This year, on February 1st, I entered a lottery application for a permit to hike Mt. Whitney. I was successful with my first choice, and four months later on June 19th, me and my brother reached Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 ft.
I wanted to share some of my favorite photos with from this trip. It is tough to describe how insane it is to have experienced all of this (coming from the East Coast and having not hiked outside of New England). On the way back to Vegas the day after we descended, we toured several of the spots in Death valley, including Badwater Basin, going from the highest spot in the lower US to the lowest (in North America).
When we arrived in Lone and as we walked out of the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center, I came upon an amazing sight, and with 4th of July this week, I want to say that I'm thankful to live in a country where we are all free and have the liberty to take on things like this...Happy 4th of July everyone.
On Sunday night the 17th, we camped at Horseshoe Meadow which is just above 10,000 feet. This was planned so to minimize (as much as possible) AMS. We got here in the afternoon and kept moving around, and we immediately we noticed some symptoms such as dizziness after crouching or leaning over, and some shortness of breath. It was interesting to experience, and it was such a beautiful place to relax and prepare for our trip which started the following day.
Along the Main Mt. Whitney Trail, 5 miles in is Trailside Meadow. From the start, we could feel the altitude affecting our pace. It was much more laborious than our White Mountain pursuits in NH. Trailside Meadow was a beautiful place for a rest, and the remaining snow and ice was a sight to see. Purple flowers were spread all about this area.
We started our ascent from Trail Camp on Tuesday morning at 3:30am. We were the first to leave Trail Camp that morning, and as we approached Trail Crest at 13,700ft, we experienced an incredible sunrise.
One of many of our summit pictures, reaching the top was something out of this world.
To check out the full report, including a couple of videos, click
here here to read it on my blog.
To go right to the photos, click
here. If you have the time, I recommend playing it as a slide show.
