Hello All- (also posted under 'Trip Reports' This post might be relevant to people, who like me, are rookies on ice / snow. I will try to be as methodical and analytical as possible, so apologies for the length of this missive. Also please note this is my personal experience only!
I will start with my skill set so you can calibrate your expectations: 1. I have done a decent amount of trail running at high altitudes, so I am not a rookie when it comes to mountains. 2. I went up Mt. Whitney on 6/22/14 and it took me 9h15m (as a reference) 3. I had no altitude sickness this time, unlike in 2014 (so that was not a debilitating factor) 4. I have very little experience skiing or snowboarding or glissading (if you do, you may be much more 'at home' on the trip than I was).
Given above my observations on this trip below: 1. This was one of the MOST difficult and honestly terrifying 'treks' I have ever done. I did cactus to clouds in a few hours (you can check it out on google) but this was a totally different ball game. why? the terrain and my lack of familiarity with snow and ice. I have enough experience on trails to know when one is NOT in control and on this trip I felt 'situation was out of control' more than a few times. Why? My lack of familiarity with snowy and icy terrain. I met a few people on the trail, who like me were using and Ice-axe & crampons for the first time. Please note, if you are new to this, do not waste your time and money trying to 'trek' up without these 2 pieces of equipment. The margin for error is SMALL and the risk-reward ratio is totally skewed against you, i.e. 'I made it to the summit' vs a major injury. 2. Second error on my part given the new terrain was my going solo! it was dumb luck that i ran into 4 angels right at the start, who not only paced me but had excellent snow / ice skills. Two of the guys had only micro-spikes but they have had extensive experience snow boarding and skiing, so 'glissading standing up' was walk in the park for them, which was absolutely terrifying for me given the declivity coming down. 3. The very first 'stream' we pass (I dont know the name) which is barely a mile from the start is a raging 'river'! This was at 3am in the morning. Which means it gets non-linearly worse as sun comes out. The guys tried to step on rocks to avoid getting wet but the rocks are at the edge of the stream, which means if you slip you fall deep, which is a risk i did not want to take given the water velocity. There i just 'waded' in with my 'gore-tex' boots and gaiters. Too bad, that 'gore-tex' equipment does not work if you walk into shin deep water. So now I had another 19miles to go with wet shoes and socks. My suggestion? Get sandals. Wear them till mirror lake (where you will have another set of obstacles to deal with but NOT shin deep water) 4. I trudged along with wet shoes and water (= both weight a LOT more by the way since I use heavy hiking socks) since I had only one more pair of thick hiking socks (another mistake. keep atleast 4-5 pairs or best start with, sandals) 5. You will come across a LOT more water including the 'log bridge' which is NO longer intact given one log has rolled off. I had sort of given up on walking in wet socks and shoes by then so just walked the whole stream! 6. Excluding water at all sorts of random places it was uneventful, the way I like it, till you get past outpost camp / mirror lake. Post mirror lake the trail is under snow / ice. We ran into guys who were lost. They had a GPS which unfortunately is not updating real-time (i.e. 200% snow pack for 2017)! I used alltrails pro and downloaded a route some guy had take. This was vital given we had no one else around and would have wasted valuable time 'exploring'. 7. After a climb through a snowy section, out came the crampons AND ice-axe (which is not an option for first timers, in my view). Now, one of the guys in our 'group' (remember I was super lucky to meet these guys) had done classes on ice skills and knew exactly when to take crampons out! We 'cramponed' up to Trail camp and there one could see the so called 'chute'! It scared the living daylights out of me to be honest. Its a serpentine path which shoots straight up, then left, straight and then sharp left, straight to Trail Crest. Mind you, you look down from Crest below it is almost a VERTICAL drop (closer to 70degree decline I would guess) 8. While going on this 'path' with rookie ice-axe and crampon skills (which somehow came intuitively to me, maybe will, for most, I have no idea) even though I was with the group we had some distance between us. 2 were in front of me and 2 behind. About 600 feet below the Crest, where it starts feeling 'vertical' I realized than I had made a sharper left climb up than I should have. People were using 'steps' which others had used before, further to my right! Now I had 2 options go back down (which anyone who has spent time on mountains knows is WAY MORE difficult than going up) or try to traverse laterally to my right! This entailed me making 'steps' using my crampons (kick, kick, kick till you get a foot hold) and move laterally, while NOT looking down. This was simply the most 'out of control' situation I have been in. There only 2 guys above me and 2 below. So not a lot of people. Luckily the snow was firm and my process worked. This also means post 8am it will get exponentially more complex to try to make your way up especially for rookies (since ice will crumble under your weight). 9. The last 50 feet people were using the 'spike' side of the ice-axe! That tells you how steep the final section is. (if you dont know what 'spike' is on an axe you want to re-think this). The whole section when one turns left to go UP the chute is like a vertical stair master climb. It is relentless on your legs and nothing like what I am used to (orthogonal to trail running to put it mildly) 10. post Trail crest 'walk in the park' BUT I was MORE exhausted than I remember in 2014 even though I did NOT have AMS this time unlike last! This was ALL stress due to the climb up the chute. Also I had finished my 3L bladder of water by Trail camp! This is again exceptional and clearly I was drinking way more water than last time (or my usual consumption). 11. The last 200 feet to summit are again snowed out. So had to scramble but now we ran into a number of people, so just followed them (otherwise you NEED a GPX where someone has gone recently) 12. At the top ALL I could think of was how the heck will I get down the Chute! eek 13. Came back to Trail crest quickly. There was a group of 4 who chose to 'crampon' down the chute! God bless them and others who were doing it. Simple physics tells me, going down my center of gravity is the WRONG WAY compared to going up! Everyone in my group (who were snow Gods to me) decided going down on their 'bottom' i.e. glissading which was music to me. 14. This came with its own issues! There is a 'glissade tube' (I am calling it that) that looks like a bobsled track where people go down. I let them go since I knew I am going to take A LOT of time on this. Again what I thought I knew on using an ice-axe (which is ABSOLUTE CRITICAL for your cranium while glissading down a 65degree decline) was utter rubbish. Simple rule: ALWAYS keep the pick facing back! The tube has been used (I am guessing) for the last couple of months. Since then snow has been melting. Hence the 'entrance' to the tube is good 5feet below where once stands on the Crest! eek So I had to somehow, relying on my axe get down into the tube, making sure I dont slip down! Incredible! Coming down was, again part fun and part sheer terror. Ex-post not sure which feeling dominated. Its almost vertical for 1200 feet (13.6k to 12.4k in altitude). Though you dont do the whole distance in one step, you get up, crampon and then I chose to glissade to Trail camp while others just walked down. Another point to note on 'glissading': you will gain extremely HIGH velocity in NO time going down on steep ice! There were sections where despite my attempts at excessive control using the axe I gained excessively high speeds. There was a brief moment where I was literally hanging by my axe! Then I had to make a 'step' and then let go of the axe. eek Also if you think you are wearing crampons while glissading down and will use them for resistance please re-think this 'adventure'! 15. Note: above is my personal experience. For reference: there was one guy going up in trail runners and 2 bottles of water! He made it to the top and assuming back! There were people simply 'walking down', taking giant steps, down the 'chute'! shocked So if you have tons of experience on ice and snow, I don't think your frame of reference will match mine and feel free to discard these data points! I had a guy behind me in the 'glissade tube' whom I was 'slowing down a LOT!' I apologized but I am too risk-averse to go down at 40mph out of control! 16. Coming down was no drama for a change and again I got more wet at all the expected and un-expected places. Note, the streams bulge up big time with rising sun and we had dark clouds gathering while we were leaving Trail Camp. So guessing they had rainfall which would have meant even more water. I did change my socks at the summit but shoes weighed a ton by then, so did not matter. 17. We reached back to our cars at 4:30pm! That means the whole trip took us 13h30m (we started at 3am on a new moon night)! shocked This was almost 4h30m MORE than last time! Body now feels fine, so clearly the lack of experience on the terrain was the main fatigue factor. I am not a meteorologist but given the snow I would be surprised if switchbacks open till August if not September. Overall: If you are a 'fair weather hiker / runner' like me then wait for switchbacks to open up and snow to melt. Our beautiful Mt. Whitney is not going anywhere. ps: I do NOW know how to use crampons and ice-axe! But how would I react if I slip on ice? I have no idea.
