Here, Gretchen makes her way up the Boulevard on the cold northeast side of LeConte. It had snowed heavily the week before our hike, and that was followed by a hard rain that froze to a hard crust. We would be able to walk on top of the snow for about two steps, but then we'd plunge through to our thighs. I think that John Muir called it, "Wilderness Appreciation".

Little did we know at the time that our hardest workout of the day was yet to come...