The 7 main mountain passes (a pass being the low-point saddle between two mountains that one has to cross to go on the other side of the mountain) that I had to cross were as follows (south to north):
1. Forester Pass (13200 ft / 4023 m)
2. Glen Pass (11957 ft / 3645 m)
3. Pinchot Pass (12127 ft / 3696 m)
4. Mather Pass (12094 ft / 3686 m)
5. Muir Pass (11970 ft / 3648 m)
6. Selden Pass (10913 ft / 3326 m)
7. Silver Pass (10778 ft / 3285 m)
All of these passes have some ascent and then a descent and essentially, the descent of one pass leads to the ascent of the next without too much of a flat area in between. Because this was a low snow year (some reports put it as only 43% of the average trail snow which means a bad summer drought for California 🙁), hikers like me are able to enter the Seirras and hike through these passes so early. Of course, this also means that there is still quite a bit of snow left on the passes and around them, which makes them more difficult and a bit scary (higher chances of slipping on the snow & difficulty in finding the trail that's buried under the snow) to cross them. Another concerning factor is the water crossing. All the snow is constantly melting and the creeks/streams become raging rivers due to snow melt, and these have to be crossed somehow.
Since the passes are covered, it is best to cross them early in the morning so that the snow is hard and easier to walk on. As the sun hits the snow later in the day, it turns the snow into a soft & slushy pack, where your foot can punch through aka post-holing. Post-holing takes up lot of energy and time, and can occassionally be dangerous, if you punch through an ice-bridge over a flowing water stream. So, the typical strategy was to camp as near the base of the pass as possible during the night and then cross over first thing in the morning.
This is what I did on Day 38 when I stopped early & camped about 5 miles short of Forester Pass (FP). The campsite was close to a nice big stream where I took the opportunity to wash my clothes & dry them in the sun (btw, this is just water wash; no soap is allowed rightly so). FP is the highest point on the PCT and I had been told that it was a difficult climb. I was all mentally prepared for it and got up early to start the climb by 5:30 am. However I noticed that all others in the campsite had already left by the time I started. The climb was gradual though and except for a couple of snow fields, it was mostly snow-free. I did lose the trail in one of the snow fields and it took me about 10 minutes to find it again, but overall, it was a relatively easy climb.
One advantage of a snow-covered descent is that you can sometimes glissade (i.e. sit on your butt and slide down the slope) down which is much faster and much more fun 🙂.
Since there was still time in the day, I figured I would cross Glen Pass (GP) too that afternoon, especially since I had already done the higher FP. Of course, I seemed to have forgotten the conventional wisdom of not crossing passes later in the day. And, boy, was it difficult or what! GP was a more technical climb and descent and there was more snow on both sides. Lots of post-holing and the slope was steeper on the descent. All I could do was to slowly & carefully literally follow in the footsteps of the previous hikers. There were rocky sections too with loose boulders that had to be very, very carefully navigated to avoid twisting your ankles or triggering a mini-rock slide. It was definitely a huge relief getting down from GP. I would say going up to and coming down GP was my most harrowing experience so far on PCT. Other hikers also confirmed the same.
Lakes on the descent side of GP
Some other pics from D-38 & D-39:
Bear box at the campsite on D-38 (you can put your food in these bear-proof boxes - or, you can put them in bear-proof canisters, like most hikers do)
Data:
D-38
D-39
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