The day begun great! The announced snow storm looked great – blue sky and sunshine. But it was cold. Apparently it was -6C in the morning… 😳

All five of us managed to get through one bathroom and pack our stuff to be ready in the breakfast place at 9am. Last opportunity for real food for the next six days.

We managed to get two rides within three minutes which brought us back to the trailhead.

When we wanted to start hiking we saw a collapsed tent right off the trail. We went up to check it out. To our surprise there was someone in it. We asked if everything was alright but even thought the person replied that everything was ok we decided to not be ok with the answer. We asked if we could open the tent to help him and the answers were getting more and more confusing – so we just did it. Apparently his name was Brian and he had camped here over night but not managed to pitch his tent properly – probably the two empty Vodka bottles in his tent had something to do with it. But anyways he was very disoriented and also very close to or already in a state of hypothermia. We decided to get an ambulance since we couldn’t do anything good with our limited hiker gear. So we rapped him in his sleeping bag and tent and waited for the ambulance and police who took over from there. Good luck, buddy!

With one hour delay we finally could start hiking. And as soon as we started the snow storm begun. What an scenery and what a change in setting after the heat with almost 40C in the desert only a few weeks ago. Now -2C and snow. It was surreal but incredibly beautiful.

 

 

 

I also found a very cool and new ultra-light version to transport water during the day. No container needed anymore – enough room for a litre 😂

 

by Drew

Also did the first extreme test of my gear.
New rain jacket – check!
Swimming shorts without underwear and a rain skirt in -2C and snow storm – check!

by Drew

The snow storm passed by and we came back to the “it never rains in California…” and blue sky. What a finish after this day.

But when the sun dropped the temeratures dropped as well imediately. So now we are all in our tents and sleeping bags hoping for it to not get to bad. -4C was forecasted so all important things are in the sleeping bag: batteries, contact lenses, waterfilter, etc.