Well, it was supposed to be a Whitney hike, but my buddy Adam got in a bad way with AMS and had to be helped off the mountain. He spoke up way later than I would have been happy with, and was having chest pains, dizziness, and a lot of nausea.
Anyway, we left the Portal at around midnight for a nice, dark, moonless start. About a half mile in, my headlamp shines on something on the trail. Is the fact that there are apparently scorpions in the Portal area known to others? It seemed really odd and out of place.
The night was extremely cold. We wound up finding shelter just before Trail Camp for about an hour in between a couple of big rocks to stay out of the wind and warm up before heading up the switchbacks. There was a ton of ice where the stream runs down the switchbacks making navigation a bit tricky, and even the lake had frost and ice around the shoreline.
It was a great time and a beautiful day even if we didn't make it. I'll be back to try again next month!
