I woke up early in the morning in my comfortable sleeping bag before my alarm clock even went off. I was anxious to get going. 17 miles lay ahead and a major afternoon thunderstorm looming over my head, negging me to get to Tuolomne Meadows as fast as I can.

To recap, Lost went back on the PCT and I am going on the high route to meet him in tuolomne Meadow.

Approach to Sky Pilot Col

I quickly packed up and looked at the huge descent waiting for me through boulder fields and thick pine forest and the ascent to sky pilot col.” this day is going to start well”

And it did. I stumbled down the hillside, tripping over everything possible and constantly making adjustment to my route to try to avoid the thickest of forests. I was rewarded with scrapes all over my leg by the time I made it down virigina canyon.

There’s a trail through virigina canyon but it only makes sense for the high route to cross it instead of following it. I waved a sad goodbye to the smooth, obvious trail and walked onward in disappointment.

The objective looming ahead of me is the intimidating sky pilot col. A huge valley carved into the side of the mountain that leads up to a pass few thousand feet up. It looked brutal.

The first part started like the descent from soldier lake except an uphill climb instead. Dense trees, under brushes and a few rivers to get your feet wet. Soon enough though, I broke out of the trees and came into an incredible sight. Tall pinnacles of rock, fast white water rivers and meadows of wild flowers of all colors.

Despite of the sense of urgency, I stopped to enjoy the small victory and a break from the stress and intensity of this route. (yes I know I hiked like 2 miles in 2 hours, big day eh?)

After spending a long time taking incredible photos of this place. I finally decided that I really need to move on and tackle this pass. Leaving the surreal meadow paradise, I slowly started ascending the monster in front.

Other Humans?

After about half a hour, I looked up and noticed 3 people taking down camp on the other side of the lake. I waved and shouted “Hello”. Turns out that they are also going south. Yes, I found some human! Trying not to be awkward and have a shouting conversation, I said, I’ll see you up the pass” and kept going.

The scene dramatically changed once I went past the lake. It was almost like stepping into another world. A world of rock and ice. Crossing a short snow field, the final ascent finally loomed in front of me. Big steep field of giant boulders, steep intimidating cliff walls and sky pilot col hidden from sight by the twisting and turning gully.

I started moving slowly up the loose steep rocks, my heart skipping a beat every once a while when I stepped on a loose rock.

Soon enough, I heard a sound behind me. I turned around and to my surprise, it’s one of the guys from the lake, heading in the same direction as me.

I never imagined they would catch up this quick as they were still packing up camp when I passed them. “darn, I guess I’m ridiculously slow” I thought. I felt slow for sure. Hiking this route made me feel like I have never exercised in my life until this moment. Like the hiking the pct made no difference to my fitness.

Anyway, we chatted a bit as we walked onwards, they were three friends from Minnesota, Charlie, Tor, and Joe looking to do some awesome hiking over a break from school.

The Final Approach

I began to try to figure out the way to the pass. The bottom of the gully was full of snow so I decided to stick to the right side of the gully, thinking the pass is a sharp turn to the right. Soon, I realized I was wrong and keep going up higher and to the right when the pass is actually suppose to be straightish following the snow covered gully bottom.

With quite a bit of embarrassment, I turned back to the guys and said: “I think I led you guys the wrong way.”

Great first impression.

They took it with near nonchalance and explained that they messed up way worse the day before and spent 3 hours before getting back on track and ascending horse creek pass. Together, we made our way back down the cliffs and studied the snow covered gully.

Since none of us brought micro spikes, we tended to avoid snow whenever possible. There was no getting around this however and the angles are not too bad.

So we started following the gully until we saw the gully turn into a snow covered ramp leading up to the pass on the left, right side of this ramp is a near vertical slide to below.

It’s like a freeway entrance ramp where someone forgot to put in the railing.

Since this was the only way up, we carefully made our way up the ramp, stick as much as possible to the left side to avoid slipping and sliding off the ramp. It turns out to be not so bad as the snow was softened by the sun to allow ample purchase.

One more obstacle aside, we finally made it up to near the top of the pass. We were standing on the left of the main chute of the pass, filled with steep loose rocks and snow.

How are we going to make our way over this pass? The direct approach looked horrifyingly steep and loose. Charles suggested that we should climb to the same elevation as the top of the pass from the left, on gentler (relatively) ground and then traverse over.

The traverse does not look easy either. Full of the same loose rock as the main chute but that seems to be our best chance. Turns out, there’s already a goat path on the traverse and after so much hype and worry. We climbed the final few feet onto the top without a problem.

The view was beautiful! I really love going over passes because you have absolutely no idea what’s on the other side until you made it to the top. A brilliant reward for the hard work and uncertainty we faced.

Turns out, getting to the top of the pass was only half of the challenge. The other half? Getting down. Unfortunately for us, Sky Pilot Col’s descent route was covered in snow and as a result, we had to go over to the right side and use the steeper scree to descend. So after waiting to go down one by one to avoid knocking rocks onto each other, I started slipping and sliding down the slope stepping on loose rocks and following its momentum down before stepping again. Soon enough, I was done and it was not as bad as expected.

The rest of the day we kept seeing sky pilot col in the distance behind and couldn’t believe we crossed over a pass like that. They always look way worse from a distance I guess.

The rest of the day was still difficult for sure. Not as bad as sky pilot col but we still had to climb up a rock rib to traverse the western ridge of Mount Conness, a huge ascent and lots of scramble just to bypass the spread out ridges of this giant mountain.

The last challenge was hiking up and over Mineshaft pass. The other guys decided to take a lunch break and cook food but for me, I saw the thunder clouds looming ahead and decided that I would go on ahead and try to beat the thunderstorm to the pass.

Turns out, this pass is not to be underestimated. Soon enough, I found that it was extremely difficult to find the right way through. I started ascending the slopes to approach it from a side angle and soon found gullies and snowfields barring my way and forcing me up higher and higher without approaching closer to the pass.

Then I heard it, the war drum sounds of thunder rumbling in the distance. I don’t have much time. As in reply, the sky opened up and hail and rain came down. I had no choice but to keep going. If I waited for the rain to pass… It would not be passing anytime soon.

Gritting my teeth, I moved on. Hail and rain beated down on me mercilessly and I still have no clue what’s the best way to the pass. And then… Whoosh my feet slid out from underneath me on a wet rock and I crashed into the ground with a thud. My albow striking painfully onto the edge of a rock.

I had a small moment of panic that I broke something. I got up and inspected myself and even though everything throbbed painfully, nothing was broken.

The thunder once again reminded me where I am and I willed myself to move despite of the pain, to find the right way over. Although now I proceeded with much more caution.

I knew I was close from the GPS. The other side of this rib of rock is the pass! But in front, a snow field still lingered.

I stood there and contemplated, the snow is too steep to cross safely… I’m so close! What am I going to do! Then I looked lower and saw the answer! A sideway bulge of rock on the slope, like a bridge, bypassing the snow. I rushed to it and started climbing up as the thunder rolled closer, hoping that there’s passage.

The next thing I know, I was on top of the pass and I gave a huge shout of relief as I did. Overjoyed at the prospect that there’s nothing left in my way other than trail leading to civilization.

I just completed the first section of the Sierra High Route.

All the fear, joy, tiredness and uncertainty, they all come together to form this beautiful adventure. The route that leaves me wanting more but makes me scared to approach it again.

But approach it again I did and it only got harder. I still have to write about the part 2 of the high route. I’m writing now, on a bus back to Red’s meadow to pick up where I left off even though I decided I couldn’t finish it a few days before. The weather is clear for the next 6 days or so, so time to make a push through.

Let the adventure continue.