Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in the lower 48 states of USA, and its summit elevation is 14405 feet. I heard about it many times before but never thought of climbing it until this April when a friend got a day hike permit through lottery and asked if I was interested in going.
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| Mt Whitney, August 31, 2017 |
I jumped on the opportunity of climbing without even thinking about what it takes to climb the tallest mountain in continental USA! Calming down from initial excitement, I did some research and found that Mt Whitney Trail to the summit is actually one of the easiest trail for a 14er mountain, no special equipment or special skill is needed to reach the top. The bad new is that for a day hike permit, one needs to complete 22 mile round trip, over 6000 ft net elevation gain, 12000 ft elevation change in a day!!
I needed to prepare in two areas - physical training and gear preparation.
Since there is no mountain near north Texas, my training was primarily endurance training I run twice a week for 5K initially and then 5 mile and 5K alternatively. I ran 5 mile along Colorado river during our spring camping at Colorado Bend State Park. On memorial day we went to lake Texoma to hike on cross timber trail, which provided some elevation changes (3000ft) but no real altitude gain. I also ran along Lewisville lake for 6 mile with Lily in late July in preparation for her half marathon.
With close to 5 month running - my endurance improved significantly but not enough for the 22 mile endeavor, especially at very high altitude.
The other area is gear preparation. which include trekking poles, hiking boots, cramp-on, camel bag, 24 liter backpack, water filter, headlight, gloves, cap.
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| gears for the climb |
We arrived at East Sierra area two days before our permit day to assimilate - stayed at Mammoth Lakes area the first night ( ~ 8000 ft elevation), and then moved to Lone Pine, a small town 13 miles away from Whitney Portal, the day before the hiking day, and we hiked on the trail for over a mile to get familiar with landscape in the afternoon.
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| Mt Whitney Trail - trail head |
We paid special attention to weather forecast for Mt Whitney the days we were in the area up to the hour we were about to leave the hotel at 1 am September 1st. The forecast was that the mountain was clear. But it rained heavily when we stepped out of the hotel!! It stopped in a few minutes and turned into periodic drizzles as we drove to the mountain - the initial portion of the road was clear and quiet.
It turned ugly as we drove into the switchbacks - initially there were some sands cover one lane of the road close to the slope, then more road was covered, and the gravels became larger, and then there were boulders on the road. Fortunately the road is wide enough that we drove around all the hazards.
Half mile to the parking lot at the Whitney portal - at a sharp turn of the road, our rented Jeep stuck on the road in a pile of sand and gravels. My partner made a few tries, the SUV still won't move.
I got off the JEEP and surveyed the situation - the sand/gravel pile was too thick to allow the 2 wheel drive Jeep even inch forward. I moved a few large rocks around the SUV, and directed it to back out of the pile, and to drive on the left. There were a few rocks too large for the SUV, and I then moved them out of the way.
After about 30 minutes, we finally get through the turn, and parked our car in a minute.
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| Ready to Climb Mt Whitney at 2:30 am ! |
When we got off the car, we heard the loud sound of rushing creeks all around, but it was actually only drizzling. We put on rain jackets, took out trekking poles, put on our backpacks. As we were about to leave, we noticed a deep grove formed on the right hand side of the rear bumper! On the bright side, there were No flat tires. Apparently the JEEP was backed into the guard rail during our struggle at the final turn.
Pitch dark, we walked across the flooded road, and headed to the trail head.
The 1st mile of trail held pretty well - we easily walked over some small piles of sand/gravel on the trail, jumped a small collapse of the trail at a length of about 2 feet. With the support of trekking poles, we crossed two creeks in the first mile, where water flew over the stepping stones,with anxiety but no difficulty.
After an hour, we stopped to take a breath, we noticed moving bright dots up in the mountain, and down the slop - those were the headlights of other hikers - we were not alone in this endeavor!
The rain stopped, the air was fresh, and sound of rushing creeks continue to break the silence of the night. Looking around, whitish things were close-by rocks and pine trees, really dark things were mountain sides far away. Looking up, the cloud broke a bit, a few stars appeared in the sky. The light at the dawn revealed the profiles of mountains peaks around.
A few hikers were going down the mountain at this hour! They camped at the trail camp by the 99 switchbacks, and endured thunder storms and snow earlier! I guess that they decided to get off the mountain instead of sleeping in wet sleeping bags.
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| 6 am on Mt Whitney (per time mark on the photo) |
As the Sun rose through the horizon behind a layer of clouds, I saw the progression of the rise through the light moving on the peaks from tips down.The beauty of the mountain was revealed - granite peaks lined along the gully, white glaciers dotted the mountain, sound of rushing water in creeks formed light music to the otherwise quiet mountain, patches of meadow with bright purple and yellow flowers lighted up the landscape, clear glacier lakes reflected hikers and their surroundings.
The sky was blue and sunny with scattered white clouds.
I was at a good pace and totally enjoyed the hiking after sunrise and before we reached the 99 switchbacks.
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| meadows by the trail |
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| Sunlight touching a peak |
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| The Sun rose above a ridge |
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| Mt Whitney Range |
After breakfast by the glacier lake at the trail camp around 7:20 am, I faced the dreaded 99 switch backs - the steepest and arguably the hardest portion of the whole trail. Despite the breakfast break, I quickly fell behind my climbing partner due to my tired legs and very fast beating heart. To move forward, I had to hike slowly and took breaks every 5 minutes or so.
I arrived at the trail crest, 13500 ft altitude, at ~ 10:30 am. It took me over 3 hours to overcome the about 2 mile long 99 switch backs to reach the trail crest - for comparison my partner finished this section in a hour and half.
Trail crest is the start of the last stretch to the Summit, which is about 2 miles away with 1000 feet elevation gain. The altitude by itself makes it harder for me due to my symptom of altitude sickness - high heartbeat rate . My knees hurt, my shoulders pained due to the heavy backpack. On top of my physical limitation, the rest of the trail was covered by snow from previous night's thunder storm. So I decided to return to Whitney portal instead of going for the summit. It was so close and it was so far to reach the top of Mt Whitney!
In the end, I reached 13500 ft elevation by hiking for the first time. Carrying heavy backpack ( ~ 25 pounds), I finished 18 mile hike with 5000 ft net altitude gain in 15 hours.
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| last section - long and relatively flat of the 99 switch backs |
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| Mt Whitney is at the far right |
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| a glacier lake beneath Trail crest |
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| Trail crest |
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| Trail crest landmark |
1) need to lighten up the backpack - mine was too heavy - too much water and food. I consumed only 1/3 of the weight I carried.
3) need to have cramp on with me all the time
3) need to break the climb into 2 parts - the preferred approach is to hike to trail camp for a nigh sleep and hike the next morning (only 4 miles of very hard hiking). Of course the real problem is to get the camping permit.
5) Practice trekking pole applications to reduce loads on knees
6) Stay longer time in the area to enjoy Mammoth Lake areas - maybe combine the hiking with camping at Mammoth Lakes
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