Intro: If you want to skip the background info, and why this was so significant, go to the bolded header, "This is where the story gets good."
Thought I'd share some thoughts about a recent trip I took up the mountain earlier this week...
My friend and I decided to thru-hike the High Sierra Trail, a ~70 mile stretch of b-e-a-utiful trail that spans from Crescent Meadows in Sequoia all the way to the Trail Crest of Mt. Whitney.
We had originally planned on doing the hike in 8 days (a departure from the normal 7 days that people usually take to complete the hike) in order to compensate for snowy conditions that we might encounter doing this hike so early in the season. Although we did encounter a fair bit of snow coming up and over Kaweah Gap, we actually found about 4 days into our trip that we were making great progress, so the extra day may have been unnecessary.
Well, we get into day 5 of the trip and hit our lowest elevation yet, at under 8,000'. Upon hitting the Kern River, we have to travel ~10 miles north to get to Junction Meadow, where we would spend the night. In those 10 miles, the weather went from about 80 degrees to 30 and snowing. We nervously made the necessary arrangements for the night and went to bed.
When we awoke, it was still snowing at 8,000', and we had about an inch of snow on the ground. This was nothing major for 8,000', but we were worried that we would be summiting Whitney in two days, and the ridges up at 14,000' may have been hit much worse.
So we began what would have originally been an ~8 mile hike from Junction Meadow to Crabtree Meadow while it was still snowing, spirits low. The snow abated at about noon where we were, but there were still a lot of ominous clouds in the distance. Fortunately, day 6 also marked the first time we ran into anyone else on the whole trip: PCT Thru-Hikers, right when we hoped we would see them (within 5 minutes of hitting the PCT). They were able to give us a weather forecast that the storm we had experienced the previous night was only going to be a small one, and the weather was expected to be clear and sunny the next day.
This was a huge relief because before we left on our trip, the forecast was that we would have beautiful weather all week. Having a storm roll in really made us nervous because we didn't know if it was only going to last a day, or the entire week. Seeing the PCT-ers really gave us a bit of relief.
When we heard that there was going to be nice weather the next day, my friend and I discussed our plans again, and we decided that instead of spending the night at Crabtree Meadow, and then the following night at Guitar Lake (using the 3 mile stretch in between to acclimate), we would instead skip the acclimatization day, and spend the current night at Guitar Lake, and head for Whitney Portal early the next morning.
Essentially, we were skipping an acclimatization day in favor of heading up the mountain if we had a shot at fair weather, weighing the risks of a storm coming in against the effects of the altitude. Our trip turned from 8 days to 7.
THIS IS WHERE THE STORY GETS GOOD.
We got into Guitar Lake that night around 4 PM, and we had decided to start cooking an early dinner and laying out the food we would be eating for our alpine ascent up Whitney, assuming the nice weather would hold.
Minutes away from going to bed after a huge carbo-loading feast, we hear someone shout at us in the distance. This struck us as strange because the only people (and traces of people) we had seen literally all week were the very first NOBO PCT thruhikers we had seen earlier that day about 3 miles and 1,500' from the trail we were on.
Coming off the side of the scree field to the north (in the direction of Arctic Lake) was a lone hiker, who appeared very frantic and confused. He was wearing a huge mountaineering jacket, and the back of his pants were frayed and ripped.
Without introducing himself or anything, he asked us rather frantically which way it was to Whitney Portal. Immediately, I had realized what had happened.
Before answering his question, I introduced myself and had him sit down. I then cautiously explained to him that Whitney Portal was in fact on the OTHER side of the mountain, miles and miles away... and not to mention, Mt. Whitney was between him and Portal.
He wanted to know what trail he could take that would get him back, and although the JMT was right next to our campsite and it was less than 3 miles to Trail Crest, I insisted that he stay the night or at least allow us to get him food/water before he made any decisions.
After convincing him to stay, he told us his story.
Apparently, he was a day-tripper who had made quite the commute to get to Whitney and was excited to climb it, as he had conquered many other 14ers in the Colorado area. He had checked the weather for Lone Pine that morning, and it said 70 degrees and a little overcast, but decided to pursue the Mountaineer's Route regardless.
While ascending, he got caught in what I assume was the same storm that we were caught in that morning. He was on the route amidst heavy snowfall, and when he got to the top, there were 70 mph winds (which was later verified by a SAR crew who had to escort another climber down the next day), very little visibility, and he could not find the way he took to reach the top.
Lost on the summit of Whitney and with a fear of the exposure of staying up there for an extended time, he decided to make an emergency descent down the mountain. Obviously, he chose the wrong direction to head down, and after falling on some 3rd-class during his down-climb, he encountered us at Guitar Lake.
This is lucky for a number of reasons. 1. Originally, we were planning to camp at Crabtree Meadow. It was only a spur of the moment decision that we decided to book it to Guitar Lake. 2. We were one of the first groups of the season (from our best estimates) to camp at Guitar Lake. We saw only one pair of footprints before ours, and those belonged to an Alex Zinda (a PCT thru-hiker we had met earlier that day, currently at the front of the pack as far as NOBO PCT-ers go). Whether or not there were a number of people before him, we don't know. Alex reported not seeing any recent signs of people when he was there, and we only saw signs of Alex.
Essentially, the fact that we happened to be at Guitar Lake and find him was very lucky. The lost mountaineer's plan was to continue in the direction he had headed and toward the Kern River to find the Portal.
After hearing his story, we made him a HUGE dinner and started boiling liters of water to place in Nalgenes that would go in his jacket to give him some extra warmth throughout the night. We assembled all the extra layers we had (pads, trashbags, jackets, etc.), and tried to insulate him for the night ahead of us.
We boiled several liters of water throughout the night to keep him warm, but when we awoke for our ascent back over Trail Crest at 3:45 AM, he was still REALLY cold. He was having a hard time getting his shivering under control, and so we hypo-wrapped him and prepared him a huge breakfast/more hot water bottles in the morning.
Longgggg story short, he ended up CHARGING back up and over Trail Crest and we all hiked down to Portal together (a funny image, two younger guys in really light gear, and a much older mountaineer in tattered clothing and tons of gear). Thank you's and numbers were exchanged, and he was incredibly generous when we reached the bottom.
THE LESSON OF THE STORY IS THIS.
It is NOT SUMMER on Mt. Whitney, and you can't treat a day-trip like a walk in the park. When you're in the mountains, things can and will change, oftentimes for the worst. Be prepared, because if we weren't, it would have been very difficult for him to have survived the night. BRING NAVIGATIONAL TOOLS AND KNOW HOW TO USE THEM. Even if you're on the trail, conditions can change, and suddenly the trail may not be visible. If our friend had something as simple as a compass, he could have saved himself a day's worth of travel and a much greater amount of risk in quite literally two seconds.
Don't be dumb. Bring appropriate gear, and more importantly, know how to use it.
Lemme know if you have questions!
