Mt Whitney #2

This was my second shot at trying to conquer Mt Whitney. Due to a mixup of permits and dates a few years back, me and some other buddies tried to climb a route that was way way beyond our skill level. It was a great trip, but this time, we were going to take the main trail. This is maintained by the National Park Service, so there wouldn't be any technical hiking/climbing involved. Just shear heart was required. My buddy Sourav had managed to get 4 permits, and I basically weaseled my way into the trip after one of his hiking buddies couldn't take off from work. Later on, another member of the party had to drop out, and a good friend of ours from New York, Obrad, took the open spot. The 4th guy was a guy named Nathan who hikes with Sourav frequently in Southern California. We flew in Friday evening, stayed in San Diego, and took off Saturday morning for Lone Pine which is the nearest town to the Whitney trailhead. On the way of course, In and out was on the menu for lunch.

After that, we continued on to Highway 395. This is on the east side of the Sierra Nevadas. Basically the Sierras are like the spine of California, and the west side is still rising. On the way, we saw Gus's fresh jerky and of course had to stop to get some. We got our permits, and of course the infamous wag bag (wag bag) that we all had to use if we had to go #2 on the hike. Mt Whitney is a no impact hiking zone which means not even human waste can be left on the trail. We got up to Whitney Portal and spent a little time hanging out there. I have to say, already we were sucking wind just going up stairs and small inclines. This was already scaring me. (1.6 miles up in the air)

(view from the road that goes up to Whitney Portal, that's Lone Pine in front of us) (sun setting behind Mt Whitney) We woke up, and immediately everyone tried to force their systems to 'evacuate'. I had my tea, others sucked down coffee. Any weight we took up in our bowels at this point was extra weight that we had to carry until we came back off the trail. Somehow, only me and Sourav were lucky enough. Nathan claimed he would have no problem holding it for the entire trip which sounded painful to me. Obrad was in serious trouble as this was Sunday morning, and he had not evacuated (later this became known as 'wagging') since Friday morning (since then he had had 3 large lunches, 2 large pasta meals, and two breakfasts). Yes, if you haven't guessed yet, this will continue to be an integral part of this story. (morning sun rising from the east, shining onto Mt Whitney) (group shot pre-climb) (the trail head) We started climbing up the trail. We were pretty good with weight. Our packs only had about 30-35 lbs in them. But having not acclimated at Whitney portal, we were seriously sucking wind. But kept up a steady pace and decided to take a break at Lone Pine Lake. (Lone Pine Lake, 2.8 mi, 9,420 ft)

After that we continued on. We found another little lake as well where we stopped for a snack. For such a chilly and dry environment, it was always interesting to see random areas of lush vegetation from all the snow runoff from every winter. (yes, all signs point to up) We passed through outpost camp, took a short break and then continued on. At this point, we started hitting some very rocky terrain as there was less and less vegetation the higher we got in altitude. (Outpost Camp, 3.8 mi, 10,365 ft)

(the climb was relentless from Outpost onto Trail camp)

After that we continued on. We got to Mirror Lake where we stopped for a snack. For such a chilly and dry environment, it was always interesting to see random areas of lush vegetation from all the snow runoff from every winter.

(Mirror Lake, 4.3 mi, 10,640 ft) We stopped at trail meadows, and I started to feel effects of altitude already. We had another 2 miles or so to go, but every step was getting very difficult. I didn't realize that when exerting so much effort in low oxygen environment, how depleted your sugars could get. I started feeling woozy and light headed. We took a break and were thinking to go onto Trail camp before actually cooking lunch, but I asked if we could stop and eat now. So we stopped and ate. Sourav brought a little stove to boil water in, and that nice warm mountain house (dehydrated food) really made a difference. After a little break, we were all recharged and ready to go.

(Trail Meadows, 5.3 mi, 11,395 ft)

Now we were getting above the treeline. The going was all rocky, and pretty steep. We were really really sucking wind now and taking very frequent breaks. The lack of acclimation was really getting to us. We finally got up to the little mini summit that overlooks Constellation lake and the temperature went from 70 to about 40 just from crossing over the summit into the wind. This was the wind that everyone was telling us about that was coming down the hill. Apparently the night before at trail camp, the winds were around 35-40 mph. They said that they couldn't sleep at all since the rain flies were making lots of noise flapping around. This was not going to be pleasant. We finally got to trial camp and immediately set out to find a good campsite. It was going to be critical to try and get some cover from the wind.

(Consultation Lake)

The first thing we did was filter water. At this point, I had no idea how fast the temp was dropping. Since I only had my shell on with no gloves, I thought my hands were going to freeze. When I got back to camp, we took a few minutes to relax. Now remember, we were sitting about 8-10 ft away from each other with 15-20 mph winds whipping around us. This is when the result of our Mountain House lunch truly started kicking in. I couldn't believe how strong the odor of our gas emissions were. Even with high winds out in the open, we were able to easily not only smell but also deduce what we had eaten for lunch. The potency of it was truly amazing. Since we had another meal ahead of us, the following day was more of the same. It was never a good idea to be following someone too closely lest you wanted to find out what they had for dinner.

After getting our strength back, Sourav and I proceeded to get dinner going as fast as possible. We knew the second that the sun fully set, the temperature would drop fast. We were expecting below freezing, perhaps as low as 20. And maybe lower with wind chills. We quickly made our food, Obrad and Nathan were in the tent. Because our tents were apart 50-60 ft, we just all piled into one tent (yup, 4 dudes in a 2 person tent) and scarfed down our food. That really helped warm us up. Obrad tried to eat as much as possible but wasn't feeling too well. Sourav and I packed everything down into our bear canisters, and we immediately went to sleep.

(Trail Camp, 6.3 mi, 12,000 ft) (Our camp site, it looks protected from the wind, but it really wasn't.)

(We were lucky to come a weekend that the moon was full) (Sourav took a long exposure shot after it got dark)

Sleep is a relative term. I think I maybe slept no more than 3 hours or so because of the noise from the wind and the effects of the altitude. Sourav came by around 6, and we got going on breakfast. After a little hot oatmeal, my system really needed to take a wag, so I got out the infamous wag bag and had to do my deed. Mountain house, oh how potent you can be. Luckily, we could leave the bag there and collect it after we came back from the summit. We'll return to the story of the wag later. We packed up and went off to the nearby lake to filter our water for the day and started up the brutal 99 switchbacks.

(start of the 99 switch backs)

The 99 switchbacks can really demoralize a person. Sleeping at elevation helped with our breathing, but still we were only climbing to thinner and thinner air with every step. We started at 7am and just slowly plodded forward. At around 9.30am we reached trail crest. Trail crest is where the John Muir Trail meets with the Whitney trail. On one side is Sequoia National Forest, and the side we came from is Inyo National Forest. The views were spectacular we we were on the dividing ridge between the two valleys. At this point, something unfortunate happens. We actually had to go down in elevation which was painful because we knew that elevation had to be recovered later in the hike. At this altitude, thinking about that was very depressing.

(nearing the end of the 99 switchbacks)

(Trail Crest, 8.5 mi, 13,777 ft)

(Sequoia National Park)

The next 1-2 miles took us up the last 1000 ft or so of elevation to the summit. We couldn't go for more than 100 ft or so without having to take a break since we were breathing so heavily. But we continued on slowly. The terrain was quite rocky. normally, I'd be slightly scared of heights, but for some reason, the adrenalin and the focus on the prize kept me from worrying about it. But the exposure of the cliffs to our left was crazy. there were 10-15 places I thought where a minor slip could potentially send you over the edge. Maybe I'm exaggerating due to my slight fear of heights, but it certainly felt like that to me.

(The far peak is Mt Whitney. Seems so close, but the mountains are so large that your sense of scale gets completely distorted. It was NOT close at all.)

(The home stretch)

But anyway, we finally made it a little after 11am. It was a very awesome feeling. Seeing both sides of the mountain for miles and miles was gorgeous. Nathan and I were slightly ahead of Obrad and Sourav, so we waited for them and then signed the summit register. The person who signed in before me was quite the joker. There was a comment section on each line after your name, and the guy before me signed " Starcraft is better", heh heh, good stuff.

(summit register) (Mt Whitney summit!, 11.0 mi, 14,497 ft) (Beyond what looks like that tiny hill was our campsite, a whole 3500 ft down) (Smithsonian Institute Shelter, it truly blows my mind that a bunch of people put this together almost a century ago. the idea of manually moving rocks around at this altitude sounds painfully difficult)

One thing they say about Whitney, is that getting to the summit is only half of the work. You have to remember, we still have 11 miles left to hike at this point. Sure, it's downhill, and we're losing altitude and gaining oxygen, but the knees and feet really take a beating at this point. We tried to go as quickly as possible. We really didn't want to have to hike out in the dark, but we knew it would be close. We got to camp and started tearing down. Unfortunately at this point, I had to collect my wag bag and attach it to my pack. And again for the second time on Mt Whitney, I could smell my own wag hanging off the side of my bag everytime the wind went the wrong way. Quite vile.

Nathan and I again went ahead because speed/less time was better than slow/more time for our knees/feet. sourav and Obrad took quite some time getting to camp. And it turned out that all the downhill stomping finally helped Obrad do what nature wouldn't gift him the morning before. He had to drop a massive wag. Mind you, he had to do this on the 99 switchbacks which are completely exposed. this is not like a forest where you can find a tree to go behind. So while hikers passed above and below, he finally achieved some inner peace.

We got our stuff packed up and started down the last 6 miles. Sun was setting pretty fast at this point, so we tried to pick up the pace as much as we could but we were no match for the sunset. We had to hike out the final 1-2 miles in the dark. Luckily the trail is well marked and not rocky so it wasn't too bad. I went ahead as going quickly was better for my knees and finally exited out. nathan showed up about 10 mins later and we both got a beer from the whitney portal store right before it closed. It was probably one of the best tasting beers I've ever had. At this point, we had been waiting almost 45 mins waiting for Sourav and Obrad and were wondering what was taking so long. We heard the story when they finally got there. Turns out mother nature called again and Obrad was put into the ring for round #2 with the wag bag.

(back at Outpust camp taking a little break, Obrad was a serious trooper, after battling the altitude, he was feeling feverish at this point and kept up serious heart to the bitter end of the hike)

It was already past 8.45pm, and we were famished. We couldn't go very far without food so even though we had a 5 hour drive in front of us, we decided to stop for pizza in lone Pine. It was probably the best and worst pizza I've ever had in my life. Best since we were so hungry and tired, and worst because it was really bad pizza. I impressed myself by actually driving the whole way home. Our trip was finally over at about 2.30am when we finally got back to San Diego and crawled into a real bed.