Date: Wednesday, May 24th 2023
Day 14
Miles Hiked: 0
N 33.729040° W 116.601397°
Mile 179.4 (Saddle Junction) to Mile 185ish (San Jacinto Peak summit hut, 10,700')
- Trail: Hiked the Devil's Slide trail back to Saddle Junction to rejoin the PCT, then made better time than expected to the junction for the San Jacinto summit alternate and decided to start early, since I had daylight and there is an emergency hut at the top. The first third of the alternate was unremarkable and often snow free. The last third was dicey because the boottrack split, disappeared, and became unreliable. The path crossed hillside snow fields and I accidentally followed the wrong tracks to an area where I had to backtrack. I snapped a trekking pole by postholing into some granite bolders, then had to try to do a controlled glissade down to some other boottracks. These turned out to also be wrong, so I used my GPS map to reorient to the trail, then used my remaining trekking pole and ice axe to self-belay and kick steps up the mountain to where the trail was supposed to be (and thankfully was). I found the summit hut, then went up to the summit itself briefly. It is beautiful, and probably worth the hike up. Overall, I'm glad I carried extra safety equipment (even when it seemed overkill), glad I didn't skimp on cold weather gear (sleeping kit, puffy), and very glad I watched all those mountaineering videos on YouTube for skills I hope to never use again. 😓
- Campsite: A bunk in the emergency hut at the summit. It's dark and very rustic, but I'm very happy to be out of the wind.
- People: I met a couple very cheery day hikers who assured me the boottrack was reliable (mostly) and three PCT hikers also going to the summit who ended up being much faster and who went down the mountain at some point. Two German SOBO hikers arrived around 6:40 to share the hut and offered some good advice about the upcoming (sketchy) sections.
- Tomorrow: Get down off the mountain, don't die, try to get someplace without snow to cowboy camp or try to duct tape my broken trekking pole to set up my tent.