PCT Day 55 – PCT mile 713.8 to 732.0

May 29, 2026

Total PCT miles: 18.2

Non PCT miles: 0.7

Total: 18.2 miles / 29.3 km

Total elevation gain: 3665 ft

Total elevation loss: 2694 ft

Steps: 43087

I woke up at 0100 hrs secondary to the call of nature. At some point the wet heavy snow had frozen and for a few moments I didn’t think I would be able to open the zipper. When I finally did I was greeted to a winter wonderland. It had stopped snowing… but we certainly got a lot more snow than was forecasted. I did my business and fell back asleep.

My alarm woke me up at 0630 and I had little desire to leave the comfort of my warm tent. It had gotten down to about -2 Celsius last night but inside my tent I was cozy. We had made the decision to start hiking around 0800 today to give the sun a chance to rise and start the process of meting the snow. The outside of my tent was covered in ice and snow but the inside was dry. So I separated the two and packed them in different bags in case I didn’t get a chance to dry everything out. Being cold is one thing but wet and cold is no good. Getting the ice off our tents proved to be challenging until the sun finally crested the hill and started providing some warmth.

Now I’ve never winter camped in my life. In fact I think this is the first time I have camped in snow. I was not suprised to learn that I am not a fan. I will say the landscape was beautiful. But I’d much rather be warm than cold. Not very Canadian of me I supoose.

We set off shortly after 8 into our winter wonderland. Fortunately for some reason the trail itself had very little snow accumulation on it so we don’t have to route find. The first few miles were quite easy and we took a break at the Bridge that goes over the south fork of the Kern River.

From here we started to climb. My daily stats may not look super impressive. 18.2 miles and 3600 ft accent however because of the elevation it was probably one of the toughest days I’ve had so far on trail. We climbed up to 10500 ft and will only continue to go up over the next few days. We need to do about 18 miles a day to have a chance to summit Whitney As we all only have 7 days of food. If I’m being honest I’m not sure I can continue this pace but we will see what tomorrow brings.

As we climbed more of the trail became covered in snow or slush making for a nice ice bath for my feet. For a while we were even hiking in clouds. I was getting concerned on what our campsite tonight might look like. Would I have to set up on the snow!?!

Fortunately as we descended back towards 9000 ft it quickly became obvious that finding a dry camp would not be a problem. It didn’t even look like it had snowed on this side of the mountain. The views of the surrounding mountains were breathtaking… or was that just the elevation.

The US military seems to enjoy using the Sierra to fly jet fighters. All last night and today I could hear them but never saw one. Today I saw two flying quite close to the mountains. Looked like they were having more fun than I.

We arrived at camp at 1730 next to Death Canyon Creek. The name is fitting because I think we all feel dead and exhausted. Tomorrow is going to be another long day.