June 10

805-817

Climbing up into the basin below Pinchot Pass makes us realize we made a very wise decision last night.

Navigating through this mess of snow and ice would have taken us hours.

At the top of the pass, there is a surprisingly exposed final traverse. We strap our microspikes on, and find good purchase in the footprints that have slanted heavily downhill with the daytime melt.

We later learn that a weekend backpacker had a lot of trouble during this traverse, and became frozen in fear. A few thru hikers came up on her and had to physically move her feet as she was screaming and crying.

They tried to get her to press the button on her emergency Beacon to get rescued, since the only way out is over other passes, but the woman refused. We hike down from the pass with Sunshine, and wait for her at a major river crossing where the trail crosses the South Fork of the Kings River.

This crossing claimed the lives of two young women who were thru hiking in 2017. Together we cross the river, using all of our best water crossing techniques- facing into the current, poles out in front, side step shuffling so your feet do not have the opportunity to get washed away underneath you. The river drains from the basin surrounding Mather Pass, so we begin to suspect we will encounter tons of snow.

We hike up to the headwall of Mather Pass, a 500 foot wall of rock a bit after mid day. Looking up at the pass it looks like there will be quite a few traverses that will require solid snow, so we set up an early camp.

Soon Looki, Melissa, and Sunshine join us- as well as Golden, a hiker who tackled the Continental Divide trail last year. Golden has her arm wrapped in KT tape, and tells us she injured it while falling after helping the unprepared hiker down from the pass. She believes she sprained her wrist, and is uncertain if she will be able to climb up Mather Pass. Looki, a Swiss Mountaineer and experienced thruhiker, climbs partway up the pass to assess the conditions and also decides it would be best to climb in the morning.

Much to our amazement, Just before sunset a group of young thruhikers walk up and say they are going to climb up. We wish them luck, and watch them slowly navigate up the headwall. It is like watching a suspense movie. All of us hold our breath as they walk across traverses of unstable snow hundreds of feet above us. Eventually we see them climb over the cornice at the top of the pass, and we all yell to cheer them along. Before we all head to our respective tents, I ask Golden if I can look at her arm. She removes the KT tape wrapping, and I can see that her arm, right above her wrist, is very swollen and bruised. I don’t like what I see. I ask her if she can try to elevate her arm during the night, so we can get a better idea of what we are dealing with. In the morning, we will come up with a game plan.