Pep­per and I pushed hard yes­ter­day to get to Mam­moth Lakes, CA. We are get­ting orga­nized and resup­ply­ing now for the next stretch. We skied into town under head­lamps and moon­light in a ~30+ mile day. We camped a few miles south of Tuolomne Mead­ows in Yosemite the night before and had the most favor­able con­di­tions of the entire trip while head­ing over Don­ahue Pass and Island Pass. We even had some pret­ty good turns and corn snow on the descents. I only wiped out once on the descent, which is say­ing a lot con­sid­er­ing I am using leather tele boots and 3‑pin bind­ings with no heel bail (this set-up was the tough­est deci­sion for a weight con­scious hiker—added control/performance vs. weight). I don’t regret my deci­sion now at all con­sid­er­ing the snow con­di­tions have been less than opti­mal. Below 8000 feet ele­va­tion it is a mixed bag. We have had to bushwack through thick brush with our skis on our packs, make our way through talus fields with house sized boul­ders in our ski boots, and hike at least 15 miles of clear, snow-free trail in our ski boots. We should be high­er mist of the way through the next sec­tion, but we have still decid­ed to add the bur­den of car­ry­ing a light­weight pair of shoes just in case.
The first cou­ple of days were chilly and snowy. The weath­er has now tran­si­tioned to full-blow sun­shine and intense solar radi­a­tion. At times I notice that I am still squint­ing despite wear­ing sun­glass­es. The fords have been cold, with ice often flow­ing in the rivers, but none too over­whelm­ing. The biggest thing is the lack of snow. At times we are forced to zig-zag around to stay on snow instead of being able to trav­el a straight line. All in all, the trip is going well. We have cov­ered about 110 miles now and are excit­ed to get into the Sequoia-Kings Canyon Nation­al Park tomor­row. From here on out we are antic­i­pat­ing stay­ing more on the Sier­ra High Route than the Pacif­ic Crest Trail/John Muir Trail due to snow con­di­tions and the high­er ele­va­tions that the SHR maintains.