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| Leaving PDX |
So the questions I've gotten most after summiting Mt. Whitney is: How difficult is it? and Would you do it again?
The second question is the easiest to answer, it's Yes. The first is always more difficult and more subjective/personal.
Truly the easy answer to the second question is it's hard, very hard. One does not need to know technical mountaineering skills to summit Mt. Whitney in the summer time. It's truly a 22 mile grinder that will destroy your legs and can push you mentally. It's not a hike for the casual hiker that goes on weekend hikes of 6-7 miles. I would not have been doing Mt. Whitney 1 or 2 years ago, even with all the day hiking I'd been doing. Training with as much elevation and multiple hikes is the only way I know to get yourself prepared for Mt. Whitney. Here in the PNW the only thing I can compare it to is Mt. St. Helens or South Sister in Bend, OR, except that the mileage is double and you start at the summit elevation of Mt. St. Helens. Does this mean you can't go summit Mt. Whitney tomorrow? No, you probably could, maybe get away with it. But is it safe to do this? I'd venture to guess that of the 100 permits given out to day hike Mt. Whitney there is a high percentage of people that shouldn't be there; they're there to get the summit selfies. But they still do it, sometimes to the detriment of the local search and rescue personnel who then have to get them off the mountain. I strongly encourage anyone that wants to stand on top of Mt. Whitney to put in the time training and preparing for every possible outcome, bring the necessary provisions and don't be afraid to turn around when necessary.
Altitude mountain sickness is also an obstacle to over come. No one in our party had an issue but we took measures to prevent or reduce AMS. One in our party took Diamox which is a common medication used to prophylactically treat AMS. I had read a study that said taking ibuprofen worked just as well, 600mg every 6 hours; this is what I used on Mt. Rainier and would repeat it on Mt. Whitney.
Lastly you need to know your limits, what the weather is doing and checking in with your group often. No one wants to be the reason that your group needs to turn around, but putting others lives at risk is selfish. As a group we checked in with each other frequently after high camp, probably every 15-20 minutes. And then keeping a keen eye on the weather, being above tree line the tallest thing around for lightning to strike is you.
Mt Whitney to Death Valley
A little story about another adventure with friends. Kristie, Dan, Erica and I left Portland, Oregon on August 16th to head to California, in hand were permits Kristie had won in the lottery to climb Mt. Whitney on a 1 day permit. So when the opportunity arose, the answer is "Yes"... no hesitation, no pause, just "Yes". Under my belt for the year so far was 5 summits of Mt. St. Helens and a summit of Mt. Rainier, of course I wanted Mt. Whitney, it's the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states standing at un-agreed upon elevation, one source puts it's summit at 14, 505 ft which seems to be the communities agreed upon height, but NOLA places it at 14, 508 ft. Bottom line is it's the highest in the lower 48 and I wanted to stand on it.
We arrived in LA on Thursday the 16th with permits to climb on Saturday the 18th. This was my first adventure into California, not counting of course the Redwoods in extremely northern California. We had a stop to hit before heading out of LA...In-N-Out Burger! Not my first, but second go with In-N-Out, being naive I didn't know there was a secret menu where one can order "Animal Style" fries (this is where they load your fries with cheese and onions)...ugh such a rookie. After stuffing our faces it was time to hit the road to the tiny town of Lone Pine, CA, this is the gateway to Whitney.
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| In-N-Out Burger packed |
Lone Pine, CA is truly a wide spot (I believe there's one stop light) in the road kept alive by hikers and climbers, but even then it was charming and everyone was friendly like an idyllic American town. After crashing after a long day of travel we woke on Friday morning with plans to check into our VRBO outside of town and grab last minute provisions. We headed to the Whitney Portal to check out the local store and walk around the trailhead campground to get an idea of where to park and what things looked like. We grabbed delicious food from the store, I got the BLT and shoe string fries with an ice cold beer...YUM!
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| Mt Whitney Portal Store: BLT, shoe string fries and beer |
We'd soon be in a conversation with a regular Mt. Whitney icon, Crazy Jack. Jack at the time of our conversation had summited Mt. Whitney 179 times, his wife Betsy had gone 61. As of this writing Crazy Jack has summited again to round his number to 180. He was a wealth of knowledge and we talked about Crazy Jack a lot during our day of summiting.
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| A group photo: Kristie, Dan, Myself, Crazy Jack, and Erica |
After dinner and our conversation, it was back to the store for goodies and back to the VRBO to try to get some sleep. We'd be setting the alarms for 1am to try to get a start on the trail by 2am.
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| All smiles at 2:30am (Dan, Myself, Erica, Kristie) |
Morning came quick, and we were all packed up and ready to go. Standing at the an elevation of 8360 ft at the trailhead, our headlamps were on and we were ready to head up the trail, only seeing what our lamps illuminated.
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Mt. Whitney TH sign
Wooden beams you walk under to start the trail
The trail was actually quite gentle and the tread wasn't hard on the feet. The weather was perfect and it was a star filled night. We could see the hikers ahead of us and behind us with their headlamps showing us where we'd be in 20-30 minutes. About a mile in we entered the John Muir Wilderness.
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| Entering the John Muir Wilderness |
It'd be another 1.5 miles until we reached the permit requirement area and begin heading up Mt. Whitney.
We'd cross over log bridges in the dead of night
We'd be hiking in the dark for another several hours until the alpenglow came across the horizon and we knew that the sun would soon be rising illuminating the granite spires and cliffs above us. The transition from pitch dark to bright orange flares was amazing, one couldn't help but stop and stare. Really makes you truly understand why John Muir called the Sierra's the Range of Light.
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| Consultation Lake in the background at High Camp 12,000 ft |
And now we could see our objective, still miles away. We were at High Camp 6.6 miles into our hike and at 12,000 ft of elevation and it was 6:30am. We took a quick break, filled our water bottles and had a snack as we stared up the famous 99 Switchbacks.
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| The "Cables" on the 99 switchbacks |
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| Around switchback 45, Myself, Dan, Kristie and Erica each standing on a different switchback |
Erica was kind enough (or mean enough) to not only count them on the way up, but also count them down for us on the way back down. It was something to keep you distracted from the slow difficult slog. We were not above 12, 000 ft and the exertion to move up hill required more breathing and frequent stops. The grade of the trail wasn't difficult, thanks to the 99 Switchbacks, but still the effort required was more than miles back. We had been playing leap frog with another group most of the day, and Erica and Kristie had noticed that one of the girls didn't look good, yet they continued up the switchbacks. They offered her a 5 hour energy drink and some ODT Zofran to help her with the nausea. She graciously accepted and their group continued to move on up the switchbacks ahead of us. We caught them about 15 switchbacks later and she looked like a new person, she was singing (I believe the song was "I like drugs") and leading the group now with no problems. Sometimes you take care of your own, sometimes you help others. Once Erica got to number 90 we were so close and finally we came to the trail crest that sits at 13,000 ft and what is called the Needles. From down below these spires do indeed look like Needles, but from up here they seemed like their own individual mountain peaks. The trail crest also was the end of the 99 Switchbacks and we gained an expansive view into Sequoia National Park, we now had what seemed like unlimited views to the West and to the East. There was a hazy horizon from all the fires, but you could still see for miles and miles.
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| Looking to the west, Guitar Lake below |
From Trail Crest to the Summit is approximately 2.5 miles, but what was difficult was we had to go back downhill before going back up to the summit, we could see the "shack" at the top that was built in 1909, it looked so close but it never seemed to get any closer as we walked. One of the great things about the hiking and climbing community is the camaraderie, as we were still making our way to the summit those who had just made their summit encouraged us and told us how much farther. We were very slow going from this point to the summit, step-breath-step-breath. This summit was vastly different than that of Mt. Rainier I had done just a month prior; here there was no snow, there was no technical gear... it was purely a desire to stand on top and if one had the physical and psychological will power to do so. We all continued up the mountain, no one was going to stop now.
We finally crested a small hill and the summit shack came into view. We'd made it, we were standing at 14, 505 ft!! We all signed the summit register and starting taking photos.
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| Summit shack built in 1909 |
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| Cheers to summit beers (actually a can of wine Erica brought) |
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| Summit at 14,505 ft |
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| Myself, Dan, Kristie and Erica at 14, 505 ft |
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| Out the window of the summit shack |
We had started the day at 2:30am and got to the summit at 11:15am, we had walked 11 miles and gained a total net elevation gain of 6720 feet. We paused at the summit for photos, lunch and to enjoy the view for just over an hour.
We
Were
Only
Half
Way
We started back down Mt. Whitney at 12:30 as clouds began to gather, they didn't look ominous, but we didn't want to take the chance. Heading back down didn't take as much effort to breath, but we'd still need to walk another 11 miles. We came down off the summit and back to the ridge crest to start the 99 Switchbacks back down the mountain. Erica counted them down for us and we'd reach High Camp at 3:30pm, 6.6 miles to go. Kristie who won the permits also won the WAG bag challenge!!! She blessed the mountain by actually using her WAG bag. For those that don't know, a WAG bag is what you do #2 in. On the mountain you don't leave human excrement and toilet paper around, first off it's disgusting and secondly it doesn't biodegrade at such altitudes. We left High Camp 15 minutes later with thoughts of beer and food in our heads. We were now heading back down into the valleys that we walked through at night and they were beautiful.
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| Bristlecone pines |
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| Log crossing during the day |
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| Cheers Erica |
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| Cheers Dan and Kristie |
We'd eat pizza that night and all pass out in our beds to sleep. The next day we'd head to Death Valley 1 hour away to stand at the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere to complete the highest to lowest.
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| Death Valley Visitors Center |
Badwater Basin sits 282 feet below sea level
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