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Temporarily stranded on Whitney
#51408 08/05/17 08:33 AM
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 25
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Joe Offline OP
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Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 25
Just wondering if anyone encountered this group on Whitney the night of Wednesday, August 2.
Here's the story....
My wife and I headed up to Trail Camp on August 2. We pitched our tent, ate dinner and then sacked out. It was overcast when I first went to sleep and a few short hours later the rain woke me up. It rained for quite awhile and I fell back asleep.
Around 12 midnight, I saw a bright light through our tent and then heard in a woman's voice, "Is anyone awake?"
We opened the tent and there was a woman alone, cold and soaking wet from the rain.
Long story short, she told us she and a friend of hers decided to do the hike in one day, started in the middle of the night, summited around 2pm and got lost just before Trail Crest and the switchbacks (after summiting). She told us that she was actually off the trail and in some large boulders when fortunately another hiker saw her and helped her to get back on the trail.
She separated from her friend who apparently was much slower and made her way down the switchbacks to Trail Camp.
We let her in our tent to get out of the weather and she was with us for maybe 45 minutes. My wife offered her a snack and asked if she wanted to stay inside with us till morning or until her friends came down.
She seemed a bit out of it asking us if the parking lot was nearby. She also appeared a bit confused and wanted to build a fire.
After about 30 minutes, she insisted on getting out of our tent and chose to sit under a rock while waiting for her friends.
That was the last we saw of her.
When her friends did arrive, I could hear their dialogue and they fully planned on heading down ASAP. In short order, the three of them left around 2am, in the rain, cold and in the dark after hiking most of the night and all day, soaking wet and headed to the portal. They had no tent, no sleeping bags...nothing.
I'm assuming they made it back safely since I've heard nothing otherwise but was just wondering if anyone else encountered them that night.
Again, it was the night of August 2 going into the morning of August 3.

Re: Temporarily stranded on Whitney
Joe #51409 08/05/17 08:56 AM
Joined: Oct 2009
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It took them 10 hours to reach Trail Crest after summiting? That's 2.5 miles from the summit!? eek

I assume the rain complicated matters for all of them, but 2pm is plenty of daylight and given the sun does not set around 8pm that 6 hours of good daylight.

Could also be that the rain clouds hovered at 13000 feet which will resemble pea soup fog for us sea level devils. That could disorient any hiker up there. One wrong turn and...

Bad case of AMS.


Journey well...
Re: Temporarily stranded on Whitney
+ @ti2d #51413 08/05/17 09:57 AM
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 908
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"She separated from her friend who apparently was much slower".

A constantly repeating story. Didn't she give a darn about her friend? This kind of thing is what keeps SAR teams busy.

How many times does it have to be repeated? Don't get separated!

Re: Temporarily stranded on Whitney
+ @ti2d #51433 08/06/17 07:04 AM
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 25
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Joe Offline OP
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Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 25
She summited at 2pm and arrived at our tent at midnight,
10 hours from summit to Trail Camp with most of that time probably lost.


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