Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports One spot to go play in the snow open..

Hiking Whitney the 11th.
I have 3 day permit for two people but my buddy flaked out.
I got crampons and the ice ax but I've never used them.
Have lots of my own backpacking gear and plan to take it slow.
Will gladly turn around if conditions exceed my newb snow climbing abilities, but I have been backpacking high sierras on and off for 15 years during summer conditions so I do have some high altitude experience. I'm 30y/o and very fit and ready to give this a shot.

Will bring back pictures. Anyone want to go with me or take my second spot? I guess I'm trying to go up alone first time.
Reading up all the info I can. I think I might be well prepared! I'll be showing up in town on the 10th for my permits and wagbags and I guess going up to the portal and trying to acclimate some the first night.
Thanks for the great website!

Wow what an amazing 48 hours!
Whitney is no joke! Huge respect for those that can do it n a day!

Will get my report up soon.
You guys prefer lots or few pictures?

My story is somewhat interesting despite only having made Trail Camp with my 55lb pack. lol

I'm proud I went that far with no training! I'm stronger than I give myself credit for!

Also took some video footage explaining why I left trail camp and showing me walking around in Crampons and the beautiful scenery. Will get all my media up shortly.

As many pics as you want -- in your post here, just provide a link to the site you post them to (if other than our own photo forum, i.e., Flickr, Smugmug, etc.), so folks can access them and view either all or some of them as they choose.

CaT

55 pounds! You had a heavy pack. The more experience you get, the lighter your pack will be.

Looking forward to seeing lots of pictures.

OK here goes.
You guys might think I'm crazy but maybe some of you will learn from me or something. I learned lots here and on my first Whitney trip.

If I did something stupid or wrong, I didn't mean too!
It happens while we all learn. Go easy on me. hehe.

Hopefully my post fits this forum's format.
Let's give it a shot!

Dang, what can I say about "Whitney"!

I could probably write a book about it but I would surely
say I'm much too inexperienced for that. I'll start with this
post for now. I will be posting this on multiple forums
I visit so forgive me if the format is not all cross compatible.
I'm also writing this without a spell checker so bear with me.

Let me start by telling you a bit about myself.
I'm a 6'6" tall basically healthy non smoking individual.
I have been cigarette free for two years as of Aug 9th 2011.
This made a major difference between older trips when I did
smoke cigarettes and now when I don't!

I have backpacked to 12,500 feet before with my uncle at the age
of 9-12 or so. We stayed at Coyote Lake behind Edison Lake in the
Western side of the Sierras for two weeks at a time living
on fish and rice. We've done twin lakes and I've done several
other camping experiments around home and around the local lakes and towns.

I have backpacked to Treasure Lakes in the
Little Lakes Valley with my 55lb pack no problems.
One or two of the people in the group with us got altitude
sickness that trip but I was fine as I was the prior trips
with my uncle. On these trips with 55lb packs we planned to stay a while as I did at Whitney this trip.

I frequently fish San Bernardino and the Santa Ana River.
I also fish some creeks to the west side.
I get my waders on, get on my knees in the water and go up for miles trekking for amazing trouts amongst the crazy terrain.
Rain or shine, even snow.

None of the above could be comparable to the amount of
energy required to backpack Mt. Whitney in the snow without
recent previous training. This was without a doubt one of
hardest things I have ever tried to attempt in my life.

Mt Whitney "Kicked my ass"!
..and strangely enough, I feel like I have to go back and do it
again. They aren't joking when they say people can die here and
do. But for some reason the feeling of being self sufficient in
such situations is alluring!

I have always been the pictures sort of guy.
I won't remember your name until the next time I meet you
but I will remember your face the instant I see it.
In that sense, I'm going to let the pictures do a lot
of the rest of the talking, and narrate the captions.

So let's start up the road in Lone Pine, Ca.
My ride parked me at the Visitors center to grab my permits
and WagBag.




Fairly straight forward.
I have been through to Bishop many times and was
anxious for it to finally be my turn to make a left at Portal

Road. The drive up to the portal at 3pm on the 10th was pleasant.
There was even a very light snow coming down.




The first thing my ride says when I got dropped off is "can I go
home now"?! DOH! I thought they were gonna stay the night with
me there! I thought wrong and shoulda known I can't expect
my ride to want to stay with me in the woods overnight for no
reason! Mistake #1. haha

My ride left me at the portal on the 10th and my departure date was set do be the 11th.

I'm a man, I can handle it right? I know how to camp and fish
and live in the woods. No problem!
I dawned the nice new gaitors that I had picked up in
Lone Pine on the way up. These things were LIFESAVERS on the trip.
Never had a piece of rock or snow in my boots the entire time.
No wet socks period while walking through 2" deep puddles in places.
Amazing how gear preparation can help!


So here I am sitting at the table in the picknick area all by
myself waiting for Yogi and BooBoo to roll up asking for snacks.




What else is there to do but start on the trail at 3:30 in the
afternoon! First thing I do when I get to the trailhead is
read all the info and weigh my pack. 55lbs! Oh nos!
We can do this anyways no problem right! On we go.


First few switchbacks and all is good and beautiful.


Got some water at the mountaineer route split.


This picture is titled "Someday"


Up I went, rapidly gaining elevation and adjusting to the pace.
I had to make it to Lone Pine lake before nightfall.


There was some fair sized fish in this crossing


Finally just as the sun was setting behind the mountains for the night I made it to Lone Pine Lake and set up camp after filtering
some water and catching one small rainbow trout on my fly rod
with a home tied stimulator fly.
The lake water conditions here were stained.






Fly fishing at night with no glasses on! Scary!


a blurry picture of a Lone Pine Lake Rainbow Trout


Dead tired from the rush up the hill with the huge pack before
dark, I fired up the alcohol pepsi can stove and made some
cup-o-noodle.


Alpineglow @ Lone Pine Lake

Camp


Moleskin, to patch up the blisters on my feet and hips.
From not training with that heavy pack, of course.. and rushing
up the hill! But really, this stuff makes blisters vanish.


Foot repair


Hip repair


Quick check of the map shows I still have a ways to go!


Ground temp that morning was only 40* when I woke up.
I also use this tool for water temp to help tell what the fish might be doing.


Bear can was stashed on a cliff like I always do.
I always have a bell taped to it too, so I hear is somebody
gets to it during the night. If anything breathes on it I would know.


So I packed up camp and said my Goodbye to Lone Pine Lake.
Chances are I won't be back that way very soon as with most
places I manage to escape to.


Up I went.


Thanks to whitneyzone, I actually found a trail marker.
I chuckled.


After a bunch of huffin' and puffin',
I got a nice turn around shot of Lone Pine Lake.


The trail started to get frosty.
No crampons at this point yet.


I think this is Bighorn Meadow?
Just behind it was Outpost Camp that I flew right by...


...after which I went up this.


...and arrived at a place I had been waiting to stop.
Mirror Lake! Woot! Great place. Crystal clear water and awesome fishing! I caught and released the fish unharmed!










Brookies! I love Brook Char.
I caught about 5-6 fish in very short order. lol
You could see them swimming around out there, cast to them, and
they would bite! Wide Open fishing. Home tied flies, of course.








One of the fish bit me back! I deserved it!

Then I tied into a nicer model. Beauty!




This one had really bright colors.




My work was overseen by Mr. Blue Jay.
He wanted to make sure all the fish got back unharmed.


The fish probably did more harm to me and my fly than I did to them!


Fill up time.


Then back on the road! On up the creek to Trailside Meadow.
I think I took out the crampons about here to gain practice.
Perhaps a bit early.


Beautiful Mirror Lake below me now.


Stunning views.


Falling on my butt in ice with a 55lb pack didn't sound so good, so I put those on.


(insert video here)

Still in high spirits. I headed up into the ice above the treeline.






"The Mount Whitney Trail"


Finally, Trailside Meadow.


I got lost for about 2 minutes just above Trailside Meadow and then found the trail again quickly.


That was a pretty tough valley to ascend!


Rounding the crest to Consultation Lake.
Beautiful! I'm sorry I didn't get to fish it this time.




Here is what it looks like when you used too much energy
hightailing it up to Trail Camp with a huge pack.
Regardless of trying to acclimate a nite at
Lone Pine Lake, I got Altitude Sickness along with a complete
loss of energy. I felt nausea but never threw up.
I felt disoriented also, like "what am I doing and why am I here?" Almost just as soon as I had those feelings, they went
away. They would come and go every five minutes or so.


I decided to take a nap there at Trail Camp and wait it out.
I could see hikers going by up the summit and the sun was coming down. This is how it looked after I awoke from my nap at 12,000.

I'm just realizing how bad I'm feeling and how much energy I lost.
It finally caught up to me. I tried to stand up a few times
and got a big "head rush" or "blacked out" and fell back
on my butt catching myself with my hands and a giggle.
I know now for sure my summit attempt is gone. I get a bit bummed
at this but I figure I can try again next year as long as I can
get down. Then my thoughts turned to getting down in this condition!

That was surely going to be a challenge. As it turns out,
the challenge of the trip. I decided to stay the night
and see if I could improve.


A group of guys showed up and cheered me up a bit.
I forgot their names as I'm bad with those, remember?! hehe
They said it sounded like I should head down too from what
I explained to them.


I scraped up all the energy I could to melt some snow and make
mountain house beef stew and hot chocolate.
I couldn't eat, I gave the beef stew away to one of the guys.
I could barely drink the hot chocolate. I just went back to bed.
I kept feeling like I was gonna barf but never did.




Moonrise


Here's my emergency solar panel.
I was able to use it to charge my iphone.
I was able to send a text to my ride back down south
to come and get me because I was having AMS bouts and had to
hike down the hill.


Trail Camp was kinda chilly in the morning.
I bundled up and waited for the sun to rise before packing up
camp. In the Sierras, the sun is your savior, as I learned
at a very young age.


I had visitors rip a hole in my tent during the night while I
was asleep because they needed to borrow some of my toilet paper.
My bear can was outside. I don't know why else they came in!


Here is how the views from Trail Camp looked while I was bumming
out about having to leave. I could see Trail Crest and the Chute
and was so bummed my chance was blown.










Here was another little guy who cheered me up in the morning
while packing up camp.




(insert coming down video here)

Than I began the long hike back down which was crazy hard
like coming down always is but very fast.


I never had to get out my ice ax but I could see there are places
some would want to because of some pretty dangerous 400' drops
just around Trail Crest and below, let alone above!
I have a feeling a good majority of people aren't using
the gear they should be back there.

Water stop at Trailside Meadow on the way back down.
Finally starting to feel a tiny bit better, but the hike down
is about to take it's toll on me for a second time, little
did I know.


Down, down, down I went. What seemed like longer than going up but wasn't.


I Think I got better views coming down?!


Also got worse pack rash from the continuous foot pounding
downhill chug. I could fel my legs beginning to weaken and
even heard one of my knees pop at one point!


More water on the outlet of Mirror Lake.
Starting to feel OK about now.


Almost down to the meadow.


Deserted Outpost Camp.


Flyin' down to Lone Pine Lake again.


At this point, I could just about see the parking lot and cars and roads. I started hightailing it. If I didn't have the hiking poles I would have fallen 20 times instead of the once I slipped on my butt and brushed it off with no injury.

I stopped for some water at North Fork Lone Pine Creek just before
finishing the trail. When I got back down to the parking lot,
my ride was waiting for me (thank goodness!). I collapsed into
the truck and almost immediately began to feel extremely
terrible like I did at 12,000' again!
It was a massive amount of over energy consumption.
I had dipped below my energy conservation levels twice between
Monday and Wednesday and had still somehow made it back to the truck. I was still feeling terrible!
I was however proud of myself for making it to Trail Camp with
all that weight. If I had friends with me and this happened,
I would have been able to self-sustain at Trail Camp for
another day or two without being a burden while they summit.
I am happy with myself for this.


Those famous Hamburgers at the Whitney Portal stand are
as much of a serious thing as the Whitney trail.
Highly recommended. This thing returned my energy to
my body within a half hour. However, it did not
fix the soreness I am encountering the next day.


I can barely, and I mean BARELY walk right now. That knee that
made a popping noise is black and blue and I have lots of
blisters. I even had a small bout of sickness like up on the hill
this morning at home the next day while well down at 1600' elevation.

This hike is no joke at all. It's all straight up.
There is maybe 1/4 mile total of flat area and the rest is all
climbing, just as my friends and favorite sites have all told
me it was going to be. I didn't make it this time, but I am
glad that I went (now that the sickness has gone lol).
Something is telling me I have to come back and try again one
day with a bit less in my pack, take a bit more time, move a bit slower and enjoy it a little more.
It was kind-of intense and a rush, this first time around.
A smack in the face of reality, if you will!

Luckily I enjoyed it, had a good time, and the worst injury
I received was a bite from the fish, some sore legs and an AMS hangover.
I'll be back again someday next year to try again, muh deery!




That was surely the hardest thing I have ever tried to do in my life.

-Casey, out.

Videos











Feel free to repost the pics and videos anywhere you feel fit.

Nice pictures!

55 lb backpack is serious overkill though, I can't imagine how you even got that much. Since you don't need to bring water, it should be entirely possible to keep it under 30.

And I'm not so sure that you had AMS. Your rate of ascent sounds too slow for that. I'd think of plain and simple exhaustion and hypoglycemia after spending 3 nights on the mountain. You need to load on carbs before the trip, and you need to force yourself to eat as you go.

Ah yes, much learned.

By the time I weighed my pack, my ride had left.
I knew I was in for it. lol
I had brought extra extra clothes for being warm and even storm clothing for in case all hell broke loose.
I didn't want to count on the weather man.

The funny thing is I didn't really feel like I pushed myself all that much. Then all the sudden when I went to break at Trail Camp it felt like a brick wall hit me.

I learned how to intake water and food better on the way down to drastically help improve how I felt, but even at the bottom it still seemed to zap me dry of energy.

Really amazing mountain. I have much to learn. Thanks for the input!

Marathoners actually call that "hitting the wall".

As far as the heavy packs..

That's something my uncle got me started on.
When we used to backpack when I was younger, we would go and stay in the Western Sierra back country for two weeks at a time.
We got all the hard hiking done in one day and stayed at Margaret(sp) Lakes the rest of the time to relax and rest up.
Of course I was younger and he would load my pack down and I'd bounce around like a rubber bouncy ball not even noticing the extra weight.

Every time I go to the Eastern Sierras I end up not needing half the stuff and staying less than half the time. We used to actually use all that stuff during those longer missions.
There's no way I need that much for this hike.

I'll have to adjust the way I do things back there for sure.

Casey, thanks for sharing your great trip. I am glad to see somebody knows how to catch those fish!

It is pretty clear to me that you had a classic case of AMS. There are several things you can do next time.

1. Since you are so susceptible, get a prescription for Diamox (Acetazolamide), and start taking it (in small doses 62.5 or 125 mg) twice a day, a day before you start at altitude. It doesn't prevent AMS, but it helps. Try it for a day at home to see if you have any bad side effects (Do NOT take larger doses!)

2. Carry a lighter pack. You should be able to get it down to 30 lbs. The exhaustion makes the AMS worse!

3. Make SURE you drink lots of water -- at least a pint an hour. At altitude, most people don't feel thirsty and don't drink enough. If you aren't peeing every few hours, or if it is extra yellow, you aren't drinking enough. (By the way, I don't filter the water -- most of it is just fine to drink.)

4. Acclimate way more. One night at Lone Pine lake just gets the AMS started. That is not acclimating. You should spend two nights at Horseshoe Meadows. Or since you are a good fisherman, drive up to the end of the road at Rock Creek (near Crowley Lake, hike in several miles (easy hiking) and fish during the day. Head back to the car and sleep overnight. Here's a map of the area: Ruby Lake

Many thanks for the input!
Sorry for the horrible editing!

I have been humbled by the mountain. I can feel it in my bones!