream crossing, there were three more (actually five, because I miss crossed one river and had to cross back). That plus hiking on the snow means that my feet were wet all day long. Tomorrow seems to be a wear-frozen-socks-and-shoes day…

During the afternoon my mood dropped a bit. I was a little bit miserable with all the wetness and because I was hiking so slow because of the snow. I enjoy hiking fast, I like walking. I don’t necessarily enjoy hiking on snow (but I accept the challenge). I had to, again, stop hiking earlier than I wanted because there wouldn’t be a place to camp if I kept hiking up (full of snow). Tomorrow I’ll try to go over the next pass (Glen Pass) before 7am.

Almost at the end of the day, I had my first encounter with deers 🦌 and for some reason I was super scared. Maybe because it’s a big wild animal and I don’t even remember if I have ever been so close to a wild animal like this. I saw two or three and the last one was not shy at all. He kept looking at me and we walked the trail “together” for a bit.