Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Harrowing Day Trip 7/29/11

My partner and I are safe at our motel this morning after a frightening day hike on the trail yesterday. We had just reached Trail Crest when the extreme weather hit and spent the next 5.5 hours double-timing back down the mountain amidst rain, hail, thunder and lightning. After innumerable treacherous creek crossings and some help from some fellow hikers, we made it out relieved for ourselves and very worried about those still on the mountain.

The first part of the hike was routine. It was to be my first summit, my partner Matthew's third. We left at 4:15 a.m., making reasonably good time through lovely country. We made it up the switchbacks by about noon. We saw some rain clouds forming but decided to push on because they didn't look particularly threatening. The view west of Trail Crest took my breath away, and we were both eager to make the summit.

We we wrong, and in retrospect wished we had turned back sooner. A few fat raindrops started to fall, soon turning into stinging hail. We hunkered down against the ledge waiting for the initial burst to pass. The hail was pea-sized and fierce enough to rip little holes in my $5 poncho. When it was over the trail was white with pellets, and the beginnings of real alarm showed in the faces of hikers around us. Matthew and I decided to turn back. Our disappointment at not making the summit was quickly eclipsed by anxiety as we raced down the 99 switchbacks, exposed to repeated flashes of lightning. I don't think I have ever been as scared in my life as I was crossing the cables section, fearing at any moment to be fried by a bolt drawn to the metal rods.

The thunder, lightning and rain continued as we threaded our way through Trail Camp. We considered finding shelter and waiting for the storm to pass, but several factors dissuaded us:
--It became clear that this storm wasn't the passing kind
--We knew the longer we waited, the colder and wetter we'd get
--As we traveled lower, we saw that the rain was turning formerly charming streams into dangerous torrents, and knew we had to move quickly if we were to cross them and get back to the Portal

The rain-that-would-not-stop not only swelled Lone Pine Creek but turned the trail itself into a series of streams. The drainage above Lone Pine Lake was filled with rushing, chocolate-milk colored torrents. At many points along the way, the trail was washed out altogether and we were forced to make our way across these fast little rivers. We teamed up with a kind gentleman (a solo hiker) and helped each other across a number of these, often up to our knees in the muddy water, with unstable footing. We took risks we never would have taken under other circumstances, but felt the risk of holding back (and getting stuck on the mountain) outweighed the dangers of these crossings.

Along the way we passed a number of hikers who were struggling, on the verge of hypothermia or simply freaked out by the danger. One young man raced ahead of us, saying his father was getting hypothermia and he was going for help. We later heard from another hiker he was almost swept away crossing Lone Pine Creek, but saved himself by grabbing a rock and pressed on down the trail. (Back at the Portal, Matthew saw the father, apparently in good shape, but we never did know if his son made it down safely).

At the last Lone Pine Creek crossing, Matthew and I were among about 15 hikers stopped dead: here was a crossing that was definitely too risky to attempt. One of the hikers had called 911 before we arrived, and within a few minutes an obviously capable young man arrived and spoke the most blessed words I had ever heard: "I'm Mike from the Portal Store and I'm going to lead you out of here." He showed us the back way (the Old Trail?) down to the Portal, then raced back up the mountain, apparently to help hikers stranded higher up.

At the Portal, there was streaming water and mud everywhere, along with emergency vehicles and law enforcement personnel. One of these men told me he had been in the area 30 years and never seen such a storm.

Biggest lessons:
--start down the mountain at the first sign of trouble--you have a long road ahead
--the $5 poncho was the best investment for the money I ever made; while we were both shivering as the day wore on, the poncho kept my core dry and probably saved me from more trouble
--we believe our rigorous training before this hike paid off, affording us the physical strength to get down the mountain fairly quickly, and, more importantly, the mental toughness to believe we could

Finally, we offer gratitude to those who helped us along the way: Mike from the Portal, and the gentleman hiker whose name we never learned.

Amazing story. Glad you made it out safely. Thanks for sharing.

jhiker,
Wow... sorry to hear your hike went bad so quickly. You made the right decision turning around. There were thunderstorms earlier this July. I recall another poster whose group was pelted by hail and surrounded by lightning after trying to plow through the initial rain. Glad you got off safe. The mountain will be there next year.

For newbies - if you are planning on Whitney, read this TR very carefully. Twice or more. It is pure gold. Keep it in mind when you set out.

Jhiker, great TR - thanks for posting so quickly so the rest of us have an idea of what is was like up on the mountain the past 24 hours. My family, I, and Quillansculpture were up on the mountain for a couple of nights barely a week ago, and it we couldn't have had more perfect weather. Your TR is a cautionary tale of how quickly conditions can change for everyone who hikes the Sierra.

Glad you made it out safely and, looking at Doug's most recent report on the WPS, it appears SAR is pretty much done on the mountain and everyone is down OK.

For the record, that was Myles from the Portal Store who assisted your group (and others) in directing you to the old trail just before the North Fork creek crossing. Under the trying circumstances, I'm sure it was easy to get "Mike" out of that exchange. He's the evening cook at the store, but also a very skilled 5.10-plus climber and all-around great guy. That's one of the wonderful things about Doug and the Portal Store crew - they don't hesitate to head up the mountain to help when it's called for. Your situation was one of countless others over the years where Doug and/or his crew dropped what they might have been doing and bolted up the trail to provide assistance for others.

Glad everything turned out OK. Any chance you got pix that you might post?

We were also on the mountain yesterday. We left at 4:00AM and made good time up to Trail Crest. Shortly after leaving Trail Crest we noticed some hail dropping but since this was my first attempt we decided to push on to the top thinking the storm would move away. By the time we reached the summit the hail was pounding us and starting to obliterate the trail. We signed the register, took three photos, put on out parkas and headed down in a hurry. We left the summit at 12:15 and there were still people coming up. We tried to discourage them but some wouldn't listen. I am still wondering about a man and woman who had two small children(4 or 5 years old) insisting on making it to the top. The children had shorts, sweat shirts and tennis shoes on. There is no way they made it down the mountain last night. We were pummeled by hail all the way to the Portal but we knew we had to get off the mountain. The lightning strikes were close and the thunder deafening. We saw three land slides that were awsome but unnerving. Rocks the size of Volkswagons bouncing down the hills. At Outpost Camp three campers asked if they could follow us down the trail because they were scared. We told them OK but we weren't going to wait for them to pack up. They said they were leaving everything they just wanted out. The camper staid with us for about 20 minutes but decided we weren't going fast enough and left running down the trail. The lower we got the more water we encountered, most of the trail was now a running stream and the crossings we hopped across in the morning were running 50 ft. across. We forded dangerous streams running waist deep something I would never do under normal circumstances. When we got to the crossing at Lone Pine Creek there were two men blocking off the trail and diverting people to the old trail as that creek was impassible. We got to the parking lot at 6:30 and several sections of the road were washed out, no cheeseburger. We got to the campground and were changing into dry clothes when the camp host knocked on my tent trailer door and informed us that the campground was being evacuated, several bridges were already washed out. By the time we made it down the hill Caltrans was closing the road just out of Lone Pine. All the motels were full in Lone Pine so it was a long drive home after all the excitement. I would still like to know how many people stayed on the mountain last night and how many are OK. The thought of those two children still haunts me.

It was a scary day to say the least. Left at 6:00 am 7/29/11 from portal parking lot and made the summit around 1:00 pm amidst lots of lighting/pea-sized hailstones. Met my new best-friend Dean for the trip back. Left the summit immediately and started down but noticed a couple on thier way to the summit with what appeared to be a 1 yr.old baby on the mothers back. Also saw the couple with the two children on the trail as well. witnessed a huge rockslide with car-sized boulders coming off the mountain. Had to cross several rivers that were waist-deep with raging water on the way back and lost both poles in the process. Saw that the last river crossing was blocked and arrow pointing to alternate route down to the parking lot. Got back to car at 7:05 pm. I pray that everyone made it off the mountain safely.

Frightening stories.It has always been said that the weather in the Sierras can change in a moment without any warning or notice.I fear for those who tried to cross some of those washouts and flashflood rivers. Thanks for your reports.We all can learn from this.

All I can say is !!!!!!

I'm glad everyone made it down ok. That sounds terrifying. I'm racking my brain to figure out what I would do encountering waist deep water. I think I would have to stop and wait for the storm and water to pass or for rescue, probably hitting the 911 on my SPOT, assuming it could talk to a satellite under those conditions.

Thank you for sharing. I'm praying for good weather and clear skies for 8/20-22

Thanks for these reports! Glad you all made it out of there! These reports concerning these little children are horrific. Being a father of 2 little ones myself, I am greatly disturbed by this. Praying for the safe return of everyone...especially these kids.

Thanks, Bulldog 34, for the correction on Myles' name. We certainly want credit to go where it's due! And thank you again, Myles, for guiding us all to safety.

We are working on pictures and hope to have them posted by later this evening.

Please post those those pictures as we were going down hill as fast as we could to save ourselves and did not have the presence of mind to capture a experience of a lifetime!

@cowpie and jeff: thank you for the trip reports. Sounds really scary! I summited on the 21st after a failed attempt last year. I know what it feels like to fail and have to wait a year to make it up to myself.

Hopefully folks w/ common sense reading your TRs will get a better sense of what can happen if conditions on the mountain turn on a dime. Folks need to understand the weather doesn't wait or forgive to accomodate your need to summit. You need to pack thinking of the worst... can u survive the mountain if you start on a day-hike, but end up having to spend the night on the trail because of a broken ankle or worse yet a thunderstorm?!?

Plowing up the trail with children under those conditions is dum and IMO plainly irresponsible.

Glad you got off safely. And again... thanks for the TR... hopefully someone will learn from your harrowing experience.

They got back to the portal safely. That is a success.

So all this was friday? When we were driving from LAS to Mammoth via Westgard Pass on saturday we saw hours of storm all up and down the range. We thought about anyone caught up there... But now I realize it must have been 2 days in row. Is that right?

That is a huge relief. Did everyone make it down ok?

For Matthew and me, it was a half-day ordeal, approximately 12:15 (when the storm broke and we left the Trail Crest) to six (when we hiked into the Portal) on Friday afternoon. As we drove back into Lone Pine around 6:30, the storm was clearing up, at least down below. I gather from the Portal Store forum that others spent the night on the mountain and walked out the next morning.

Saturday dawned sunny, but driving home to Reno that afternoon we were hammered again by another storm, complete with thunder, lightning and the most intense, sheeting rain I've ever experienced. We read in the weather reports this series of storms is particularly slow-moving, which makes for hours and hours of fun (?!). For anyone who had a Saturday permit that was canceled or delayed, please know it was better to be disappointed and safe--you were fortunate to not be on Whitney when the storm hit.

I am working on posting photos, but having some trouble with the length of time it takes to upload them. I hope to have this solved soon.

Thanks to all for your encouraging and supportive comments! It feels good to be part of a community.

Harvey, if you go to the Portal Store site you can view stills from the Whitney cam taken every 5 min. You can see how the storm forms into some wicked weather. Saturday looked a little better.

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/webcam/2011_07_29/daily.htm

John

Glad to hear you made it down safely. Hiked San Jacinto Peak yesterday and summited around 1130, not two minutes after getting to the top, giant rain drops began falling. Realizing that there was a storm on the way, we booked it down from the top, hail, thunder and lightning and lots of rain made for a wet descent. We are leaving for Whitney Portal on Tuesday for a summit attempt on Friday and praying for good weather, looking at the weather reports it looks like good weather should be coming in on Wednesday.

Thank you for the TR, first time hiking Whitney for our entire group, and very thankful for all of the information everyone has provided! Ill be sure to give my report when I am back!

Granted /I was not there and am just going off the posted info.
BUT:

I've got to ask, why would you call 911, is it just because you can't cross the creek, now a river? Because you might be late for work?
Remember when you call 911 you are asking someone else to come and possibly risk their life, is that a reasonable expectation considering your circumstances? If it is then call, that's what 911 is for. IF not then why not just hunker down below the tree line, find shelter, make new friends and roast marshmallows?
You did remember to carry emergency supplies and equipment necessary to camp out overnight, a trash bag, space blanket, food bar or two, heat pack, candle,etc. Heck even if you had to stay out two extra nights was your life threatened to the extent of calling 911?

As a side note is there a map trace or can someone make one to show the "old" trail?

I wasn't there either. I have read this report, Bob R's SAR's report, Dennis Mattinson's weather reports (complete with editorializing about the extraordinary nature of the storm), Doug Sr.'s reports, and a variety of other reports, including technical climbers who feared desperately for their lives as they climbed down from various parts of the Whitney Zone. Everyone seems to agree -- this was a storm of unusual ferocity. Indeed, according to Bob R., at least three separate SARs teams were dropped on the mountain the next morning to sweep for incidents. There are a number of reports of people dealing with various stages of hypothermia. I have also looked at the photos of the aftermath of the storm. The damage to the trail will persist for some time.

Under these circumstances, I would give the benefit of the doubt to someone who called 911. It is quite clear that many folks (and not just the original poster) were in fear for their lives, whether from lightning, rockfalls, floods, falling branches, or hypothermia, no doubt exacerbated by the inability to stay dry while crossing waist-high water in roaring creeks. Roasting marshmallows and going to work seem to have been the last thing on the minds of the folks who have reported in. At the very least, that call may have led to the chain of events that tipped off Myles at the Store of the existence of stranded hikers, and his generous acts in helping folks get down.

Finally, I want to again thank folks for writing up their harrowing experiences. I was fortunate to have great weather when I was there last week, but these reports are an invaluable reminder of the range of conditions that may exist, and the importance of being prepared.

Thanks, and again, congratulations on your safe return.

frediver,
ask and ye shall receive

http://www.whitneyzone.com/wz/ubbthreads.php/topics/15657/Old_Trail_Trailhead

Thanks, Akichow--you have it exactly right. There would be no roasting of marshmallows on Friday night. For the record, I did not call 911 myself--a backpacker from another group did so, and I am glad she did. I do beleive that call probably resulted in Miles/Myles coming up the Old Trail to lead us to safety.

For those who are interested, selected photos of our trip (before and during the storm) are posted in the Picture Gallery.

Very relieved to hear everyone made it down safely. I summited Friday @ 12:43 pm, just after the storm rolled in. After a few harrowing experiences, made it back safely at 7:00pm with my newfound friend Jeff, who I met on the summit. Knowing everybody is safe, that was one of the funnest adventures I've ever had!!!!!! I guess I've always been a little twisted.....

Fred, you must be a cynic at heart... takes one to know one... although I'm in recovery. When you dont have anything good to say, it's better not to say anything at all like "Thumper" wisely said. Taking a space blanket up on a tour of Whitney on a day-hike?!? You gotta be kidding me... I'm a worrywart and I'd rather leave the blanket and bring my Nikon DSLR. Get real man.

jhiker: thanks for the photos. The photo of the thunderclouds at Trail Crest is truly truly beautiful, scary,... and ominous of things to come. I'm glad you and your group made it down the mountain unharmed. It ought to go on a hiker's guide w/ the caption of "you've waited too long to turn around". Thanks again for posting it... it will help temper down "summit fever" on my next date w/ the mountain.

The main point of my off the wall reply was this.
The Mountains are not forgiving.
If you were unfortunate enough to be to high
on the Mountain when this happened then you
were in dire straights and needed to make them better.
If you were in an exposed position then you needed
shelter as your first priority, getting out is secondary.
You do everything to make your situation better not worse
and it sounded like get-home-itis made conditions worse for lots
of people.
And finally day hike or not you need to be prepared to sit still
and wait out a storm if necessary. The kit bits necessary to turn
most emergency situations into just inconvenient ones weigh
very little and are well worth the extra effort to pack.

What's that saying? Ah yes.

Before criticizing a man, walk a mile in his shoes.

Or in this case, 11 miles.

Jhiker: fabulous/chilling photo from Trail Crest -- thanks for sharing it!

Luis - "recovering cynic" - I like it. Sounds like me at various stages in my life. Hard habit to shake. I'm just shocked anyone got off a successful 911 call. Three trips up this mountain the past two years, and I never had a single bar.

It seems like Verizon has better coverage up there compared to my T-Mobile that stopped working in Lone Pine.

I was there that day with my 18 and 10-year-old sons.

I've done a bit of hiking but it was our first trip to Whitney. We camped at Outpost Thursday and left at 3:00 AM Friday the 29th for what we thought was going to be a day hike to the summit. I was unaware of any prediction of rain so we left some important gear at camp and as a result were very unprepared for what we encountered. I won't make that mistake again!

We got less than a mile from the top when the first sprinkles started coming down. It ended pretty quickly and we thought that may be the end of it. We were close to the top so we pressed on oblivious of the danger building with the storm. When we reached the structure at the summit, the rods on the roof were buzzing with electricity. We were very nervous about lightning strikes so we left within 5 minutes of reaching the summit.

When we were approximately a mile down the trail, we were hit with a volley of large hail stones that hit us so hard they were actually painful. The trail was more treacherous with the slushy hail/rain but we were more concerned with taking our time to get our footing right than racing down to camp.

On our way down, we encountered the couple with the three small children under five years old. The mother was holding the 1-year-old in her arms. I tried (like many others) to discourage her from continuing to the summit but she pressed on despite my warning. Some may say I am irresponsible for taking a 10-year-old but at least we trained together at high altitude for this trip and did other significant hiking first including Baden Powell two weeks earlier. I continue to be appalled and I really think this was child abuse or child endangerment at the very least. Those children had no business on that mountain even had the weather been beautiful.

When we reached Trail Crest, we were extremely concerned about lightning. We crossed the saddle very quickly and began down the mountain toward Trail Camp fighting very intense rain. Again, we were taking our time to get our footing right so we weren't running like some hikers. In retrospect, maybe we should have made a run for it!

We were soaked, it was windy and the rain continued to come down hard. We were not wearing appropriate clothing - especially my young son who was only wearing a long sleeve shirt instead of a jacket. However, the real trouble didn't begin until we got below Trail Camp. The trail had become a stream which was increasingly difficult to navigate. The lightning and thunder show was simply spectacular - some of it was pink (never seen that before) and striking very close to us. It was very frightening. The further down we got, the worse things got. The "trail stream" eventually became a flash flood with enough momentum to displace large rocks. Newly formed waterfalls were pouring off the mountain directly onto the trail in some places. It was difficult to make out the trail in several places and for the first time, I began to realize how serious our situation was.

With great difficulty, we fought our way to the first stream crossing above Outpost. I believe it was the Mirror Lake outlet but I'm not sure. What was a small stream we had crossed earlier that morning without even getting our feet wet, had risen significantly and was now moving very swiftly. I was extremely hesitant to attempt to cross the swift stream especially with the children in our party (we had an 11 year old with us in addition to my young son) so we looked for an alternate crossing but couldn't find anything better.

Reluctantly, we decided we had to take a chance crossing the stream given we were already soaked, nightfall was going to be upon us soon and at least three of the members of my party were already showing early signs of hypothermia including my young son. With some assistance from my new friend Mark who showed up on the other side of the stream just at this instance, we successfully crossed in waist high and fast moving water. Once we reached the other side, I shouted for joy! Mark looked at me and smiled slightly as he replied "That was the easy one."

We continued a short distance down the trail to find the second stream crossing which was now raging violently and spewing white water many feet into the air in some places. I knew there was no way we could responsibly cross this stream - let alone with kids. My heart sank as the realization set in that we were not going to reach our camp that night which was frustratingly less than a mile away. No one in our party had tents or sleeping bags and we were soaked to the bone.

While we stood at the bank of the stream to discuss the options, we all started to get VERY cold and began to get severe shakes. Two of the adults (including a 66 year old gentleman in our party) were starting to stumble and were incoherent. Mark graciously offered his 3-man tent as a rescue shelter so we piled 6 people in and dug in to spend an uncomfortable night stranded on the mountain. Mark and I immediately heated some water and started passing in hot soup and hot cocoa to the freezing victims.

Around dusk, a search and Rescue helicopter started circling our area and Outpost Camp below us. They eventually made a daring partial landing on one skid in a very tight spot between the many tree branches in the area. Mark talked to them and confirmed they were looking for the 75-year-old hypothermia victim. Mark told them we heard he was up at Trail Camp. They said it was getting too dark and they didn't fly at night so they would have to retrieve him in the morning. They also said they would send more Search and Rescue in the morning to help us.

As the evening wore on, several more parties of hikers came through and joined our emergency camp. Everyone pitched in and helped with whatever they had to offer and we began to triage the victims. We determined the 66-year-old was the highest risk so we placed him with someone first. Eventually, we had enough tents, dry sleeping bags and warm bodies to take care of everyone.

Around 11:00 PM the couple with three small children came down the trail. The children did not look good. They looked like zombies and were staring straight forward and not moving much. It actually looked like they were in shock which they probably were. We invited the family to stay at our camp and told them we would make room for them but they refused. They didn't even have a flashlight so a couple of people in our camp offered their lights to them and they continued on. Mark watched as they crossed the stream. Apparently, the man got in the stream and helped the woman across leaving the children on the bank. Once she was on the other side of the stream, he basically threw the children to her one by one. Mark said it was a pretty scary scene. Luckily, they all made it on the other side and continued down the trail. That was the last we saw of them. I sure hope those kids survived. When we got to the portal parking lot, the sheriff was asking questions about the couple. Apparently, their rental car was still in the parking lot. Not a good sign.

After the family crossed, Mark checked the water again and said it had receded somewhat but it was still moving too quickly and was not safe for crossing. He didn't recommend we try anything until the morning.

By Saturday morning we were all still alive, in much better shape and in much better spirits. We got our group together and headed down the trail again. The stream crossing was very easy as the water had receded to near pre-storm levels. We did encounter some severe trail damage on the way to Outpost. We arrived to find our camp had been completely flooded. Thankfully, someone from a nearby camp had moved our tents out of the flood waters so we had only minimal water and mud in our tents and sleeping bags. We were told that some other stranded hikers had used some of our tents and sleeping bags the night before. I am glad they were able to help someone else especially since so many people had pitched in to help us.

The Search and Rescue helicopters arrived shortly after we got to camp. It was impressive to see how many people they had on the ground and how quickly they deployed. They swiftly interviewed everyone on the ground and began investigating a couple of unclaimed tents and packs. They offered us any assistance needed including some PB&J sandwiches which my son appreciated.

The hike back was pretty much uneventful. We were tired and it was a long hike to the portal. Unfortunately, we had to wade through water because a log crossing just below Outpost had been destroyed. Consequently, my feet were in pretty bad shape by the time I reached the portal parking lot but I was happy to be off the mountain.

I would like to thank everyone who helped at our emergency camp. It was nice to see so many people band together and help each other. There is no doubt these people's compassion and generosity avoided serious injury or even death for several hikers including my young son. Also, a big thank you to Search and Rescue. These people regularly risk their own safety for others. I found them to be helpful, kind and professional.


Lessons learned:

1) Get an accurate weather report before a hike of this length/difficulty.
2) Always carry light jackets no matter what the weather is supposed to be. Things can change very quickly and it is a long way out.
3) Wear a material that dries quickly. Cotton is comfortable but it stays wet a long time.
4) No more matches. Lighters only from now on.
5) First Aid kits and space blankets are not optional even for a day hike.
6) If possible, carry a tent - even for a day hike.
7) On a lighter note, only 100% Deet repels the mosquitoes on Whitney. Take some! These things were biting me through my clothes including wool socks and liners!

Mike

Wow, amazing story and experience. So moving how folks pulled together to help each other out. I'm glad that what could have been a thoroughly horrible experience had some positive moments, and some learning experiences (both for you and and the rest of us who are reading these).

This make me sick to my stomach and pissed off. What the hell were they thinking endangering their children like that!!!! Any news if they are all OK?

Thanks for posting the report and I'm happy everyone is safe and sound.

Mike..Thank you for sharing your experience. It sounds like you weathered it with grace and courage. I am heartened by all the accounts of hikers coming together to help one another and I am glad to hear you and your party are all ok.

It is called panic...

I am not going to argue if calling 911 was warranted in this situation.

Either in the desert or in the mountains when it rains prepare for flash floods...

Stay out of ravines and gulleys.

When it rains, it pours...

Agree

Just wondering..and maybe someone can clear this up for me but what are the rules/guidelines for taking children up this mountain?

I don't remember filling out any ages or even the names of members of my party on my application when listing my group size, dates, etc...

Is there an age limit? Do they just have to be accompanied by an adult? It seems as if there should be some type of safeguard in place by the permit office to avoid situations similar to what we are reading in these reports.

I was on that mountain one week ago in absolutely perfect conditions and still would not at all have been comfortable having my little ones around...just too much could go wrong up there and that's just my opinion and I know everybody's got one...just concerned here.

Please post any news/updates on these kids..thanks

Sounds like I finished my almost-week of hiking in the Whitney area this past week just in the nick of time. I had planned a summit attempt for Thursday, 7/28 (to begin at midnight, since it was so hot during the day -- I usually hike in the area in late August/early September, not July); but intense smoke, just a few hours before my midnight start time the evening before (from the Lion's fire to the south of Whitney) ended up intervening, and I bowed out of my summit attempt in the interest of not inhaling copious amounts of smoke while also sucking air (still acclimating from Ohio).

CaT

Thanks Mike for posting your frightening account.I am so encouraged by the community coming together to take care of each other and provide safty for each other.This was truly an over used word "Epic" and one in a lifetime experience. Thank God everyone in your "group" survived by pulling together.I wonder if anyone has any info on that family with small children.I thought I read that everyone was accounted for but I don't know for sure.

CaT, we just missed each other - we left on Sunday the 24th. Laura told us that Saturday night that you had left a note on the TOF's windshield at the Meysan Lakes trailhead. Was hoping to catch you at the Portal, but it was not to be. Sorry we missed you, and that sucks about shelving Whitney!

Re this dialogue about kids on the mountain. I don't recall ever reading or hearing anything that specifically forbids children under a certain age from being on the trail. There is plenty of cautionary advice in the materials they send you and hand out, but it appears it's left up to the parents to make a judgement call.

Unfortunately, that depends heavily on experience, common sense and danger-assessment abilities. We began introducing our daughter to very mild hiking at the age of 5, and progressed steadily with more challenging hikes in the Rockies, Cascades, and Sierra over the next few years. It wasn't till this year, at age 11, that she made a concerted attempt on Whitney - but only after I had seen how she fared on 13,000-foot Mt. Dana a few days earlier..

I have no doubts she would have summitted a couple of weeks ago if I had not called it off about a mile from the summit due to her pace slowing down after Trail Crest. She still had enough left in the tank, in my opinion, to get to the summit and back to Consultation Lake, but the day was getting away from us. We still had a tricky traverse over the snow chute to negotiate on the way back, and I wanted her with all of her faculties in place to avoid an overly-tired, 1600-foot mistake. I chose to err on the side of caution. She was POed and disappointed - pointing to the summit hut and saying, "It's right THERE dad!" - but that had faded away by the time we got back to camp. No regrets on my part.

Personally, I have a hard time seeing kids much younger than 8 or 9 attempting to go past Trail Camp. There are undoubtedly exceptions, like the 7 year-old who just summitted last week, but generally speaking many kids I've seen high on the trail the past 3 years have not looked like (1) they feel well, or (2) they are having any fun. Five year-olds hiking to Lone Pine Lake or Bighorn Park? Sure, if they can handle it. Taking a 10 month-old infant to the summit in a backpack carrier (like we saw a couple of weeks ago)? Insane and irresponsible. The kid can't tell you he/she has AMS till they're puking over your head, and by then it could be well-advanced. As a parent, I just don't get it.

My boyfriend and I spent Friday night at Trail Camp and hiked out Saturday morning...we did hear that a family with a kid made it out safe. Also, the only incident we've heard of so far is an older gentleman with hypothermia. But not sure if everyone is accounted for yet...

Interesting how a storm like this reveals the number of folks on the mountain that aren't ready to be on the mountain. We all start from scratch when it comes to learning about going into and coming out of mountains safely. It's amazing how much you can learn about equipment you'd need, dealing with weather, etc by reading or searching online. It's a shame more folks don't do so before they head into the Sierras.

Bulldog, LOL!

I've never had a single bar either... two trips in two years... then to my surprise some people were making calls home on AT&T when we summitted on the 21st! I had to borrow a cell phone and called my wife from the summit.

AND 7 year old Rosie 1n 1959

Hey frediver,

I can answer your post as I was in the group that called 911. The decision was made after a bit of discussion and after just having watched the young kid nearly slip over the edge of Lone Pine Creek as he hurtled across. We knew the creek at that time was unpassable. I was part of a group with four others - backpacking. We had all our gear though being soaked, my core was still dry due to my good rain coat and we talked about just hiking back up to find a place we could shelter for the night. The problem came with the 10+ other people stuck there around us, all of whom (if memory serves) were day hikers. At most, we had room to stuff 4 extra people in our tents, and two of our group had emergency space blankets. We could have kept people warm for a while but probably not all night. Especially since many of the day hikers were visibly shaking as shaking hard, and not prepared with the rain gear that the day required. We knew we were within a mile of the Portal, and were simply wanting to let someone know that there was a large group stranded. Our hope was that someone could come up the trail (which if I remember Lone Pine is the first main water crossing) so it shouldn't have been too bad a time. With a rope that we could secure to get across the creek, or that (as it did turn out) there was an alternate route down.

The kid who barely made it down, did make it to the Portal and that was what alerted them and what sent Miles racing up the mountain. I think all in all it was the right thing to do. Had we had the portal number or forest rangers or something we would have called that knowing they might have a better handle on the situation already, but we didn't.

-K

Kelli, had you known about the Old Trail you could've made it down to the Portal w/o a call to 911, but since you didn't, the group made the right call in calling first responders. I would've done the same.

Luis

Frediver,

You are right, you weren't there. I was with the group that called the Sheriff on 7.29.11.

Our intentions were to inform a party off the mountain about our situation. We simply called to tell them that we were with 15+ hikers that were stuck at the Lone Pine Creek crossing and most had appropriate clothing, food, shelter, etc but that there were 3 day hikers who were completely soaked through with no shelter or change of clothes. Myself and the other 4 I was with had decided to take them in if we needed to stay the night on the trail. We didn't expect rescue as most of us were prepared to stay the night, if needed.
As a SCUBA instructor and trained rescuer, I understand completely that you are always number one and before attempting any rescue, you must first assess the situation to see if you are even able to conduct the rescue. No one was late for work or expecting an immediate rescue. It was more of an informative call, especially after a young man had just run down the hill staing his father was "dying of hypothermia" and barely made it across the raging stream with no pack and one pole.

For the record, I had the following on my person:
-A full first aid kit including 2 space blankets
-Food for 2 people for 2 days
-32oz of water
-Jetboil stove with a large and full canister of fuel
-Completely dry clothing for 2 days as my pack was covered with a duck cover
-3 season tent
-Stormproof matches, emergency mirror and headlamp with 2 sets of extra batteries.

We were more than prepared for staying the night on the trail. Thank you for your obvious concern.

KelliD & jbashaw16, no need to justify your actions to anyone. I happen to know you weren't the only ones who called emergency services that day. I heard they got a call off from near the top as well.

I don't think any of us have the right to say calling 911 was not warranted in any particular situation unless we were there next to the person making the call. This was not just an average rainstorm people were dealing with and conditions changed quickly. Even if you were able to cross some water, it doesn't mean the people crossing it an hour or even 15 minutes later could have made it. If someone couldn't get down, and they didn't believe they could survive staying on the mountain (for whatever reason), their life was in danger.

Myself, I had a Spot Satellite GPS Messenger on me as did Mark in our emergency camp. We discussed if we should push the 911 button. We both agreed that we would not push it because 1) We believed we had the situation under control 2) We didn't think anyone could land a helicopter anywhere near us anyway - we turned out to be wrong about that 3) We didn't want to incur the cost of an expensive helicopter ride out of there when it wasn't absolutely essential for anyone's survival. If any of the victims had not responded well and we believed their life continued to be in danger, we would have pushed the button without hesitation. It was a judgement call that happened to work out in this instance.

I think we should also be careful not to project an elitist attitude that everyone in trouble that day was simply unprepared or that people with less experience than we have had no business on the mountain. How far should we take this? Are all victims of natural disasters simply unprepared? Of course not. Nobody has a crystal ball. If Parks and Recreation knew what this storm was going to be like, I'm sure they would have closed the trail before it hit. Should all hikers have a rain poncho? Yes. Should all day hikers be required to take a tent and a sleeping bag to the summit? I will probably at least take full provisions to Trail Camp from now on but I don't believe that should be imposed on everybody unilaterally.

Those who were not there really have no context for what this storm was like. This wasn't a typical summer shower. It was a massive storm. I have never seen anything like it before. 20-25 year hiking veterans have told me they have not been in anything like it before. When we got to the restaurant, we heard stories of hikers fresh off the trail with hypothermia symptoms that had to be stripped down and thrown in the shower. We were told they will be cleaning up trail damage for years as a result of this storm.

It is true a few people were unprepared or acted irresponsibly and a few panicked. However, let's remember to give people some credit. For the most part I think people were reasonably prepared for what they could have reasonably encountered that day on the trail. I think most people made reasonably good decisions under extremely difficult circumstances. Experience is the best teacher. My sons and I were basically prepared with everything we needed to be on the mountain but we made some mistakes in deciding what we would take with us to the summit. I take full responsibility for that. I made some mistakes and I learned from them. Luckily, nobody was hurt or died as a result of my learning experience.

As far as children being on the mountain goes... My personal feeling is children under 5 have no business anywhere near the summit. I'm not going to say how far they should go because each set of circumstances is different. However, I agree they probably shouldn't be beyond Trail Camp. We probably don't need to impose a new rule for this. We have more than enough rules already. Parents need to use their heads. Those who blatantly risk the safety of their children, should be prosecuted for child endangerment. The couple with the three kids under the age of 5 definitely and unnecessarily risked their children's lives. As has been said before, each kid is different. My 10-year-old son is an avid hiker. We live in a mountain community and he has been hiking his entire life at high altitude. I think for kids like him, who have training, a summit is OK but I wouldn't have taken him last year. Just my two cents...

Mike

I hiked up to LPL the afternoon of 7/23, my first hike of the week (left the TH ~3pm), just to begin acclimating. Coincidentally, I ran into Richard Piotrowski, who was headed down with Rick Graham, at the same time I was headed up. Richard and I hiked together in 2004 up as far as UBSL, where he continued to summit and I returned to the TH. It was good to see him again. I also ran into him and Rick again the following morning at breakfast at the Portal Store. I saw Laura's TOF on the side of the road near the Meysan Lake parking lot on my way up, I think the same day, and then saw it still there on the way down, but this time, she was sitting on the tailgate winding down from her hike. We both spotted (and recognized) each other instantly, and I pulled over, hugged her (and stepped on her toe -- darn!), having finally met her in person for the first time after a few years of MB, Facebook chat, and e-mail correspondence. Also saw her at the same breakfast with Richard the following morning. Not sure who left the note on her TOF, but it wasn't me.

As for shelving Whitney, I made it up various lower stages of both trails throughout the week, and since I had summitted before, I wasn't worried about it not happening this time. I did, however, do a couple of new hikes -- Horseshoe Meadow to the first Cottonwood Lake, and another day, Onion Valley up to Kearsarge Pass. Both were outstanding hikes, with beautiful scenery. On the Onion Valley hike, I began my hike with an older threesome (one lady, 59, and two gentlemen, 67 and probably early 70s). They left me in the dust! The 70s-guy was Dave Brown, if I recall, and the 67-y-o was [first name] Joy, who has known Bob Rockwell for years, and I think he said he also has been on the China Lake SAR team with him as well. The lady (didn't ever get her name, sorry), led the way. It was a pleasure meeting those three. But I'm getting way off topic here. 'Nuff for now.

Given the proximity of both of us to the store on 7/23, it's entirely possible we may have seen each other, but not recognized each other. As I was hiking during the week, I kept thinking what a good idea it would be if we could come up with some kind of suitable, inexpensive "Whitney Zone" t-shirt that would be instantly recognizable by those of us wearing them. Something to ponder during my copious free time....

CaT

It sounds like I stepped on lots of toes and all I can say is sorry.
You are right, I was not there.
IMO the posts following mine have touched in a sideways fashion
most of my thoughts on the subject.

Proper preparation and equipment to meet reasonable emergency needs.
Sharing/pooling of resources when necessary with others.
Recognizing when to call it quits and hunker down.
Realization that help is often more than a phone call away, often several hours or days. So wanting help and getting it are two different issues.
Or in other words will help arrive in time to Help or just Recover ? You Are on your own until the help you called arrives ?
And finally if you need to call 911 then call but that might not solve the issues at hand ! Calling 911 or pushing the 911 button starts a chain of events that you can not control.

Sorry
This has been a very informative thread.

frediver, I think we can all agree with everything you just said.

It was a tough situation and it caused some stress for lots of folks. Let's hope the next trip to Whitney goes better.

Mike

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Undoubtedly. Barb and I were mostly planted at one of the picnic tables by the store windows from 9 am till 9 pm that Saturday, while Brianne helped out Doug and Earlene in the store (for 12 straight hours during their busiest day of the season so far - maybe she's actually learning a work ethic). When Laura showed up Saturday evening, she was talking about several different things at once in her usual high-octane manner - I got the David/TOF/Trailhead piece, but there was also mention of a note left under her wipers. Guess I mistakenly mixed the two up. Glad you guys got to finally meet! We must have just missed each other that next Sunday morning, as we were there between 8:00 and 10:00 having breakfast with Laura, Chris, Richard, and Rick.

We also did Kearsarge Pass while we were there. Beautiful hike with lots of snow. It was our first acclimation hike after arriving the day before, and we went with Laura and Jim (sierragator) from the OV trailhead to the pass as they started out on a multi-day trek (10 planned for Laura and 4 for Jim). Those are two exceptionally strong, high-altitude hikers that I don't relish the thought of trying to keep up with, especially my first day out of the lowlands, but between my family's light daypacks and their heavy loads (Laura's pack was 65 pounds and Jim's @ 50), we managed to keep pace. Two years ago I did Cottonwood Lakes and Cottonwood Pass on consecutive acclimation days, and enjoyed those as well.

Glad CaT got to walk some native Cali trails!

Unbelievable! At ~3pm that Sat, I walked up to the store, filled my empty water bottles from the spigot outside the kitchen, waved "hi" to Doug, Sr., who was inside cooking, and took a gander at who was sitting around at the tables outside, all before my first stroll up and back to LPL. I'm pretty sure I may have walked into the store and probably saw Brianne working there, though I would not have known who she was. Amazing!


Even more unbelievable! I'm wracking my head trying to remember when I got up to the store on Sunday morning, but I'm pretty sure it was before 10:00 am, since I had breakfast on one of the outside picnic tables with the same 4 people you did! But I don't recall the time I arrived precisely. What an unfortunate miss!

I did Kearsarge Pass from the OV TH on Tue, 7/26. Awesome hike! Wonderful view at the pass! About 20 of us from a variety of smaller groups arrived at the pass during the same approx. one-hour period, and ended up talking, taking each others' pictures, etc. -- very fun!

As I understand how Laura's week went, you were very fortunate to have caught her that first day to go to Kearsarge Pass with her, since she caught some kind of cold about that time, and was sick pretty much the rest of that week, which aborted her planned BP trip for the same week (for which she had taken the week off of work, and ended up spending it sick). She recovered enough by Sat, 7/23 to do the Meysan Lake dayhike that day, and at the end of that dayhike was when I met up with her sitting on her TOF. Unfortunate for her (sick all week); good for you (got to hike with her). After talking with her for a while, her advice to me was along the lines of, "Get out of Lone Pine and don't be so fixated on Whitney". For at least a couple of days afterward, I took her advice, and was happy I did.

Glad I got to do some trailwalking also. Always an immense pleasure in those mountains, any time, any place.

CaT

Very creative!

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Iduzntgetit.......















I like it, 2! Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!

Assuming this is a serious comment (which I'm seriously reconsidering if it is ), "Zone" is for Whitney Zone and "14505" is for the summit elevation.

CaT

Here's an improved version from wagga:

CaT

I wuz bein' fasheeshist...

That would make a great pennant/flag, too!

I say let's make some rubber baby buggy bumper stickers!

Steve and wagga...fyi...that updated "zoner" is in the REI presentation for January

Okay back to the harrowing day trip 07-29-11!!!

Yes ... apologies for the very major off-topic digression.

CaT

The issue that still bothers me :
What happened to the family with the baby and two small children?
The last posted info was their car was still parked at the portal, does anyone have further info?

Re the design: the thing is, the elevation looks like a zip code, especially with the word "zone" there. So I like the concept, but this design may be a little confusing.

Re the family: I read on either this board or the other that (1) they had two small children plus a 10-month or 1 year old in a carrier (amazing to me); and (2) that they made it out, although no details were given. (I was concerned after reading about their rental car being there, and rangers asking about the family; someone did write that they heard the family made it out.)

I assume if the family hadn't made it out, it would have been a big national story so I am assuming (and hoping) they did actually make it out. I think in this case, no news is good news.

If anyone is interested, I found an article about Mark and his group of Scouts who helped so many on the trail that day: http://www.uniondemocrat.com/20110803104338/News/Local-News/Scouts-rescue-imperiled-hikers

Although some of the small facts are incorrect from my direct observations, it is still an interesting read.

Mike

That is a good article, Mike. Thanks for posting the link.

Maybe you can offer some commentary on the incorrect parts.

So glad they helped the freezing older man:
WAY TO GO, SCOUTS!

I certainly don't want to take anything away from these smart and brave Scouts or their leaders to whom many of us are indebted but there were a few inaccuracies in the story from my point of view.

I can't speak to the events that transpired at Trail camp but since the paper got quotes directly from Mr. Eslick who personally helped to old man with hypothermia, I assume that information is quite accurate. I also can't speak to any events that transpired below us (at Portal). Again, the story quoted Mr. Dearden who was an eye-witness and participated in those events and I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of that account. Unfortunately, the paper apparently didn't speak to an eye-witness of the events that occurred in our emergency camp and instead had to rely on second-hand accounts.



This is definitely not the case. While most of the day hikers I saw were caught without a rain poncho (mine was back at camp - dumb) and were definitely rain-soaked, most people got out of there as quickly as possible. I personally only saw two pairs of hikers who were "hunkered down." Both groups were above trail crest crouched under large rock outcroppings. I asked one group if they needed anything out of my first aid kit. They said they were fine and one of them just wanted to warm his hands. I also spoke with the other pair and they said they were fine and planning to ride the storm out and eventually continue to the summit. I don't know what ended up happening to any of these four individuals.



This is actually slightly understated from my point of view. I am guessing but I would estimate it rained off and on for approximately seven hours. The worst of it could have been described as four hours but it definitely rained longer than that where I was.



Mr. Dearden wasn't at our camp so he can only go based on the second-hand stories he heard. I spoke with him on the phone a couple of days ago. He is a very nice gentleman and I'm sure he tried to give the paper the very best information possible.

We had approximately 20 people at our emergency camp including Mark and myself. As far as I can recall, I was the only one wearing shorts and I didn't get hypothermia (probably because I was wearing a polar fleece jacket). I don't remember seeing any hikers wearing sneakers. We ended up with six tents of various sizes set up at this camp. Most of those tents had at least one victim. I can confirm Mark Houghton did stay up the entire night helping people. I know for sure because I was up all night helping him. I don't know how much sleep the others got that night. It was a pretty uncomfortable situation for everyone.



This may be dramatic retrospect on someone's part. I don't think Mr. Dearden made this up. I think he may have heard different stories from others and the facts simply got confused. There was a lot of close lightning but nothing struck that close to our camp while I was there and I was there when the first victims went into Mark & Reed's (the Scout he was with) tent.



I spoke with the old man's son. I believe his son said he was actually 75. Not that this is material to the story. These guys saved his life. I don't doubt that at all.


That is about it. It is interesting to me whenever I read a story in the paper about something of which I happen to have intimate knowledge. Almost without fail, the story is inaccurate or flawed in some way. It just goes to show you should be very careful about believing everything you hear or read in the news.

All that aside, the core of the story is true and these Scouts can and should be proud of their actions which no doubt saved lives on the mountain that day. I will be forever grateful to Mark and Reed for the help they provided to my group. We were definitely in trouble and they were able and willing to help. Without a doubt, they are heros.

Mike