8.6 miDistance
2,395 ftElevation gain
3,976 ftElevation loss
5 h 15 mTime
My tent's bottom was covered in mud, but thankfully the portion that laid on the ground only took up half of the total floorspace of the tent, so not much to worry about. Today's goal was reaching Grey's Glacier, and crossing over the highest point of the trail. This meant a lot of ascending today, nearly non-stop climbing as soon as we left Los Perros behind.
I had gotten soft over the last few days of walking on nearly-level ground. This climb was rough, and I had to stop often in order to catch my breath. But we were getting really high up, and I love being high up in the mountains. The green vegetation of the forest gave way to rocky barren mountainsides, and snow patches were all around us.
Oddly enough, even though I had to stop quite often to catch my breath, it only took about 90 minutes from when we left Los Perros to get to the top of the pass. Laid out before us was a white majesty of a glaciar. It was massive! This was my first time seeing one from up high, and up close. We spent over an hour up top, just gazing out over this majestic creation of nature.
The climb down was harder. The glacier remained in view for the rest of the day as we zig-zagged down switchbacks, and skirted along narrow paths cut into the rock. After crossing a long suspension bridge it was time to start taking several dozen switchbacks down through the forest on the other side of the ridge we had just summitted. The thickness of the trees created a stuffy feeling that motivated me to practically run down the trail in order to get out of them as quickly as possible. Once down and back on flat ground, I power-walked towards Refugio Grey, thinking I had fallen behind the others who had headed down off of the ridge before me. Along the way I passed by some scat which only helped to quicken my pace, given that Pumas and other wild cats lived in the area.
Grey had a nice field for setting up tents, and an even nicer refuge for hanging out at: they had adirondack-style lounging chairs out front, which is where I ate my dinner, while watching the sun go down upon the mountains.
