Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion October 10th overnighter

We reached the summit! Just a quick update to thank everyone on the board for chiming in with help and answers. Special thanks to the Gary and Barb Hicks and John for loaning me some critical gear. The micro pikes were invaluable. My buddy and I signed the registry on the 10th in the middle of a pretty aggressive snow squall that caught us off guard. I would say there were between 3-6 inches dumped in the trail camp area before I left to head back down to the portal at 4 PM. I saw Brent along the way and hope he made it out safely as he was not carrying a tent. The summit was amazing. I am so very grateful for being able to experience this epic journey. It was more than I could stand, yet somehow I did...

Congratulations, Bob! That had to be an epic hike. We watched the web cam and practically never saw the peak all day, as it was shrouded in that dense cloud.

You will have to come back and do it again some day -- so you can enjoy the views from the summit. :)

Congratulations Bob! Glad you made the summit and got back down safely. Too bad you were denied the vistas from the summit, but I'm sure it was memorable being up there in a snow shower. We were watching the weather this week, knowing you we're up there, and it definitely looked ugly. Happy to hear my spikes now have a Whitney pedigree since I've never used them on that particular mountain. Hope you managed a burger and/or pancake. Looking forward to hearing all about it!

So, how was the summit libation?

Bob and Scott. Congrats. It was great fun meeting you both. We stayed at Outpost on Wednesday and headed up to Trail Camp on Thursday. Once at trail camp, we watched about 4 inches accumulate on our stuff fall in an hour. My tarp held up great in the snow. My sister's 3 season tent, not so much. It kept collapsing under the weight of the snow. Right about the time the lightning storm started, we headed down and were snowed on all the way past the portal. It's a bummer we didn't get to revist the peak, but we had a great time. The fall colors on the way up were extraordinary, and, of course, one of my favorite aspects of climbing is meeting people. I'm always amazed at how the jerks get weeded out at the lower elevations. All you are left with are good people who love the same things you do. Speaking of meeting people, we saw Rob from Crabtree and Laura from Tindall making their way down the main trail. They have closed up shop for the summer. (This was Rob's 20th summer.)

Another wonderful hike on Whitney.

Bob, what time did you summit and what time did you get back to the portal?

It looked like there was a lot of lightning up near trail camp as we were descending.

Brent N

Well done Bob. Was watching the Portal Store time lapse footage, wondering how much was coming down and where you guys might be on the trail. Glad you were able to summit. You got to see a beautiful side of Whitney a lot of people don't. Were there a lot of people on the trail?

John

Steve C, it was a weird weather pattern. We arrived on Tuesday night and it was beautiful in Lone Pine, Wednesday we had great weather for the hike, and then Thursday the skies opened up. I was really looking forward to some dramatic views from the highest peak in the lower 48 - however - the dense cloud cover almost made it feel more personal. I think it was great either way, and we DID actually manage to catch a few glimpses of brilliance to the west as the clouds parted ever so often.

Gary, I met Doug and actually got a picture with him but never had time to get food at the portal store, either on the way up the mountain or coming down. Also didn't do the bourbon at the peak. In spite of feeling really good at the summit (hungry as a horse), I thought the whole experience was beyond bourbon or dance parties or anything else. It was just quiet solitude as we were the only ones there and my buddy felt pretty exhausted. He chilled out in the hut while I walked around looking at the benchmarks and trying to catch some views between the clouds. Signing the register and writing my kids names down made for a pretty emotional moment. I put the bourbon away and enjoyed it at the hotel later on.

Brent, glad you got down safely. We were worried about you guys. When we got off the mountain we laid in the tent for 10 minutes recovering and the snow piled up against the tent very fast. We had 3 new inches of snow when we got done resting and the tracks to our tent were virtually gone. It was nearly impossible to pack up in the wind and driving snow. Everything was soaked to the core because the snow got into everything. I left trail camp at 4:10 pm and got to the portal at about 6:45 pm. Wondering how much snow was dumped on that area when everything was said and done...

On Thursday, we woke up at 3:30am and got on the switchbacks by 4:45am. We were the 5th and 6th hikers on the mountain. We made it to Trail Crest by dawn (7am) and then to the summit by about 10:20am. We hung out for a while and then left by 11am. We got back to trail camp by about 3pm. Packed up and out of there at 4:10pm, back to the portal by about 6:45pm. Just at dusk.

We heard thunder, saw lightning, had rain, sleet, snow, heavy snow, hail, etc. The precipitation stopped at around Outpost Camp, but was snow was on the ground until the John Muir Wilderness sign on the way down.

John, I think there were about 10 tents at Outpost Camp on the way up, a few groups coming down on Wednesday that were completing the JMT, and there were about 6 or 7 tents at Trail Camp when we got there at 4:30pm on Wednesday. We also saw several people that were doing dayhikes. So I think there were about 40-50 people on the mountain. I think we ran across every person that attempted the summit that day. 3 from outpost camp and 1 unknown that made it before us, then Johnathan and I, and then 4 dayhikers, and 2 more unknown. I know 3 of the dayhikers made it because they passed us on the way back down and we talked.

It's fun to recap, so maybe I'll do a trail report and dive into all the details.

Bob

Left Trail Camp at 4:10 and at the Portal at 6:30? Did you use a zipline? You were blazing. You really timed it exactly right, all things considered. I think we left trail camp after you and the winds and snow got heavier, and then there was the lightning. I was amazed at how quickly tracks got filled in. We went down about 40 minutes after another couple--their tracks were non-existent. I was extremely glad I brought up the gps. Particularly when we couldn't see more than 30 feet or so, it was our primary guide for the location of the trail on a couple of places.

Again, nice job. I'm so glad you guys got to summit. Hopefuly the whole Georgia contingent will come back again.

Brent

Brent, you are right, we were FLYING! A lot of things played into the rapid decent.

1. After summiting, we met a group of younger hikers heading toward the section with the windows. The first girl was wearing sneakers, sweatpants, a light jacket and a small pack. Her friends (guy and girl - all in the their 20s), were dressed a little more appropriately but still didn't look prepared for the weather. We actually warned other hikers arriving at Trail Camp as we were leaving that a small group of young hikers may be in trouble on the switchbacks because the snow had arrived so suddenly. Anyway... The amazing thing was that they left THE PORTAL at a little after 4am and were about to summit by about 11:15am or so. We applauded them for their speed! My buddy and I thought we were a little slow on the way up to the summit so we wanted to make up for lost time on the decent. I think we did. But shortly after packing up at trail camp and heading for the car, the same group of younger people came up on us quick. They had summitted and were heading back for the car too. They had so much steam as they hiked, it's still incredible to me. To estimate that they were hiking at 4 mph would not be an exaggeration. In the white out! I can remember the lighting and thunder and trying to stay up with them as a group as we went down. There were places where the "kids" in their SNEAKERS were leaping through the snow, running, dancing from rock to rock... It was too much for us and we let them get out of reach by outpost camp. They were robots, cyborgs! They had taken 2 Diamox pills each, not sure if that had something to do with it. They all drove multiple hours to whitney, and they were all heading back home after the hike. They reached the bottom at least one hour before we did, which puts their entire time on the mountain at about 14 hours. They were hiking machines. I want to say we reached Lone Pine Lake by 5:30 thanks to their pace setting through the blizzard. It couldn't comprehend their speed. My buddy and I are still talking about it. We still hiked fast from Lone Pine Lake to the portal but it still took us about an hour and 15 minutes.

2. We had to drive to Vegas right after the hike so we wanted to make it their at a reasonable hour.

3. We rushed to try and get below the snow line but that didn't really happen until somewhere around the John Muir Wilderness sign.

Yeah, I am very thankful to have summited even if the experience wasn't typical. Can't really imagine any two hikes on Whitney being the same.

And that, my new friend, is why we keep coming back. She is different and wonderful every time, and she never fails to deliver a surprise.

Brent N.