Pacific Crest Trail - Day 108 - Granite Chief Wilderness

Start: Mile 1130.8 - Backcountry Campsite
End: Mile 1155.0 - Backcountry Campsite

Hell Hole Reservoir in the distance. It looks pretty pleasant to me.

A view of Slide Mountain. I grew up with this view from the other side.

Diamond Peak Ski Resort where I learned to ski*.

*skiing as in going straight down the mountain as fast as possible as a 75 pound 11 year old.

Working hard or hardly working?

It is incredible where we’ve been.

Wolverine? Can I get mine with carne asada instead?

The PCT took us on a six mile traverse on the ridge above Alpine Meadows ski resort.

How many people come up here without a lift?

Whiskey Creek as featured in Big Rock Candy Mountain.

Sploosh 💦

Danger! Danger! ⚡️ High Voltage! ⚡️

The Granite Chief chair at Palisades isn’t the most famous chair on the mountain, but it’s a classic where you’ll see dozens of pairs of well worn-in orange Technica boots in the lift line.

Tinker Knob. About the best set-up for the old “I hardly know her” joke as you’re gonna get.

Pretty sure the mountains in the back are above Lake Aloha in Desolation Wilderness.

Donner Lake. There’s a great PBS documentary that captures the arrogance and hubris of their tragic journey.

The trail cut across one of those steep snow chutes, and everyone having sent their snow gear home unable to kick steps meant that we were routed directly up to the highest lift at Tahoe Donner on a detour consisting of the steepest ~500 feet of the entire trail so far.

Footprints in dust convey so much information from who is on trail and in what order to how far you are from a trailhead.

The Donner Ski Ranch gives PCT hikers a free 40 oz of beer and sells cheeseburgers. A perfect end to 25 miles up and over three Tahoe/Donner ski resorts.

Some hiker / edge lord / bushcrafter left his ~3 pound primary blade behind in the hiker corner at the Donner Ski Ranch.

🌕