My roommate had come out to join me for a section of my hike.

My roommate had come out to join me for a section of my hike. When I was planning the hike months before I had no idea what to expect from each section, so when he expressed interest in coming out I blindly chose a section that I thought would be suitable. I chose wrong. We hiked out of Yosemite Valley a couple of days before and slowly made our way up and out of the valley, just to climb some more once we joined back up with the PCT.

As we reached higher elevations we started to hit large snow patches at a pretty frequent rate. Not only was there the obstacle of snow and ice, the wind on this day was particularly strong, and at times would literally push me down to the ground. I finally reached the pass and I waited on Brian to show up, but he never did. After some time I went back looking for him along the trail, panicking that I had lost him and wasn’t sure how I would break the news to everyone back home that he had been blown off a mountain somewhere! While backtracking I came across another hiker, and tried to yell over the sound of the wind, “have you seen a tall dude with a huge beard come through here?!”

He blankly stared at me for a minute, and replied “Godzilla!” I came to find out he was from Japan and knew little English. He was trying to tell me his trail name as he assumed I was asking who he was. Later I ended up hiking with Godzilla for a bit during my hike. Eventually I decided to just head back to the pass and wait for him down at a road that the trail was going to cross. On my way back I finally found him, safe and secure enjoying some snow melt! As I approached him he asked “hey man, where yah been? I’ve just been waiting around for yah down here, enjoying this delicious water!” At some point he had passed me while I waited and I didn’t see him. Needless to say I was happy at the sight.