June 15:Mather Pass

Camping just below 11,000 ft we expected a colder night. It seems our sleping bags are doing their job and sleping under our Black Diamond tarp is adding some warmth. We walked between patches of snow and rock toward Mather Pass. We even followed patches of trail. We could see the pass as we walked closer and could tell the upper switchbacks were totally covered in snow. This side of Mather has a rather steep face and is exciting or pee your pants scary depending on your perspective. We followed the line of the trail around to the snow covered switchbacks. A solid set of foot prints were kicked in the snow that went up quickly at a slight angle and only made one switch back the other direction before reaching a piece of trail at the top. One switchback in the snow where the buried trail may have 5 or 6. We grabbed our ice axes and headed up the steep foot prints. We both moved a steady pace with Jesica a bit slower. The sun was on us at just after 8am and we becam!
e very hot. Still minutes later we found ourselves a top the gargantuan pass. It had only taken an hour and a half from our campsite, but a lot of energy.

We cruzed down the other side of the pass with some steep beginings in snow and rock. We walked mostly snow with some rock patches and then mostly rock with some snow patches. We found the trail as we got near to the lakes below the pass. It's incredibly beautiful here, like maybe the most beautiful place in America.

We continued to pound down and down our massive decent until hitting a river which we luckily this time we did not have to cross, but turned and walked along side as we climbed up and up.

There are some incredible meadows along the climb up. You could spend a day in any one of them basking in the beauty. We had considered climbing very high, even going all the way to the top of the pass where there is an emergency hut we could have slept in. But, right when significant snow walking hit we came to a large lake still mostly frozen around 10,800 ft. We decided to take the picturesce campsite along the lake. Although, my pictures don't come close to capturing the magnitude and beauty.

Total Miles:835.0
MILes Today:20.5
Camp 49:Below Muir

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