This was I believe your pretty "run of the mill" first timer day hike so I will keep it brief and only highlight a couple notable things I might have done slightly differently.
I started from a fitness level of right about zero 6 months before our date. And that is a 48 year old at zero.
My training basically consisted of a walk two times a week from my front door (1.9 miles) to the stairs (167 steps up an easement in my development) and weight lifting three times a week.
For the last month I switched up to stairs three times a week and weights twice.
During all this time I usually hiked 5 to 9 miles on the weekend at low elevations.
Three weeks prior I hiked about 6 miles near Cannell Pass/Big Meadow to Siretta Peak. I brought my boys with me who were totally unprepared for hiking at altitude and flamed out very early. That put to rest any ideas of them hiking Whitney with me which is exactly what I wanted for my first attempt.
Not quite Siretta Peak but close
View of Big Meadow from Siretta Peak
The highlight of that hike was my younger son (who was on point at the time) happening upon the largest (brown in color) black bear I have seen and all of us getting to within 15 feet of it before it noticed us and ran off. Even though I grew up in the Sierras that is by far the closest I have ever been to bear in the wild.
When I take the boys hiking, I like to randomly send my wife a text of a pic like this one. The boys have fun with it too. I usually can't read her reply to them.
The Saturday before the hike I met my brother in Kern Valley and we camped at Troy Meadow Campground. That same day we hiked from Blackrock trailhead through Casa Vieja meadow and made a loop above and back. About 12 miles in total topping out at around 9,000 ft.
Cabin at Casa Vieja Meadow.
On Sunday I left Troy Meadow and headed off alone across nine mile canyon to the 395. I came into Lone Pine about 20 minutes after the start of the World Cup final. found Jakes Saloon and watched the game before heading up to Horseshoe Meadow.
Camped alone Sunday Night at Horseshoe. Met a group of hikers in the camp next to me who were doing a two day ascent but summiting on the same day I was. Monday morning they all took off pretty early for a hike toward Cottonwood lakes. Just about the time I got myself prepared to hike they all returned. I asked them if they made it to the lakes and they said they only went as far as the first stream crossing and that there was no way they could make it to the lakes on a warm up hike since they were about 6 miles in.
Horseshoe Meadow
I agreed and told them I would probably turn back at the first creek crossing as well.
But man, when I got there I knew I could not have gone much further than a mile. I had set my turnaround time for noon so decided I would just keep going until noon and turn around at that time, no matter where I was.
About 45 minutes later I caught up to a backpacker and asked him where he was heading. He said Cottonwood Lakes. I asked him how far that was from here and he said about 4 - 4.5 miles.
OK so now I thought, I can hike until 1:00 and see where I am then. even at 1:00 I can still get back to camp with plenty of daylight left. At 1:00 I was farther down the trail, but essentially nowhere. so I thought. 2:00 is as good a time to turnaround as any. Pretty close to 2:00 I emerged into a flat area where the trail forked and two groups of hikers were resting. One group had a map so I asked them if I could take a look and see how close I was to cottonwood lakes. Turns out I was pretty much there! about a mile later I was standing right on the shore of Cottonwood lake #3 without another soul in sight. It was awesome. even if I did not summit Whitney the trip was already worth it by virtue of this one experience alone.
Proof I made it to the shore of Cottonwood Lake #3
Just as I began to head back I felt raindrops hitting. I thought I had screwed up but they stopped within a few minutes. It didn't help that at about the same time a fighter jet passed overhead which at first I thought was thunder.
Rain drops at Cottonwood Lakes
I passed my backpacker on the way back only a hundred feet or so from the crest of the trail before Cottonwood lakes. He was looking pretty beat so I was able to return the favor and let him know he was mere steps away from his destination and a well deserved rest!
Tuesday I moved camp over to Whitney Portal and waited for the rest of my group to arrive. I fell asleep in my tent and woke up after the agreed upon meeting time. In a panic I jumped in my car and headed down to Lone Pine. As soon as I could receive texts I got an hour old text stating they were at the Visitors center which is where I drove to. From the visitors center parking lot I was able to reach one of my group only to find out they were on the trail in the middle of a warm up hike already.... DAMN! back up to Whitney Portal.
Met my group right at the trail head and we all just sort of hung around and tried to sleep. Some in their cars, some in folding chairs at my site. Me in my tent.
At some point I fell asleep and woke up right about 11:30 PM (we had scheduled midnight as our start time). I went over the contents of my pack one more time and put on my hiking clothes. At about 11:45 one of my group comes to my tent and asks if I am ready. "I say I will be ready at midnight, are you guys ready now?"... "Yeah we are all waiting for you at the trailhead!" Dang! so I rush the next couple of minutes and start heading to the trailhead. Guess what the price of the rush was? About an hour into the hike I realized that I had left my phone in my tent. So no GPS, and no camera. Oh well.
We start out at about 11:50PM. For the most part it was a pretty uneventful hike. One of our group was a last minute add. A gentlemen who had done a lot of hiking around the world but someone I have never met. About 4 miles in he decided this was not a one day hike and turned around. That left us with five.
This image needs no caption. everyone knows what it is.
I do not think I have any original observations except for perhaps this. I enjoyed the switchbacks. By that time I grown to hate rocks, and most of all steps made of rocks. The switchbacks while monotonous are pretty much flat ground and dirt. I found it a welcome break for awhile. Although I had no idea what was waiting for us after trail crest.
After trail crest we all had this idea that we were pretty much a hop skip and a jump from the summit. We were all first timers for the most part and from our collective reading that is just the impression we had gotten. As a matter of fact when you get to trail crest you really are only just getting started on the toughest part of the climb.
To make matters worse, the second last minute add who I was right behind through this section started walking rather erratically. He seemed to be stepping without regard for the terrain, literally tripping over his own feet and exhibiting this awesome knack for planting his pole in the exact wrong place at nearly every opportunity.
I told the group I needed to rest, and when we sat down I started asking him questions like when was the last time he drank water or ate something. It was immediately obvious to everyone he was slurring his words like a man who had just downed a six pack. What was worse was we had just gotten through all the most technical parts of the trail and could see the rest of the trail up to the summit was fairly easy in comparison.
What to do? This was probably the wrong decision but we figured we would have to get him through the tough parts in this condition whether we turned around right then and there, or whether we summited. For his part he was dead set on summiting regardless and even though he really had no say in the decision at the point it did make ours easier. So we let him rest until he got some semblance of his senses back and onward we forged.
From that point on, all the way to the summit it was go for a few minutes.. stop... and wait. By the time he got to us he would already be tripping and slurring again so we would again sit down, make him drink, make him eat and then proceed once he he got some rest.
In the end we all made it, including the dude with the AMS. he got a much needed long rest at the summit while we milled about, took pictures and signed the guestbook. It was about 10:00 AM and around that time someone said that thunderstorms were expected to roll in around 2:00 PM. This would not have been a problem but we had no idea how long it was going to take to get our casualty back to trail crest. So we left right away.
The Obligatory.
Interesting aside, just as we began our descent I ran across one of the group from Horseshoe Meadow on the final part of his ascent, and NOT looking happy. He did not even recognize me but I made sure to remind him of who I was and give him a hearty high five to congratulate him on making it. He just looked shell shocked. I took a slight perverse pleasure in that since he had told me I was crazy for attempting a day hike and that if I DID make it to the top we he would see me on my way up while he was headed down. I am sure the irony was lost on him at that moment. But maybe it hit him later... lol. Im any event I savored it for a few moments.
Waiting at a difficult stretch for AMS guy and having a bit of power bar.
Anyway, we got the AMS guy through, and it was worse than getting him up. but he made it. as we worked our way down the switchbacks he became better and better mentally, but no faster.
At the bottom of the switchbacks we decided that three of us should just go on ahead and the friend of the AMS guy would wait for him and walk down with him. The John Likely situation kept going through my head but we were a long way from dark, he had made it through the switchbacks and he had one friend to watch over him. I felt a little better about that.
About an hour after we got back to portal, AMS guys friend shows up... no AMS guy??? he tells us that he had said he was ok and to go on ahead so he left him. Now I felt like crap again. I really wanted to just go home and get some sleep and I had no idea if it would 2 or 6 hours before this guy showed up. So I went and took my camp down and packed my car. I then drove up to the store just in time to see AMS guy emerge from the trailhead. I jumped out and give him a hug even though I had never met him prior to that day. But I was THAT glad to see him. And then I went home.
All in all I have to say the hike was not as a hard as I thought it would be. I was constantly in fear that I had not trained enough, or that I simply did not have enough time to get fit enough, or that altitude would get to me.
This is not in any way shape or form to say it was easy. As a matter of fact it is by far the hardest hike I have ever made. Other hikes are not even in the same league and whenever I have been asked since I have only described it as "Pure torture with a fabulous view" which is what it is.
I already know that for the next few years I will probably summit Whitney at least once a year via different routes. I want to climb the chute in the snow. I want to take the Mountaineers Route. and I want to Take a multi day trip from Horseshoe meadow. Not sure which to do first or in what order, but I have a year to think about it.
I have a bunch of pics too. I will try and upload them later should anyone be interested.
