6 people reached the top of Mt Whitney and back down this past weekend, starting Saturday, July 18 and ending Sunday July 19, 2015.
The group consisted of 5 men and 1 women aged 30 to 31. The experience level varied: one guy had never been on an overnight hiking expedition while another guy was part of a mountaineering search and rescue team. Of the group, two people had been on the Mountaineer's route in 2011 and one of those two people made it to the top. All members of the group had above average fitness and all were prepared mentally and in regards to equipment.
Group started from Whitney Portal at 11:45am on Saturday. Each carried 25lb to 35lb of weight. Clear day, hot, and no wind. Reached Upper Boy Scout Lake at 3:45pm. Weather started to get cloudy towards the end. Started raining at 5:45pm. We were in our tents for bed at 6pm. Rain and wind grew pretty intense (we heard it was snowing and a white out on iceberg lake at that time), but died down by 8pm.
We woke up at 1:10am on Sunday and began the summit push at 2:35am. On the way to iceburg lake, we got lost a couple of times which cost us about 30 mins of extra time. We reached iceberg lake at 4:35am and took a 15 min break. Began up the gully at 4:50am. It was bright enough to get rid of our headlamps a little after 5am. Temperatures dropped while we were in the gully, winds picked up a little bit, and it began snowing for a period. We reached the notch at 7:30am and took a break. Left for summit via the "easy-walk off route" at about 8:15am and reached summit a little after 9am. The chute/final 400 gave us pause given the weather as the rocks seemed too slick. The top was cloudy unfortunately.
Descended at 9:50pm, reached Upper boy scout lake at 2:15pm. On the way it rained and sleeted during stretches of time. Left UBSL at 3:45pm and reached the trailhead at 7:45pm (got lost twice between UBSL and LBSL for about 15 mins each). On the way it rained during stretches of time.
Great trip overall. Just wish we had better weather and didn't get lost at all, but minor challenges when it comes to what our team was able to accomplish!
