Glenn Pass and Upper Rae Lakes: Mile 790-795

During normal snow years not a lot of people hike over two passes in one day.  Typically, a hiker tries to be up on the pass in the mid morning and tries to be off of them by noon.  In the early mornings the ice can be really treacherous and turn a simple slip into a pant-peeing slide down a mountain and can even be fatal.  On the other hand, if a hiker waits too long then the snow can get REALLY soft and cause them to post-hole with each step up to their hips, for hours on end, which can be quite tiring.  

   Forester was our first pass of the day and as we ate lunch we thought let's go over Glen Pass as well.  It was early and we hadn't done but maybe 14 miles and it was a low snow year so we thought why not?  We had a gut feeling to go for it even though some people who had come southbound over it told us it was STEEP and getting REALLY soft.  Heading up around 1 pm, the snow  was getting soft but we weren't post holing as much as we thought we would be so we kept hiking.  As we climbed over the pass at around 2:30 the snow on the north side was at a great consistency that allowed us to kick step, with only a few post holes, down the STEEEEEP and very focus inducing pass.

One of us was a little shakey after clearing the snow but we won't name names :-)

This is what we saw on top of Glen Pass at 11,946 ft.  It was breathtaking!

..... and that is what we went very slowly down.  

Looking back at the north side of Glen Pass......

........ and moving down to Rae Lakes.  We hadn't read much about this area so we were SO surprised by their beauty!  Most hikers got out right before Glen Pass to resupply.  Add that and the fact that we went over Glen Pass later in the day and it made a very isolated Sierra hike for us where we saw maybe 5 John Muir Trail hikers and 2 PCT hikers over 6 days.  We so enjoy other thru-hikers but it was nice to feel absolutely alone.

All of these crystal clear lakes were in a 4 mile stretch of the trail.  We saw a lot of trout in them and it was amazing!