Miles: 13.5 

Total Trail Miles: 824.3 

Ascent/Descent: 2154/4125 ft 

Start Time: 03:00 

End Time: 14:39 

Temperature: 7°C (45°F)

Getting my toe into my boot this morning was a form of torture, it was swollen and sore and starting on icy downhill walking over sun cups in the dark was not fun, luckily the downhill didn't last too long and after just over 1.5 miles we started to ascend towards Mather Pass. My foot could handle going up better although it was still sore. It was a pretty clear morning so it was nice to enjoy the sun rise again in the middle of the beautiful high Sierra. We had read a comment of FarOut advising us to follow the boot track to the left of the pass, so we did just that. Little did we know it would involve 3 sections of pretty intense rock climbing, the final mile up to the pass took us 2 hours due to this, definitely induced some fear and got our hearts racing. the snow traverses were also very steep but i felt much happier on these than the rocks. I aired my tire at the top of the pass as we had a break, it wasn't looking too good. I was dreading the descent but I switched out to trail runners and that helped a bit, the snow started to get softer and I quickly realised that although not easy this was way better than descending in the icy dark morning so i pushed for us to do more miles. The group agreed and we pushed a further 3 miles than what we were planning, sliding down the slush. E eventually found a spot in the trees for some shelter from the forecast rain. We ate dinner in our tents even though the train was only light to stay dry and keep warm