Left Reno around 530 am to get to Mono Village parking lot with my partner. The drive took about 2.5 hours. This would end up being a very long day. My brain is still a bit fried, but we started at about 0800. The start of the hike was great with easy switchbacks. Eventually we would get into an overgrown horshoe creek trail that lead us to a canyon that appeared to have been washed out. This canyon went on for a great distance, the hike would end up being longer than advertised which is always the case with alltrails maps. At the top of the canyon we crossed over glaciers that must be the source of the abundant water we had the entire way up to the base of Matterhorn peak. At this point we both had headaches. My partner had the worse headache as she had just come from sea level the day before. I had done some hikes up to just under 11K feet near Tahoe prior to this but still felt the affects. The ascent up Matterhorn involved much route finding through a grassy field with boulders that brought us to a scree field. The slog up the scree field brought me closer to god with respect to the challenge it presented. Eventually this gave way to more solid slabs & what i believe to be a class three section where we left our poles to use our hands eventually gaining the summit. At the top of the peak i was able to lay parrallel to the summit and drop a rock down into what was a drop that i saw no visible end to. I am not sure how far the drop was but it made my palms sweat.
This was a rough hike and ended up being a lot more work and navigation than expected. It was also one of the most rewarding hikes i have ever done.
Glacier (i assume) at end of canyon just before pass
The pass / base of matterhorn / excellent lunch spot
Looking out from the summit
Coming back down the endless canyon
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