Muir Pass

Bishop Pass is a non on-trail pass.

And then that takes you up to Muir Pass on the other side.

Okay.

And so I picked up Noah there, and that's where I, like, Andy had also hiked in, so I saw two of my crew members at one spot, which was a miracle, and we kind of were like, "Guys, I think we are fricking do- Like, I don't wanna know what my split is.

I don't know what Francois hit for the split, but, like, I know we're cooking right now." And Muir Pass is always sort of, like, a thorn in my...

Like, Muir Pass is just, I think for everyone, hard.

It's a super long climb, super long descent.

It just takes forever, and then when you're at that, like, kinda high altitude stuff, it feels like you should be moving really fast, but it's really rocky, exposed, and slow.

Everything's like kinda easier from here." But you know, the, the high altitude is added on because you started that early, and you probably cooked yourself a little early, and so you then have to get through that.

Uh, and like Muir Pass is, to me, the biggest crux, which is right in the middle of that, and I think that's what rocks people, because it's really rocky.

So you think like, "Okay, the terrain looks very manageable." It's like a 20-foot on either end, like gain or loss to get to the top of Muir Pass, and the high point on Muir Pass is very chill.

Like, you look at the elevation profile, and you're like, "Okay, this is cruiser.

It's high altitude, but it's cruiser, but it's really rocky, so it's slow-going." So going up Muir Pass, that was certainly a boogeyman for me, and, uh, going southbound, like that's when things really have started to fall apart, and that kinda happened this effort.

We also got hit by a little mini blizzard up on Muir Pass.

We got some snow, so that added to the drama of it.

But, um, overall, it didn't really-- I, I think it kinda like energized me more and also cooled me down, 'cause I was kinda getting hot before Bishop, and so going up and over Muir, I felt like I was able to keep my body temp down.

So, yeah, I think it was the day or like two days before maybe.

And so there's Muir Pass, famous pass, has a ton of snow on it.

It holds it all deep into the summer.

And I swear, if you had stood on either side of like the mile of snow patches on that pass and asked 20 different people what they thought of it, you'd get 20 different answers.