We passed the Golden staircase and Mather Pass today at 12100ft.
Today we traveled: 9miles. 3451ft elevation gain 837ft elevation loss.
JMT mile marker: 152.5mile.
Got up after a restful night. We had the wind/rain fly off and were able to see the stars. We started the day thinking we will hike up the Golden Staircase and camp by upper Palisades lake, about 5.5miles and 2000ft elevation. Hearing that Mather Pass was a hard pass we didn’t want to over do it. Still wanting to see how Bob felt.
The start was slow. This part was steep with lots of switchbacks that you never knew how and where you were going up or what was waiting around the corner. It was impressive how they build it - a little mix of crazy and impressive.
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| Where are we going next? |
When we reach the lower lake we took our break, eating and filling up on water. Bob seemed to be doing well.
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| Resting after climbing up the Golden Staircase |
It was too early to camp, just before 11am and the we had more energy to burn. We decided to go for it and climb up another 1500ft and get on the other side of Mather Pass.
We didn’t go fast, it was hot and we started getting into high 10,000ft and 11,000ft which meant we had less air with each breath. We kept a steady pace, not even sure what direction the pass went, it was steep and it looked like there was no way out of this canyon. We just kept going.
We started seeing hikers with day packs - I asked where they came from? They were doing the JMT supported by mules!! 31 day going south to north. I wonder how much that cost. They said the food was so so but this was the only way they could hike something like this. It was impressive trip. After we part way their mule train arrived. They always amazed me. Pretty animals. It’s impressive trail to walk on and it’s impressive they can get horses and mules to walk some of these trails.
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| The Mules |
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| When it’s too steep they lead them vs. riding them |
Soon we were at the top and one more pass was behind us.
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| Almost at the top |
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| Mather Pass |
We started going down to a different view - more desolate, Mars like. We camped by a small lake and went for a cold swim. Rob caught up to us and camped near by. We had found yet another hole in my mattress and fixed it. Rob had the same issue and we shared our emergency kit so he could fix his.
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| We camped by this lake |
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| A different planet |
It was pretty desolate but the ground was full with small plants, flowers and creatures: tiny frogs, grasshoppers, bugs, crawlers and lots of marmots. We were still high enough that the night was cold and we put our tent fly on to keep us warm. I wasn’t feeling 100% that night. I was tired and had the suspicion I might gotten Bob’s cold. Ugh. Yifat.
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