My friends and I had been talking about doing Whitney for the past two years and planning for the past year. Put in for over night and day permits and unfortunately was unsuccessful on the overnight lottery, but scored day permits. On August 5th, I arrived in Lone Pine, a day earlier then my hiking crew, to get aquainted with the area. My crew arrived the next day and camped at the Whitney Portal Camp Ground, site #44. Very nice site next to the river with no one else around. On Thursday, Aug. 7th, we decided to hike to Lone Pine Lake for our warm up hike and spend some time at 10,000 feet to acclimate.
Friday, Aug. 8th was our big day. We arose at 2AM, gathered our gear, drove the one mile to the Portal parking area and hit the trail by 3AM. It was a beautiful clear night sky with a lot of stars. We covered the 3 miles to Lone Pine Lake in 1.5 hours. By Sunrise, we were above Big Horn Park and Mirror Lake. We made it to trail camp by 7:30 or 4.5 hrs. We felt pretty good so far and decided to take a break to refill our hydration packs and eat. By 8:30 we were on the "99" switch backs. Nearing the cable area we started feeling the altitude and slowing down significantly. It seemed we were stopping to catch our breather every 3 to 4 switch backs. By 11:30 we finally made it to Trail Crest. Great! 2 more miles to the summit, shouldn't take us to much longer right?? WRONG!!! Those last two miles took 3 hours. The lack of oxygen at that altitude really slowed us down. Felt great but couldn't seem to get enough air. Finally we summitted at 2:30, signed the register, took some photos, and began our decent. The weather was building fast at that point and we high tailed it down to Trail Camp from the summit in 2.5 hours. The rest of the way down was uneventful and we made it back to the Portal by 9:30PM. After nearly 19 hours of hiking our bodies were beat, but succeeded in our goal.
It's now been 3 days since, and my legs are still a little rubbery, but my body is recoverying nicely. I had heard from others that it took every ounce of their being to summit in a day. I can't say it did for me but came very close. The greater challenge was overcoming the extreme mental challenge, especially when the lack of oxygen at higher elevations became an issue. Looking back, I am very thankful to have been so fortunate to summit on my first attempt and blessed with the physical ability to complete such a daunting task!
