Date: March 14, 2015

Daily Distance: 13 mi (22km)

Time: 7 hrs

Start: Los Perros

Finish: Grey

Cost: 

Notes:

At 7am our group of 8 left Los Perros, heading for the Pass. The hardest thing about the Paso John Gardner is the wind. The trail starts out in a dense forest and you are protected  for the first 30 minutes. As you come out of the dense forest you are immediately hit by wind, which gradually grows stronger as you climb over the pass.

Natalie was struggling and started to fall further and further behind the group. I fell back and when I reached Natalie she was almost in tears. We sat down on a rock but the cold wind & rain made it hard to stay warm sitting with no protection. Her gloves were wet making her hands cold so I gave her my rain mitts to put over her gloves. She took off her pack and I tried to pick it up and couldn’t believe how heavy it was. Marc finally picked up the pack and wore it it as a front pack along with his own backpack. The pack weighed over 40 lbs and Marc seemed to have no trouble carrying it for Natalie until we crossed over John Gardner Pass and into the forest below.

finally took the pack and carried it in front along with his 50+ lb backpack. After about 1 hour we reached the top of the pass and I think Marc was just hitting his stride carrying 2 backpacks, weighing over 100 lbs total.  I still can’t believe Marc carried both packs so easily and I can’t believe Natalie made it as far as she did.

Marc drossing John Gardner Pass with Natalies Backpack

From the top of the pass you can see the beautiful Grey Glacier. We ate lunch at Paso and divided up some of Natalie’s gear to carry to ease her pack weight until we reached the campsite at Grey. The rest of the trail between Paso and Grey is my favorite section. You cross several streams, suspension walk bridges and you have a view of the Grey Glacier most of the day.