Rest in Vermillion Valley Resort

The last ten days of hiking have been the most intense of my entire life. I am not sure how I can even do it justice in the measly 30 minutes allowed to me on this expensive satellite internet connection. Once again I am reduced to bullet points.

• Snow... lots of it. The approaches to the passes were covered with snow. It slowed our progress to 1 mph on the uphill sides. In some places there were four miles of snow before the pass. For the most part the trail was useless to us and we either headed directly to the pass or followed tracks in the snow.
• Sun... WOW! There was no way that we could keep our lips from sunburn. The sun was just too intense in all of those snowy valleys above tree line. Another victim was the bottom of our noses. There was no way we could prevent nasty burning there as well. At the end of the day our eyes hurt from the sun.
• Friends... We caught up to our dear friends Racheopod and Gnar, whom we haven't seen in ~300 miles. We hope that we can stay within a day of them for the rest of this trail.
• Stream crossings... intense. Yesterday we witnessed several hikers get swept off their feet. Zm and I almost lost it as well, an important lesson about picking a better place to cross. Luckily we were supported by another hiker on the far bank that grabbed us before we fell. Our feet are never dry, there is so much water on the trail from the melting snow.
• We radically changed our diet with some plusses and minuses. Good were the drink mixes like coolaid, lemonade and chocolate milk. We had a ton of cheese that we never got sick of. Bad was the cooked breakfast cereal. It disagreed with my digestive system and I am not sure if I can ever have hot mush again in my life. We return to our regular diet from here on out.
• Hikers Bailing... On the first part of the trail we ran into a bunch of hikers that had turned around. They didn't like the snow and stream crossings. Other hikers on the trail bring more stories of folks that have jumped off the trail either temporarily or permanently. The hiker attrition has been amazing this year. It makes us proud to have stuck through it.

Currently we are at Vermillion Valley Resort and the worst of the Sierra is behind us. We still have a few snowy passes and a few more questionable crossings, but nothing of the magnitude we have already faced. Things will stay moderate until we get to Tahoe in about 200 miles. Then things will get easy and stay easy until Washington State.

I wish I could describe this whole thing better. We have been through a ton, but I am out of time. Next update will most likely be from Tahoe. Signal is still impossible to find out here.