Last week I took a friend - Gary - for his first trip to the Sierras. Gary had trained hard and was pumped for his first climb up the Main Whitney Trail. We arrived late Wednesday night in Lone Pine and we were at the permit office at 8 am sharp on Thursday the 15th to score permits. Permits in hand, we were out of the office by 8:15 and off to the Portal. Although I flunked out of the Lottery this year, I've been lucky enough to pick up permits the day of the hike in both June and September.
We arrived at the Portal at about 9:00 am and hit the trail around 9:30. The goal was to make Trail Camp around 3:00 p.m. Although the week had been stormy, there were some signs it might clear by Friday. We were a little uncertain what Thursday night would hold but decided to try our luck at Trail Camp as opposed to Outpost Camp so that we would have a shorter trip up and back on summit day.
The day was sunny and warm but not hot. The water levels at the North Fork crossing and the log crossing short of Long Pine Lake looked like they were back to normal after what I saw in June. After reading about the July deluge and seeing pictures of the destruction it caused, I was surprised at the good condition of the trail. I could see many places where it had been repaired and many kudos for those responsible. At Bighorn Park, we stopped for "the purest water on the planet" (thanks Bob R!!) which is always one of the highlights of the trip for me. I was hoping the meadow would have turned into its Fall colors but it looked like that might be a week or two away.
By the time we hit Trail Camp, afternoon clouds had come in over the crest and we quickly set up camp and ate dinner expecting some weather. Thankfully it never came. We had very little rain and some wind but the storms held off all night.
I was a little disappointed in the condition of Trail Camp. There were a couple of spots where people "did their business" and left it unwagged. In one case, it was no more than 20 feet from the pond. In the future, I think I will look for alternative camps during the summer months.
Sunrise on Friday came at about 6 am. As usual the alpenglow was beautiful. The day dawned sunny and fortunately stayed that way all day. We hit the trail at about 7:30 with a goal of summiting by noon. The switchbacks were clear despite the weather during the week. Although it was obvious that it had snowed above 13,000 feet, the snow on the trail had melted and did not pose any problem. There were only a couple of spots short of Trail Crest that posed any traction issues and they were easily navigable.
Once we hit Trail Crest, the wind picked up on the trail through the windows but dropped off once we hit the summit. There was noticeably more snow on the trail but it was still easy to traverse with care and attention. There is a small snow field left from last winter on the final climb to the summit plateau and some people were using mircro spikes to help with traction.
There were about 20-25 people on the summit around noon on Friday. People were relaxing on the granite beach, celebrating their climbs and taking in the amazing views. With low winds, the temperature was a warm 40 and was very comfortable.
As usual, the highlight of the trip for me was meeting and chatting with everyone on the trail. I ran into several people who were finishing up the JMT (on my bucket list) and everyone of them was on cloud nine making me exceedingly jealous to go off the grid for 2-3 weeks. Met one couple that had hiked the JMT as a detour during their trip from France to New Zealand and he hiked the entire trail in flip flops - I still can't wrap my mind around that.
We left the summit at about 1 pm and stopped at Trail Camp to pack up our camp. Made it back down by 7 only to find out I had lost my SPOT on the trip down. The next morning I came back to the Portal on a hunch and sure enough someone had returned my SPOT to the store and Doug had it at the counter. Many thanks to the person responsible for that good deed!!
In short, a perfect Fall climb and a great chance for Gary to see the mountain at its best.
Here are a couple of pics -
The Granite Beach
The JMT in flip flops...
Here is the
Smug Mug Link with the rest of the pictures.
Mike
