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TR: up MR down JMT, Sept. 7
#48367 09/09/16 02:45 AM
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 43
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Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 43
My husband and I (mid and late 50's) had a fantastic day on Whitney. I wanted to start at daylight, and was concerned about a parking spot. We arrived at the Portal a little after 5:30 and there were still places available near the trail head.

I was also concerned about route finding, but it ended up being no problem at all. The trail to LBSL is excellent. After that we lost the trail a couple times, but each time we found it again within a minute or 2. If you do your research and know which landmarks to look for, it's quite straight forward. I used Doug's descriptions, along with a photo of the route below the 2 big boulders above LBSL up to the saddle above Clyde meadow.

Getting past the water seeps below Iceberg lake was awkward, lots of scree and choss. Definitely take the gully to the left of the main gully above Iceberg lake. It goes pretty high, I think to the start of the East Buttress route. But from there it's easy to get back to the gully below the notch, which is nasty and chossy, you will be glad to have missed a lot of it. It was also the most fun and solid scrambling of the route, imo.

The start of the final 400 is obvious, there are about 5 rocks at the bottom. There are about 2 moves at the start that we found to be straightforward and not hard at all (and I'm on on the side). After that we moved left, but there are also areas that can be walked. Those looked a bit slippery, so I stayed to the left, but dh went more to the middle. Right near the top is a huge, obvious boulder, and we went right under it, and a couple more moves, up we were.

One good thing about starting late, after 6, was that there were only 4 other people on the summit. We had the most amazing weather and spent almost 1.5 hours on top.

We walked down the long way. It's an easy trail to descend. It must be mentally, as well as physically, hard to go up the switchbacks in the daylight, as a dayhike on the JMT. My hat's off to those doing the 22 miles round trip in a day.

The MR route is beautiful. We saw some cool grouse type birds right near the trail, as well as deer. The area around LBSC is stunning.

A most fantastic day for us.

In case anyone is interested:

Training: during 5 months prior to leaving, we hiked approx. 4 short hikes (5-8 miles), 6 medium hikes (10-14) miles, and 2 18 mile hikes. We hike mainly inthe High Peaks region of the Adirondacks in N.Y. state. These are difficult hikes, even the short ones. There are no switchbacks in the daks. There are no lovely dirt or sandy trails, but they are full of rocks, mud, tree routes, and require constant attention. Hands are often needed. Our last 18 mile hike was 5 weeks before Whitney, and the last medium hike was 3 weeks before. I wanted our legs to be well rested.

Acclimitization once in California (road trip!):

Sentinel Dome, Yosemite, 8100 ft, 2.2 miles
Lembert Dome, Yosemite, 9400 ft, 2 miles
Dessert at Saddlebag Lake Resort, 10,000 ft (awesome pie, a bit expensive)
Gaylor Peak, Yosemite, 11,000 ft., 2 miles
Lunch at Tioga Pass Resort, 9,600 ft, decent chili, ordinary burger
Mono Pass, near Mosquito Flats, 12,000 ft, 7 miles, but very easy
Rest day, hang out for an hour at South Lake near Bishop, 10,000 ft.
2nd rest day, visit Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest on way to Lone Pine, 10,000 ft, do the short, but very beautiful 1 mile trail.

We also slept 3 nights at 9,300 ft, and took Diamox.

We had absolutely no altitude issues. Of course, there was a lot of heavy breathing up high, and we got slower as we got higher, but we felt fabulous the whole day and were able to enjoy ourselves immensely.

One last word on hydration and eating. Everyone always stresses about drinking a lot, electrolytes, and eating a lot. This is highly individual. I went through 4 liters of water, running out near outlet camp on the way down. Dh still had water left, so I didn't have to refill. Dh drank about 2 liters of a water and juice mix the whole day. No adverse effects.

I ate 2 large chocolate chip cookies on the way up, 1 sandwich and chips at the top, and 1 Gu on the way down. Dh had a granola bar on the way up, 1/2 sandwich and a cookie at the top and nothing on the way down. We had a small breakfast before leaving. All this to say, everyone is different and needs are different. We are very experienced hikers, have done a lot of long dayhikes over the years, so we know what works for us. We didn't find our day to be difficult at all, which made it all that much more enjoyable.

K

Re: TR: up MR down JMT, Sept. 7
kmcboogie #48368 09/09/16 06:36 AM
Joined: Nov 2009
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Thank you for an excellent report. Every MR aspirant ought to follow a training schedule similar to the one you used; there might be fewer failures (and possibly fewer rescues) on Mt. Whitney. You were obviously well prepared and made the right decisions.

And...you're in your fifties! An inspiration!

Last edited by Bob West; 09/09/16 06:37 AM.
Re: TR: up MR down JMT, Sept. 7
kmcboogie #48369 09/09/16 08:41 AM
Joined: Aug 2016
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Great trip report, congratulations.

What times did you summit and exit the trail?

Re: TR: up MR down JMT, Sept. 7
mike2016 #48375 09/09/16 10:14 PM
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 43
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Posts: 43
We weren't the fastest on the route, mainly because dh is a photography nut and has an SLR which stays in his pack. So every time he wants to take a photo (which is often), I take the camera out for him, and put it back. Sometimes he'll walk with it in his hands, but it depends on the terrain, and scenery. So we stopped often for photos. We summitted around 2 p.m., left the summit around 3:30, and got back to the car by 9. We used our headtorches from Outlet Camp on, and it was no problem at all. Even ran into (not literally) a bunch of deer in the dark on the way down. I would have liked to see the scenery that we missed...next time!

When we hike trails from home that we've done often, we don't tend to stop much or at all until we get to the summit.

We found our 18 mile training hikes more difficult than Whitney, mainly because the terrain in the Adirondacks can be exhausting to travel over, since you have to pay attention all the time to the trail and where you're placing your feet. Also our pace was faster during the training hikes than the relaxing pace, with lots of photo stops, that we had on Whitney. However, there are no scree slopes on the Adirondack trails, and of course, no altitude issues.


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