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Mt. Whitney trip report for July 21, 2013
#32481 07/29/13 02:03 PM
Joined: Jul 2013
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Myself and three buddies arrived at the Portal on Sunday July 21st at 11:30 AM for a two night hike to the summit. Yes, I know we got a rather late start, but our plan was to only go to Outpost, spend the night and then summit in the morning with our daypacks. It was a sunny day and the temperature at the Portal was 84 degrees with a slight breeze. We sweated quite a bit on our hike up, but a cooling breeze provided some relief. The trail was in good shape and our spirits were high.
We arrived at Outpost at 2:30, feeling good and still with energy. After a brief discussion, we decided to go on to Trail Camp. After all, what is there to do in Outpost but relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery? We were stoked about the whole thing and wanted to continue.
So we trudged on to make the 2000 ft ascent to Trail Camp. It was grueling, very strenuous and took almost 3 hours to go the two miles. Nevertheless, we arrived at the camp at around 5:30 and proceeded to set up our tents. By this time the sky to the east had taken on a black, threatening look. We were all moving in slow motion and were easily winded by the altitude. We secured our tents, using stakes and big rocks at the corners.
After a dinner of freeze-dried gourmet food, we prepared for darkness. The wall of black clouds from the east by this time was looming over us. As the last vestiges of daylight concluded, rain began to fall. We all ducked into our tents. In short order, the rain was literally pounding down with lightening and thundering moving ever closer in our direction.
I was amazed at the ferocity of the storm and the volume of rain falling down. Being somewhat OCD, I kept checking the seams on my Cabela's backpacker tent with my headlamp, convinced that no tent could stay dry under such an onslaught. Two of my friends had good quality North Face tents and the other had a Hi-Tech tent that was very budget. We occasionally called out to each other to see if everyone was okay and dry. Everyone was hanging on. As the rain continued, I stayed optimistic, remembering what a returning backpacker had told us on the way up - "yes, it rained last night at Trail Camp, but only for ten minutes." My optimism faded as the rain pounded and the lightening and thunder kept getting closer. I tried to remember (but couldn't) the equation for determining the distance of lightening. At its closest the thunder crashed just two seconds away. (post-hike I checked - the equation is to count how many seconds from lightening to thunder, then divide by 5). This means that the lightening came within 0.4 mile of our camp. The walls of my tent literally quivered when the thunder crashed closest. I occasionally looked out my tent flap and I could see a steady stream of water flowing by. The floor of my tent felt like a water bed.
We all hung on as best we could and the rain eventually let up after two hours. I fell into a good sleep.
Around 2 AM I was awakened by urgent voices outside: "completely wet - had to move - cold, but I can hang on." We arose at 6:00 AM and the rain had stopped. Around us there were several people huddling in space blankets, apparently their tents had failed and they were staying warm until daylight so they could hike down. Next to us I heard an older man lecturing a young guy - "you came up here with a tarp, unprepared for rain, knocked on my tent at 1:00 AM asking for shelter, I didn't sleep all night, now I'm exhausted and I have to go down, and you're telling me you're going to summit?" The young dolt replied "sorry I ruined your hike man, what can I say?"
Meanwhile, close by two middle aged women were packing up their gear to head down after a miserable, wet night. Apparently they had pitched their tent in a bowl-like depression just off the right side of the trail and it had turned into a small pond which they had to evacuate in the middle of the night.
As for us, my friend (with the Hi-Tech tent) had some water at the foot of his tent, but the rest of us stayed dry. Due to the adverse conditions and lengthy preparations, we did not go up the 99 switchbacks until 7:30. Our ascent went smooth, and as before when I hiked Whitney last year, the switchbacks did not seem as bad as described. The condition of the trail was very good with no ice on the cables. However, there were numerous parts of the trail where water was cascading down, but easily passable.
We reached Trail Crest tired, but eager to continue. The skies were blue, but there were more clouds coming in from the east. When we got to the summit it was well past noon. Clouds were swirling around us, but there was no thunder or rain. We stayed at the summit for 20 minutes or so, gasping and trying to eat and drink. After a few more quick photos, we headed down to Trail Camp. On the way down it began to rain so we donned our rain gear. Rain was light though and stopped by the time we reached camp.
Fortunately, there was no thunder or lightening.
We made a decision to break camp and go back to the Portal, as a ranger advised us that the night was likely to be a repeat of the previous night. It took over an hour to eat, drink some coffee and take down and pack our wet gear. We headed for the Portal at 4:30 PM. The hike down was tough for the 2 miles to Outpost. Our knees, hips and backs took a beating from the step downs from rock to rock. Each step was a chore. We persevered at a fairly fast clip and arrived at the Portal at around 8:30 PM, just as it was becoming too dark to see the trail anymore without our headlamps. What an adventure!

Some takeaways from our hike:

*3 out of the 4 of us used Diamox 250 mg twice a day to avoid Acute Mountain Sickness. We started it 36 hours before our hike. Who can say if it actually worked? None of us got AMS. Those of us who took the Diamox had side effects of tingling fingers, food tasting bad and beer having a weird taste in Lone Pine a day prior to the hike.
*One of us ran out of water on the way to the summit. He had a full camel-back and had no idea that he was drinking so much. Those of us with Nalgene bottles returned with at least a half liter of water. So the disadvantage of a Camel Back is that you can drink at will and run out of water, because you have no idea what your ration is.
*Yes, there are people who apparently do not check the weather forecast and are unprepared. They then must rely on others to help them. The man and his son next to us had his hike ruined because he was up all night with no room to sleep due to the guy next to him needing his help. I believe that if this happens to me in the future, I will offer a space blanket and tell him tough it out (unless conditions are so bad as to endanger his life.) Though there was a lot of rain that night, it wasn't that cold and no one would be in danger of dying.
*It really is worth it to have quality, field-tested gear by a reputable manufacturer. The cheap stuff is alluring due to price, but it can really cost you to rely on this stuff.
*Trekking poles are an absolute must on trails that require a lot of step-up and step-down, to save your knees and back.
*Don't assume a hotel room will be available in Lone Pine if you arrive late. When we started looking at 10:00 PM, after a good meal, we found that every room in town was taken. Turns out they were shooting an Acura commercial in the Alabama Hills. And, there were a lot of Euros in town. We finally got a good room at the Mt. Williamson Motel in Independence. Very nice folks and a very clean, comfortable motel with a free, home-cooked breakfast.

Last edited by chac mool; 07/29/13 02:06 PM.
Re: Mt. Whitney trip report for July 21, 2013
chac mool #32484 07/29/13 03:49 PM
Joined: Sep 2009
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Awesome report! and really awesome weather. Glad you guys were able to stay dry and make it up the next day.

We need to add your report to the "What can go wrong on Whitney" links. Nothing went wrong for you, ...but those others -- Wow!


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