Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Solo Whitney 7/11-7/12

After getting skunked in the draw last year this trip was two years in the making. Still it lived up to the hype.

I got out of the house at 9am on the 10th. Drove up to Beatty, NV and over through Death Valley, first unforeseen expense, $20 Death Valley week pass (no day passes).

I arrived at the visitor center at about 2pm to pick up my permit just as a downpour hit. Best rain I have seen in a long time. After getting my permit and wag bag, I proceed into town and check in at the Whitney Portal Hostel. After tax is $25/night, rooms are very nice, everything is clean. The free wifi has a few issues, probably from being overtaxed, but it was adequate.

I walked around town checking out the sporting goods stores. Joseph's supermarket takes AmEx, while the Pizza Factory does not, Lone Pine Sporting goods has a sign on the door saying they do, but no longer do.

Had dinner at Pizza Factory Saturday night, great food, but the air conditioning was lacking. Went to Jake's bar for afterwards, had a delicious Golden Trout Ale, neat atmosphere with all the dollar bills on the walls, and the map on the ceiling.

Went to bed early and got about two hours of sleep before a JMT thru hiker, Greg, showed up talked to him awhile. There were only three of us in the room that night.

I got up at 5am on Sunday. Showered and headed to portal. Cleaned out car, filled water bladder, put toiletries in the bear box, and went up to the portal store. Doug was just getting open when I got there so I had to wait a bit while the grill warmed up. I got the hubcap sized pancake, three sausage patties, and a cup of coffee for under $10. I was only able to get about half the pancake down. Going to write the show Man vs. Food and recommend the portal store.

Proceeding to the trail head I drop my pack on the scale, 32lbs, not bad with food and water I think. I then start hiking up trail. It's really a beautiful area, especially with all the waterfalls from the snow melt. Early river crossings were fairly trivial with trekking poles, though I did come across a group of three women at one crossing where I guess one of them had slipped in and had to wear sandals while her boots were drying out.

I just kept up my snail pace until I got to outpost camp. I looked up and saw dark clouds moving in so I decided I better stay there and not go on to trail camp (I later regretted this as it turned out to be a nice night and I hade further to walk on day 2). A couple of rangers were there cleaning up and one was nice enough to show me a couple campsites on the other side of the stream that were secluded.

After setting up camp I walked around a bit, visited with the other couple guys there and tried to keep active. I should have brought a book since it was a long time from dark and I got quite bored after a bit.

I had a great dinner, made Mt. House Green Beans, and Beef Stroganoff. These are quickly becoming camping favorites of mine. About that time (6pm) the mosquitoes reared their ugly heads in force. The picardin based sunscreen/bug repellent I brought only seems to have about a 30min protection against the mosquitoes I found out. I am thinking it might be because I was perspiring, but next time I am bringing a headnet or deet.

I slept pretty good, even though REI had rented me a short pad instead of the regular I had requested (did not find out until I set up camp, I should have checked it at store). I woke up to my alarm at 4am and made myself my premixed oatmeal. After filtering 6L of water and stuffing everything in my little day pack I hit the trail at 5am.

I made steady progress and was at trail camp by 7:30am where I rested and ate a spam single. Then I pressed on, starting up the switchbacks. At first it does not seem so bad and they come one right after the other. I stopped counting after about 33. The cable section has a nice cleared path now. There is a couple snow crossing switchbacks still though.

I reached Trail crest at 10:30am feeling pretty good, clouds were starting to roll in, while deciding wither or not to continue a ranger came up and urged me to go on. So I ate a cliff bar and pressed on. I am not a fan of the west side of the mountain, a lot of scree to climb which makes me nervous. Near the final ridge there is about 100yd section of snow to slush through. Then it's just an easy walk to the summit hut.

I reached the summit about 1pm just as it was starting to rain and hail. Changed into my rain gear in the hut, signed the register, took a couple photos and started down as I was beginning to hear thunder in the distance. I thought for sure I was going to be the last person to summit that day but I encountered a couple other people heading up on my way down.

Going down I started to feel fatigued, I ate my last Clif bar and just plugged away as best I could. Just before getting back to trail crest I saw a big fat Marmot inspecting some packs that had been left behind, fished out the camera for a few photos then continued to hike down.

After trail crest I was passed by a guy running down, he said the two ladies who had gone up after me were nervous coming down and to escort them to trail camp if they caught up to me. I was going really slow coming down and it was raining pretty much all the way back to trail camp. Soon all the switchbacks had water flowing over them. One snow covered part was icy, I ended up sliding down to the next one on my butt, only half on purpose. I quickly found my boots to be inadequate in both traction and waterproofing, they were slick and full of water, which really made my feet sore and slowed my decent.

I reached Trail Camp at 5pm, tired, wet, and hungry. One of the rangers was kind enough to give me a GU and three musketeers bar. This gave me enough energy to make it back to outpost camp by 8pm. I broke camp as fast as I could and started down with my headlamp lighting the way.
By 12:30pm I was back at the car. Disappointed to have missed out on a Mooseburger and the Hostel check in I tried to sleep in the car with no success and at 6:30am headed back up to the portal to buy my souvenirs when the store opened. Saw guys setting up for the Badwater Ultramarathon runners there. On the way down I passed the first couple runners at about 8am at Alabama Hills.

All the way back to Death Valley I was passing runners and their support vehicles. At noon I arrived at Badwater Basin and completed a high/low of the lower 48 within 24 hours. a quick stop in Beatty, NV to buy candy and I was back in Vegas by 3pm

Overall I had an enjoyable trip, though if I do it again I want someone to go with me and I would definitely want to camp at trail camp. I think I did well for my first time summiting a mountain, and being 40lbs overweight.

Photos: Jwolf24601's Whitney Photos

Brief Gear List
Cabela's Alaskan 1 external frame pack ~5lb
Coleman Cobra Tent ~5lb
Alps Mountaineering Clearwater 35 degree Sleeping Bag ~3lb
REI Short Trekker Pad ~1.5lb
Wild Ideas Bearikade Weekender ~1.5lb
Snow Peak 1400Ti cookset~0.5lb
MSR Windpro stove ~0.5lb

Equipment issues
Cabela's Featherweight Kangaroo Boots: Comfy and lightweight but not waterproof and the tread wore down quickly.
Driducks Rain Suit: Kept rain off me, but does not vent so sweated a lot, durability issue makes it disposable.
Sawyer Premium Sunblock with Insect Repellent: Claims of "Up to 8 hours insect repellent" not substantiated. Did not get sunburned so guess that part worked.

Congrats and great TR!

Question - why 6L of water from Outpost? Why not 1L and keep topping off? Then at Trail Camp fill up to 3L or so. Water is heavy....................DUG

Congratulations! Job well-done!

The highest and lowest in 24! Not bad at all!

All you gotta do now is...


Do it again!

Have fun.

Congratulations, JW! And nice trip report. I saw all the rain, and wondered how people were doing on the trail.

As for wifi access, the weather was killing the power numerous times, so that was probably the biggest factor. I've always had good results at the Hostel.

Your not making Trail Camp with the load might have saved you from experiencing worse altitude problems.

About the water: It might have lightened your load if you had taken a smaller amount, and refilled at the last water (at about switchback #9, I think) above Trail Camp. From that point, people take about 3 liters. Some people (including me) don't even filter it there.

I am not sure why I did that, for some reason it seemed like a good idea at the time. By the time I got to Trail camp I was thinking "Why the heck didn't I just bring the filter and 2L?"



I never once experienced any altitude issue, just lucky genetically I guess. Only issues I had was having to stop to let my heartrate slow down, and muscle fatigue.



Sad thing is I knew about that, but did not think of it at the time. There was actually water flowing all the way up to Trail Crest with the rain going on.

> I never once experienced any altitude issue...
> ...thing is I knew about that, but did not think of it at the time

I dunno.... I'd blame it on altitude, myself. 

I would blame it on altitude, but then what would I blame it on when I do the same type of thing here at 2000'? :P

Awesome accomplishment! Great TR it may have inspired me to submit a first ever for me TR. Good pics and vid clips as well. Looks like you had the summit to yourself for awhile. Bet many don't get to experience that.

I never get tired of looking at trail pics of the MMWT.Great TR and pics congrats. Cables look clear.

Repeat after me, the only mosquito repellent that works is DEET.

I learned this from using various things which did not.

I gotta agree 100% there - deet and only deet

JWolf, I didn't have a chance to read your full TR since I was busy in the Sierra and doing Whitney on the 14th/15th, but I just finished it - congrats on the summit! Great TR - enjoyed it a lot. Quillansculpture and I both had 32-pound packs as well when we started up on the 14th, and we had the same stroganoff dinner. I'm ambivalent about most of the backpacking pre-packaged meals, but the Backpacker's Pantry stroganoff isn't too bad.

Glad you ran into some helpful rangers on the mountain. For future DV reference, I've never paid to drive through the park when doing Vegas to Lone Pine and back, and I've never seen a ranger on the roads there, despite this being my favorite winter hiking/camping destination, and having been there probably a dozen times. Don't get me wrong - I always pay the fee when I use the park to hike or camp, but never driving through. It's kind of assumed that through-traffic ignores the fee-area signs - which I guess is why they have no entry gates anywhere.

Again, great TR and congrats on a fine trip, despite the weather.