Last night was so intense. It was thunder storming all throughout the night, even into the morning. I could hear thunder still as it got light out. I finally forced myself to get out to go potty. The sun was peaking out so nicely. It finally stopped raining. I slowly packed my things and decided I'd start walking and hang my tent off my pack until I found a good sun spot. I stopped a few times to dry out as the sun was coming in and out in case I lost an opportunity. I got to the water source junction and exploded my things out to dry out. Thankfully everything dried out pretty quick and the rest of the gang regrouped.

Pitching right before the storm rolled in.

We wanted to do five more before lunch so we pushed up this hill. About two miles from the next water source, we could see clouds coming in. We knew there was another storm this afternoon. I started feeling drops for a bit and then decided to put the poncho on. We started hauling to find mike and Jackie at the crossing. Then it started hailing and we all just did our fastest pitch of our tents. I jumped in my tent and ate lunch while it hailed on us. It started getting colder and I slowly started pulling out more clothes. Then out came by sleeping bag and pad after I started shivering. The hail then tuned into snow and it continued for the next three hours. We just laid in our tent waiting for it to stop.

Nate's snowman guarding our bear cans for the night.

We only went ten miles today and it was after four when it finally stopped snowing. There was about four inches of snow on the ground. We debated on hiking another four or five miles but it'd take another hour to just pack out so we decided to just stay out and hopefully push for a twenty tomorrow. It's gonna be rough but we have to do it in order to make it to Whitney with enough food. The sun finally was peering out and the sky was SO pretty, dark gradient clouds and snow covered mountains in the distance. I finally got out my tent to take pics. Nate made a snowman. We ate dinner and now it's bedtime. I didn't eat much for dinner since I ate a bunch for lunch and we didn't end up hiking afterwards. I have way too much food. My bear can is only 3/4 of the way down. It sucks knowing you've been carrying so much extra weight in food. It'll be good to see how much I actually end up with in independence so I'll know how much to actually fill my can for the next stretch.