This being my first time climbing Mt Whitney and even in the general area, please forgive any newbie comments.
Well, I originally ended up with permits for August 2nd, 4th, and 23rd (my lottery winning date). August 2nd was my preferred date (which is why I grabbed it after already having the other two dates).
As the 2nd approached, the weather reports were looking bad for the 2nd and the 3rd. As the week went on, the weather for the 4th through the 6th was looking to be the better choice.
So canceled the 2nd permit and took a couple more days off work and prepared for the 4th. The good news is that this would give me more time to acclimatize to the higher elevations. For the 2nd, I was only going to have a night sleeping at Mammoth Lakes and a day at Whitney Portal to get used to the higher elevation. With the 4th, I’d have 3 days to get acclimatized.
So ended up going through Yosemite on August 1st and doing some hiking in Tuolumne Meadows. Was just getting down from the top of Lembert Dome when the hail started. Yes, HAIL. It was a pretty strong downpour of hail and rain as well. So cut that hiking a bit short and headed down to Whitney Portal. By the look of the weather all the way down highway 395, there was a lot of rain and bad weather all up and down the Sierra Nevada mountains. My choice to skip the 2nd was looking like a good one.
Driving up to the Portal, I saw the ‘wall’ I’d have to get over to get up from the Portal. I was literally dropping bricks at the sight, but that might have been the Diamox I was taking to acclimatize.
Even seeing photos beforehand and having gone over the maps didn’t quite prepare myself for seeing what looked like an impassible wall surrounding the Portal area. I had expected the much discussed and documented 97 switchbacks to the Summit, but somehow didn’t really envision this first 2,000 feet being as steep as it looked. I couldn’t even figure out where the trail was as first. And the Mountaineer’s route was even scarier to look at.
I had snagged a campsite at the Portal campground for 3 nights in late July (someone must have cancelled it). It was nice knowing I’d have a spot to camp in before arriving. So set up my tent and slept at 8,000 feet for the first night.
The next day I went over to Horseshoe Meadows and did a 5-mile hike at 10,000 feet. Despite the elevation, it was getting quite hot up there by mid-day. As it turned out, the 2nd really wasn’t bad weather after all.
Since I had time in the afternoon, I did something really touristy and campy… I went to Badwater in Death Valley so I could say I went from 282 feet BELOW sea level to 14,508 feet ABOVE sea level in the space of 3 days (even if I cheated by driving between -282 and 8,000 feet in an air conditioned car).
Even though I had the campsite at the portal, I decided I needed a real bed for one of the nights heading into my hike, so got a hotel room in Lone Pine. Splurged on the Comfort Inn and got a GREAT view of the sunset and sunrise over Mt Whitney and the surrounding mountains (except for the bloody power poles that marred the pictures
). Although the sunrise was a bit hazy from forest fire smoke blowing through the area (more on that later).
Took the short hike to the Mobius arch in the Alabama Hills on the way back to the Portal, where I spent most of the day relaxing and doing a little hiking around the portal area. Kept the hikes short, since I knew the next 2-3 days would be very strenuous.
August 4th. Woke up around 4am or 4:30am, had a quick French Toast breakfast and broke camp and headed up to the trailhead. Got real lucky and found a parking spot right near the trailhead, as well as space in a nearby bear box for my food and beverages left over from my camping. I had worried that I’d have to circle a few times to find these.
Started the hike around 5:30am without anyone else in sight. My pack weighted 45 pounds according to the scale at the trailhead. Since it weighed 37 pounds when I was packing it with all the same items, I wonder how accurate the trailhead scale actually is. Or maybe my scale at home is wrong. If my home scale is wrong, I’m impressed I could handle 45 pounds.
Had some great sunrise views to the east and some great lighting spread across the mountains as I climbed up from the Portal. Despite the dread at my initial sight of this first 2,000 feet of the trail, it wasn’t that bad after all. Probably why it doesn’t get discussed that much in descriptions of the trail.
I did keep seeing a Mt Whitney that looked a little too close.
I started to call this formation that sort of looked like my destination ‘Mini Whitney’.
Got up to Lone Pine Lake and did a little rest at the shore. This was about the time I really started noticing the smoke smell and haze in the air. Based on what other hikers coming down from the summit were saying, the haze was there most of the previous day and was all the way to the summit. With the lower oxygen at the summit already a challenge for breathing, adding smoke in the air could cause further breathing problems. Not to mention it could affect the view.
As I continued on, I did see 2-3 deer along the trail before reaching Bighorn Meadow and the waterfall. What a lovely area. I can see why people like camping at Outpost Camp on the way up. I had the pleasure of seeing the real Mt Whitney towering over the meadow and then reflected in Mirror Lake.
Continuing up the middle 2,000 feet of the trail, the gentler slope of this part made it almost easy. Almost. Took rests when I felt I had to and definitely didn’t break any speed records.
Since my 2 Gatorade bottles were empty and my Camebak was probably low too, I filled up at the creek below Trail Camp. Went through 5.5 liters on the way up to that point.
Fortunately, it seemed the winds changed and the smoke smell and haze started to clear by this time. That gave me some hope that the next day would be clear of the smoke and haze for my summit attempt.
As I approached Consultation Lake, I saw the ‘trail’ I’d have to take if I was going to see the lake close up from the east shore. Needless to say, if I had still planned to go there I would have changed my mind at seeing this approach. May not be a lot of elevation gain/loss to take it, but definitely more than I wanted to experience during this hike.
Nearing the shelves overhanging the lake where I was considering camping, I got a good look at the lake anyway. After seeing the lake and finding the campsites hidden over the ridge from the Whitney Trail, I decided to continue onto Trail Camp to see how crowded it was and what the view was like. It wouldn’t have been a big deal to go back to the ledges over the lake.
But when I got to Trail Camp it didn’t seem that crowded and I even found a nice spot up on the top tier of sites that was pretty private. And it gave me a sweeping view of the whole area. From the 97 switchbacks and long ridgeline that I’d have to tackle the next day to reach the summit of Mt Whitney, to the trail I had just climbed, it was a view worth seeing for the next two nights.
So setup my tent, rehydrated my dinner, and enjoyed the sunset before turning in for the night.
I know some people get up very early to try to get to the summit by sunrise, but being my first time I wasn’t that confident of doing that hike in the dark. At least on Mt Fuji, there were a lot of people around that you could see the way up to the summit using their lights as guides. Around 5am, I only saw a few lights heading up the switchbacks.
So I had breakfast and saw the sunrise from my camp. And it was spectacular! Can’t even imagine camping anywhere else along the trail now.
Then I had a choice.
Part of me wanted to take my sleeping bag and pad to the summit to sleep in the hut in order to see the sunrise and sunset.
Part of me worried that would add too much weight to my pack and cause me to fail in getting to the summit at all.
I decided to forgo the extra weight and headed up the 97 switchbacks hopefully with as little weight as possible to make the summit possible.
Those 97 switchbacks are hard to even see from Trail Camp, which made them all the more daunting. 1,700 feet later, I reached Trail Crest and celebrated… before seeing the trail along the backside of the ridge that I’d have to negotiate.
I had been thinking of removing my fleece pants and taking off my down jacket as I approached the Trail Crest since the sun was starting to heat things up, but a very cold wind was blowing in from the west that I was now directly in the path of. And the trail along the backside of the ridge was mostly in shadow further reducing the temperature. The pants and jacket would stay on.
On the hike along the ridgeline, I saw the source of the smoke from the forest fire near Sequoia National Park to the south. Fortunately, it looked like the wind wasn’t blowing it towards the summit or me, so hopefully wouldn’t affect my hike.
While the remaining trail to the summit wasn’t particularly challenging or steep, the elevation and prior 4,000 feet I had to climb for the past day and half started to take their toll. But I took it slow and steady and reached the summit a little after noon.
Spectacular!!
Did the usual things: Took pictures of myself at the summit, in front of the hut, and standing over the benchmarkers (there were at least 6 of them as far as I could see). And a lot of pictures of the scenery surrounding the summit. I curse digital cameras sometimes… I end up taking way too many pictures since I know they won’t cost me anything to develop. Out of the 2,300 photos I took, I found 500 that I consider the ‘highlights’, 1,500 that were good, and 300 that were bad (blurry, pure black attempts at night pictures, or pictures of the ground).
Was up there about 2 hours. Was considering just layering up and spending the night in the hut, but started to get dizzy and worried that the altitude was starting to get to me. I really wasn’t getting any headaches, nausea, and had no problems drinking or eating at the summit, so that was really the only symptoms that the altitude might have been affecting me at that point.
So without the dizziness I might have toughed out the night, but I decided to play it safe and descend back to Trial Camp after a couple hours enjoying the summit. Reaching the summit was the goal and I feel that was a huge achievement for me, the sunset/sunrise from the summit would have been nice, but not worth risking my life on at that point. Next time, for sure.
The fact that some dark clouds were starting to move in also led me to that decision. Even if it didn’t start to rain (or even worse, start thundering and lightning), the view could have been marred by the clouds anyway.
So played it safe and descended to Trail Camp. After a brief rest there, I decided that another night at Trail Camp would be best instead of heading down to the Portal right away (I would have ended up finishing the hike well after dark).
The sunset and sunrise from Trial Camp was not as good as the previous night/morning, so maybe the view from the summit wouldn’t have been as good as it could have been (I’m probably wrong, but let me imagine I made the right decision
).
Enjoyed the views on the way down and celebrated my achievement with a victory pose at the trailhead and with a burger at the Portal Store.
Scale had my gear at 30 pounds after the hike, so lost some 15 pounds in water, Gatorade, and food during the hike. Assuming the scale was accurate in the first place, of course.
All the best photos from my Mt Whitney hike:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wanderingjim/sets/72157656992097965 All of my other Mt Whitney Photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wanderingjim/sets/72157656604018699 Thanks to everyone here who helped me plan this hike. I don't think I would have made it without the info and suggestions I got here.
