Goal for the day: Silver Pass (10,754 feet)

With trees all around me I didn’t expect any sunrise action, but some gaps did let me see some color as I packed up and then when I started hiking down to Fish Creek. That’s one reason I try to get on he trail early… you can sometimes see the sun in unique positions, see different effects of the sunlight, and climb or descend to get the sun in just the right position for a photo. Not all of my photos are lucky chance… I occasionally do some actual work for the best shot.

The climb that morning to Silver Pass (10,754 feet) was pretty straight forward. Most of the climb had been done over the past two days at a gradual slope. The last 1,600 feet climb is a little steeper (a lot steeper), but on fresh legs it shouldn’t kill me.

I climbed through a basin with a number of pretty lakes before reaching Silver Pass. Luckily, it was not a hard climb. Long, but not endless switchbacks. The route was clear and there no surprises like the old “Ah, that must be the pass right there” thought right before you turn a corner and see the real pass a thousand feet higher in the distance. I’d had that happen more times than I’d like to think about. 🙂

Silver Pass was spectacular!

The views were breathtaking, so I took a break to catch my breath. 🙂

From here, it was mostly a downward descent down to my target for this night: Mono Creek or even up Bear Ridge a bit. As I descended towards mono creek, the skies grew dark and I started hearing thunder. When I felt some raindrops, I put my backpack’s rain over on and put my raincoat on. This was the first hint of bad weather during this trek, so I probably didn’t need to put the rain jacket on and was just paranoid about a sudden downpour.

Fortunately, there was no downpour so I stayed dry. Even got a brief cell signal. Did a quick email check and tried to get weather, but the signal disappeared.

Unfortunately, a little while later I wasn’t paying enough attention to the trail, slipped on a granite rock (didn’t even seem to be wet), and fell to the ground.

I looked down to see if I’d broken something.

I had.

Something important.

Fortunately, not my leg, ankle, or foot.

It was one of my trekking poles.

Crap.

It had broken at the point where the bottom piece snaps into place under the handle. While it may have sacrificed itself to save my body from breaking something (including my thick skull), it was a important part of my hiking gear that could make or break my ability to reach Mt Whitney.

Not able to do something there, I put the pieces into my backpack. Then I used the other pole to carefully make my way down to the bottom.

I stopped a little short of the Mono Creek Trailhead that went out to Lake Thomas A Edison. While a lot of people go out to Vermilion Valley Resort (VVR) for resupply and/or a break from the trail, I did not plan to. Since the campsites near that trailhead might be crowded with people going to or coming from VVR, I decided to stop a little short at a nice campsite tucked against the rock cliffs. Any thought of going up the trail towards Bear Ridge ended when my trekking pole broke.

After setting up my tent, I examined my broken Black Diamond FLZ carbon folding trekking pole. The break was where the three piece bottom snapped into place under the handle. The string that holds the pole and rubber gaskets together when in use had snapped.

The bottom two segments weren’t a problem. a little duct tape could hold them together and the joins would be as strong as before. Maybe stronger, since they were normaly only held in place by the string that is pulled tight when the pieces are snapped into positions.

The problem was where the bottom segments snapped into place under the handle. The shaft was shattered around the lock pin. Checking the pieces, I found I could slide the broken piece into the shaft inside the handle. That is where it normally slides into when you fold the pole up.

Testing it in that position, it seemed stable and didn’t move up or down when I tried to put some weight on it. At least temporarily, it may work to allow me to be able to use both poles.

Before anyone yells at me for trusting such a repaired pole with my life, I was fully aware of the risk and accepted it. The risk of continuing to hike without the pole seemed more dangerous to me. While I had used a hiking stick for over 10 years, I only started using trekking poles when I was preparing for my Salkantay to Machu Picchu trek 5 years ago. But I’ve never looked back. They help me so much on he trail, I can’t imagine doing big hikes without them now.

And this was a very BIG hike.

So, using the duct tape I carried for just such an emergency I carefully taped the bottom segments together and then with the broken piece pushed fully up into the handle, I taped it in place. A ‘McGuyvered’ fix, if ever I saw one.

This did shorten the pole, but using the adjustable part of the handle, I could extend it from 105cm (the shortest the unbroken one could go) to about 113cm. Since on level ground I usually set it around 115cm, this may be enough to make do. Climbing with a 105cm to 110cm length would be completely normal.

When descending I often used 120cm or even 125cm, so I would have to make do using the knobs on the handles when descending. This is how hikers with fixed length trekking poles use them to descend.

I’d have to be careful (especially when first using the repaired pole) and adjust my hiking style a little when descending, but it should work until I can get something else.

I actually used my Inreach to send a message to the Muir Trail Ranch to see if they sold trekking poles or had a collection of orphaned poles from people who broke one of theirs’ (clumsy idiots 🙂 ). I could probably make it the two days down to MTR with the repaired pole.

I also thought that I might have to go to VVR after all to see what kind of replacements they may have, but knew that would add at least another day to my trek. And with COVID-19, the ferry schedules were apparently very limited. I’d have to make that call in the morning. Possibly based on any response I got from MTR.

After reviewing my photos I thought that I must have been pretty focused on the trekking pole, since I didn’t take my usual campsite photos. Or even photos of the broken pole before I repaired it.

11.5 miles hiked, 9:00 hours, 2,050 feet climbed
88 total miles hiked on the JMT

Highlights:
• Silver Pass – 10,754 feet (Pass #4 Conquered)
• Disaster, a broken trekking pole, and maybe some hope after a trail fix