Oh my goodness, San G is tough.  I had Whitney permits for this day and my group had to back out because of sketchy conditions we were not ready for.  Training for JMT still continues and while all 14ers were snow stormin', we chose to do the highest peak in the challenge.

The first few miles are rough as we hiked in at 3:30 in the morning.  We headed out with our headlamps on and crossed the creek and made our way up the rocky first few miles.  Once me made the crossing at High Creek Camp, that was when I put on my crampons and others put on microspikes.  We all carried an ice axe but my trekking poles were more adequate because my pack hurts my back ( upgrading to Youth pack to help with that) and I don't feel it achy when i have my poles.

It was tough, it is pretty straight up hill the entire hike. I met an IG friend to join this hike and he previously summited a month earlier when there was a lot more snow.  I was thankful he was with us and a big help to my friend and I because he was familiar with the trail and we don't have much snow experience.  I was cooler and cloudy and when we go out of the trees,  it was really windy. We made our way up following the footprints in the snow.

You can't see the peak until you get to the huge one that is blocking it but once you actually see it, its pretty close.  I cried as I approached the peak because I could not wait to hold that sign.  I cry when I feel accomplished and usually that is most peaks or challenging hikes.  My friend was having a challenging time and wanted to stay back and wait but we're so close to the summit that we had to push and encourage her to get there.

Once we arrived to the peak, there was less wind to enjoy our lunch.  We took our photos and then made our way down.  It was tough and the snow made for an extra long day.  Back in crampons as fast as we can go.  Its though and getting colder.  I also had a cold that I thought was going to be gone by this time but it wasn't and I was having trouble regulating body temperature.  We pushed through and got back to High camp where I changed into my light weight hiking boots and fresh socks. (sometimes one of the best moments of a hike) We made our way down as fast as we could go and got to see the sunset on the trail.  We got off the trail at 9pm and headed back home to the Bay Area.  17 hours on the trail 15 hours driving makes for a long day hike with no sleep.