My friend and I will be taking our sons up the MR on Wednesday the 19th. If you see me, say hi....looks like there will be a few others on the MR.
I'll be in LP on Monday, staying at the Hostel on Tuesday night.
Unfortunately, Gary isn't coming because of emergency work duties. It's heartbreaking for him and this will be the first time I haven't done it with him in the last 3 years... So, Gary, I'm really gonna miss you and your family, Barb and Bri.
You will be with me brother, and me with you
Joe

I'm wishing you the best of luck and a successful hike, Joe.

I almost signed on to join you guys, but now I am planning on a backpack trans-sierra starting 9/3, with a Whitney exit 9/8.

Steve:

You doing the HST or a variant?

Wishing you all the best, Joe - text me from the top! Yeah, it's tough missing Whitney this year, but I'll be with you in spirit. Maybe DV in November if things break right.

Have a pancake for me!

If I shout "hi" from Cottonwood Lakes on the 29th, or possibly Langley on the 30th, do you think my voice will carry?

:)

Every spoken word travels into infinite space, so I will be listening :-).... and if it's God's plan, he'll send the breeze my way to hear. Thanks....

And if it's not God's plan, you can get Family Radio Service units & chat at prearranged times/frequencies.

Salty:
It's the HST variation:  HST to Kaweah Gap, then NE into Nine Lakes Basin.  Over Pants Pass, down the Kern-Kaweah to Junction Meadow, up to Wallace creek & the JMT.  Wallace Lake if I am still strong, otherwise out to Trail Crest.  Most of it is completely new to me -- Looking forward to it.

Joe, I answered your "One last MR advice" question.  Sure hope you make it all the way on that trip!!!

I am bringing my iPhone up Langley, with solar charger and trip-specific apps, including a peak-identification app and gps-enabled topo and terrain maps for the area (downloaded so no 3G needed), plus the kindle app for reading during downtime. Plus, of course, the phone and music function (so I could possibly just telephone Joe to cheer him on). I'll see if this techie stuff adds to or subtracts from the experience....

Too bad carrier pigeons are out of style. I wonder what kind of altitude they can handle...

Looking forward to the next installment of the Joe & DJ Adventures.

Do you need a wake up call to make sure you are up early enough on the 29th?

Bummer Gary can't make it. It was great running into you last July. Have a great hike.

Joe, have fun. Wish Gary and I were there.

John

Spoke with Joe earlier today, and they managed to snag 5 of the last 6 day permits available for tomorrow during this morning's lottery. So if catpappy and I had been out there, the group would have been one permit short. That would have been a fun discussion in the IA Center parking lot - draw straws to see who does Langley solo?

Anyway, they plan to launch at 5:00 tomorrow. A little late for my taste, but Joe doesn't want to cross the E-ledges in the dark with the boys. Having had to roust Joe out of his tent on several occasions at 12K', I can assure you that he is positively allergic to O'dark-thirty wake-ups, so maybe they'll really hit the trail by sunrise . . .

I've gotta admit, it's killing me not to be up there with them. I had been looking forward to this since planning it for June, having that fall through due to work demands, then re-scheduling for late August and having work intervene yet again. I feel particularly bad that I talked John (catpappy) into the trip, then left him high and dry at the last minute. Thank God he had refundable airfare. I, of course, didn't.

Joe, I'll be thinking about you guys all through tomorrow. I hope you have a wonderful, rewarding day, and that your first class 3/4 climb gets you seriously hooked (so we can do some really sketchy stuff together in November!). I know you've got it in you, and that you'll tear up the chute and notch. By tomorrow night you'll be wondering what all the fuss was about. I'm with you in spirit, my brutha!

I sure hope they do well, too! A 5 AM start isn't that late for the MR. It can be done in 5 or 6 hours, since so much is direct -- just climb, not much time covering distance.

I hope they are somewhere acclimating right now.

As for the last day permits, were they there at 11 AM, or 2 PM?

Steve, he called me mid-afternoon here, so it had to be the 11:00 lottery. They drew 11th of 12, so only one permit left for the last in line.

They're returning by the main trail (Joe wasn't crazy about the idea of down-climbing the F400), so the descent will take longer. With 3 boys in the group, that could speed things up or slow them down. I know he wants to be at the Portal before Doug shuts down the kitchen at 7:30.

> Steve, he called me mid-afternoon here, so it had to be the 11:00 lottery. They drew 11th of 12, so only one permit left for the last in line.

Then he got the last of the permits that were turned back due to people picking up their reserved permits and dropping off a few slots due to group size reductions.

At 2 pm, all the No Shows become available, and so there are many more available then. If you had been along, I would hope that the rangers at the counter would have explained that.

That's what I figured too, but Joe said the ranger told them they were very fortunate to get 5 permits, and that cancellations and no-shows were extremely low this week, along with walk-in volume being high. I suspect it's a combination of the main trail being closed next week for work, along with a dry summer and the last hurrah of Labor Day.

I chose 8/29 initially because it was a Wednesday, the best day to pick up walk-in permits. Little did I know at the time that Inyo would be shutting down the main trail for a bunch of days in September.

The clouds are moving in before 11am. Sure hope they get to the top by noon.

Got a text from Joe at 1:48 pm Pacific. On the summit. Way to go guys!

Awesome! Hopefully, they should be down for burgers before closing.

Outstanding.

Joe,
Congrats on making it to the top. Hope you aren't getting too wet up there.
Tom

Unless they are off the trail, they are walking in the rain.

The fogged-in webcam view of Mt Whitney is a pretty good indication that it's raining. And the Williamson webcam shows dark clouds, too, especially to the south.

I hope we're in for a good trip report!