Miles: 11.2 

Total Trail Miles: 893 

Ascent/Descent: 3683/1902 ft 

Start Time: 03:00 

End Time: 13:30 

Temperature: 8°C (46°F)

We woke to dry tents for maybe only the first or second time in the Sierra, it hadn't stormed at all last night. The first hurdle of the morning was crossing North Fork Mono Creek which was wide and raging, we found a fallen tree crossing and went for it, I saw Yeehaws legs shaking as he crossed ahead of me as his feet slide around a bit one one tricky patch where you had to manoeuvre some branches. This made my legs shake too and I also had a wobble on the same patch, then Shortcut did the same - luckily we all made it across dry. Next up was challenge number two and the much bigger one; follow the path and cross under the waterfall or doing some steep sketchy grade 2/3 climbing up rock. We opted waterfall as it has a little less risk. The waterfall was pounding down into the trail and the trail was mid thigh deep in raging water, there was no way of rock hopping as it was too dangerous to stand near the edge due to the force of the water, the only way was to wade through under the pounding water. Me and shortcut were freaking out a bit due to how cold and powerful it was and after seeing Beer slide struggle a bit crossing. Luckily Buddy said we could all walk through together as a 3 a a line, we had no other option. I changed into my waterproof and trail runners to try and keep my clothes and boots dry and covered my pack in the rain cover. As soon as we stepped in the cold hit me but i had no time to focus on that as we had to focus on staying upright and moving through the fast water without it pushing our legs out from under us, whilst water pelted us from above. The water was so powerful but we made it through and my whole body was shaking from the cold, we shed our wet clothes instantly and tried to warm ourselves up, mine and shortcuts feet and hands both numb in the 4am cold. E then had a climb which would normally have got me hot but I stayed wrapped up in all my layers. Silver pass was next on the list, luckily it was super gradual and pretty chill , there was actually a higher point just after the pass so we headed up there for breakfast with a view. I took over navigating them and it was nice to be moving at a more reasonable pace, we had a decent and then another climb before reaching our target campsite by Lake Virginia. We arrived to see Primo and Grill Master chilling on a little slopped dry patch right by were we were planning to camp, we chatted but then they hiked on and we set up in the snow. We ate dinner out on the dry patch, emptied the view and the idea of a lie in in the morning. A couple more hikers went by too and stopped for a short break and chat.