For those of you reading these posts and contemplating hiking the summit, all I can say is you can do it! It takes training and the ability to dig deep to put one foot moving forward.
So in May of this year, after my mom and my wife's mom passed away within two weeks of each other, my wife asked me if I would help her and train for a Mt. Whitney hike. I am not sure if it was a bit or mortality or just for her to focus on something else, but I said sure. We are mid-50's and in pretty good shape, but have never hiked so high and haven't been backpacking/hiking on nearly 25 years.
We started out slowly and built up to where we were doing hikes one canyon north and one canyon south of Whitney in the weeks leading up to our summit. These hikes included Onion Valley to Kearsarge Pass and Horseshoe Meadow to Muir Lake.
Now for the trip report. I called the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitors Center on Thursday before Labor Day at around 4:00 PM. They told me that there were indeed unused permits for overnight hikes. They suggested I be at the Center at 8:00 for the lottery (remember we got this idea in May, so we did not have permits). Packed up the car and drove from San Diego and stayed in Ridgecrest (1 hour south of Lone Pine). In the morning we were #8 out of 12 for the lottery, but we got our permit!
10:00 AM we hit the trail. Our plan was to make it to Trail Camp that day. Felt really strong on the way. The trail above Mirror Lake was quite tough and rocky underfoot. We definitely miscalculated on how long it would take us to get to trail camp. We were on trail for nearly 8 hours and decided to camp at a really nice flat area about 15 minutes short of trail camp. It was just us so it was quiet. We did take a hikers advice (he said there was a great place ahead to fill water and that the lake at Trail Camp was a little funky) and filled up on water about 10 minutes previously when we crossed the creek.
The next day up at 6:00 AM eat, pack the packs and head to Trail Camp. Filled up on water, the lake had little algae in it but not bad, and started our hike with our daypacks, food, and each having 4.5 liters of water and Gatorade. It was hat and glove weather on the 99 switchbacks. On the way we picked up a hiking buddy. He was a solo day hiker who was a little younger than us, but definitely not in the best shape of his life. This was his 5th or 6th Whitney hike. He had summited a few times before. We passed him, we took a break and he passed us. We caught up to each other when we were having PB&J's at 13,600 feet at Trail Crest. He was very knowledgeable and he sorta entertained my wife and made the time go more quickly.
We summited at 2:30 on 8-31-14. We spent maybe 30 minutes at the summit. Back down and getting back to Trail Camp at 7:00 PM. Ten hours is a long time to be walking. Set up camp and both of us were exhausted and not in the least hungry. We crashed at 8:15 without eating.
We were hungry the next morning. It took us 6.5 hours to go from Trail Camp to the Portal. Best cheeseburger and fries in my life! However no beers as we were taking Diamox.
Some observations:
If you have never done this, drink lots of water and make sure you are getting your electrolytes. On my first warm-up hike at 12,000' I got dehydrated because I was not forcing myself to drink.
You have to eat. The combination of the altitude and working so hard makes eating a real chore as nothing tastes good. WE had gorp, homemade jerky, chocolate, cliff bars and it all tasted bad. The PB&J on pita was ok.
Diamox worked for us. We never felt anything because of the altitude.
Hiking poles are a must for uphill and downhill's...indispensable
Put your slowest hiker first. I had my wife (5' tall) lead. She set a good pace and I never rushed her.
Good luck on your hike. As I said in the beginning anyone can do this with hard work. We passed a 7 and 9 year old on the trail that had just summited!!
Last edited by Steve C; 09/11/14 11:20 PM. Reason: fixed curly quotes, etc
