5 miles from the top of the most feared of the passes we began our day. Mather pass was going to be reached today. It was long and hard snow walking for four of the miles and then the last mile was just plain scary. We had to scale a rock ledge, cut steps in an ice wall and eventually pull ourselves over the top of the wall to reach the top. It was definitely the scariest of the 4 passes so far. Tomorrow we will climb the last of the five major passes in muir pass. Rumor is that there is tons of snow on it and that does not sound fun.
When we were glissading (sliding on our butts) down the backside of Mather pass, my already ruged pack broke. The hip belt was then only connected on one side and killed my back during the last 14 miles we hiked today. The only thing that made it better was the amazing valley that we walked through. Grouse meadow was surreal with a Doe grazing not 20 feet from us. There was a slow river running through it and grass all around it. Sadly we did not camp here but moved on to big Pete meadow which was not as nice. But liking on the way we saw some amazing waterfalls, some hundreds of feet tall just from snow melt. When we got to camp I sewed my pack up with a needle and dental floss in a way which I hope lasts until mammoth where I should have a new pack!
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