Day 58 – 6/24/11 – 16 miles (820)

We met our goal of two passes today. Pinchot pass was a breeze first thing today, and the rest of the morning went along at a nice pace as well. The afternoon was another slog fest up to Mather pass. It doesn’t seem to be mentioned in the guidebooks, but the actual pass was easily the scariest yet. I got to practice a bunch of rock scrambling and bouldering moves. Yet, I didn’t take out my ice axe until it was time to glissade down the other side. Down at Palisade Lake we did another scary thing: hopping onto the giant iceberg of frozen lake and walking around past a rock outcrop. Oh, and several walking on snow bridges across raging rivers. All in a typical day in the Sierra!

Slogging across a snow field up to Mather pass

Walking on the iceberg