poison ivy
Well-known member
After a week of awesome hiking in California, I thought I’d share a few reports from the trip. Most of our hiking was done in Yosemite, but the most amazing trip was a successful hike up 14,497-foot Mt Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. The trip was 22-miles round trip with 6,800 feet of elevation gain. Pictures for anyone who wants to skip my rambling report are
here.
I first hatched the plan to climb Mt. Whitney this summer two years ago… but didn’t do any planning until February, when I applied for an overnight permit to break the 22-mile roundtrip hike into two days. My permit application was processed on the day they announced the lottery had ended (my bad luck) so I did not get one of the 60 overnight permits available each day. I did receive one of the 100 dayhike permits and spent the next six months worrying whether I could do this long, high altitude-hike in a single day. Fortunately, when we arrived to pick up our permit, we learned they had four open overnight permits due to cancellations, which made the mileage do-able and the only real challenge would be the affects of the altitude.
Dave and I spent a couple of nights at 8,000-feet in Yosemite (and did some higher-elevation hiking) and a third night at 8,300-feet at Whitney Portal to help acclimatize. On Wednesday morning, we drove a mile up the road to the Mt. Whitney trailhead at 7:30 a.m. to start our six-mile backpack to Trail Camp. We weighed our packs at the start and Dave’s weighed in at 30 pounds, while mine was at 22. (His gear is heavier in general and I offered to split the weight evenly, but he refused to pawn some off on me.)
The trail starts at 8,300 feet and is a series of long, easy switchbacks. Even though it was still early, the sun was already blazing down on us, so we took advantage of every bit of shade we could find -- usually underneath an incense fir. We could see a waterfall cascading across the valley, so it made it really easy to track our progress during the initial miles of the trek, as we headed into the John Muir Wilderness. We crossed paths with a lot of hikers who said they were glad they weren’t us just starting out, and advising us where the best campsites were.
It took us about two hours to reach Lone Pine Lake, a beautiful little lake that ends on a cliff side. We stopped beneath a crooked, dead tree for a snack break and to filter some additional water. Another mile of hiking brought us to a gorgeous green alpine meadow, which is the home of Outpost Camp, located at 10,000-feet and 3.5 miles up the trail. The camp is beautiful, situated next to a rushing brook, waterfalls and decorated by plenty of wildflowers. However, it wasn’t high enough up the mountain for us, so after another short break, we moved on toward Trail Camp.
We were back on switchbacks again until reaching Mirror Lake, a lake that used to have a terrific reflection of Mt. Whitney. It has since silted up, and has a rust-colored ring around the edges, which has eliminated the view. Mirror Lake, at four miles up the trail, also signified the end of trees. For the rest of the hike, the only shade we’d find would be underneath large rocky cliffs. Although the trail turned into a giant rock stairway, it never became particularly steep and was pretty easy going except for side hilling along a few snow fields.
We were both starting to feel a little tired and were happy to finally see the frozen blue outline of Consultation Lake ahead of us, signifying our arrival at Trail Camp after six miles of hiking to an elevation of 12,000 feet. It took us six hours to hike the six miles. Dave, who suffered from altitude issues on several of our hikes, felt a twinge of a headache, but thought it was probably from the bright sun reflecting off the snow fields rather than altitude. I felt fine, though Dave noticed I slowed down after arriving at 11,500 feet or so.
As other hikers had suggested, we headed past the solar toilets and set up our tent near a rock wall windbreak. Our campsite had a great view of the 99-switchbacks that make up the next two miles of the hike up Mt. Whitney and we watched hikers walk down them (and glissade down snowfields) for much of the day. We were in bed as soon as the sun sank behind the summit, knowing we would get up early.
THURSDAY: I woke up at 4:30 a.m., after not sleeping much, worrying about whether we’d make it up to the summit. After pumping some water and preparing our packs, Dave and I headed up the first of the dreaded switchbacks at 5 a.m., just in time to catch a gorgeous red sunrise over Owens Valley. We could see three headlamps up above us of three kids -- 16, 14 and 10-- glowing ahead of us like fireflies. Some of the lower switchbacks were still covered in snow, so we managed to shortcut a few. Dave cracked me up with his switchback song “99 switchbacks to go on this trail, 99 switchbacks to go… we walk one around, another one down, 98 switchbacks to go.”
However, I could soon see that he wasn’t feeling well as he started slowing down. When we arrived at a line of rusty cables, somewhere around 13,000 feet, Dave decided to turn back because he had developed a headache. As we had agreed upon earlier, he would descend to Trail Camp to sleep in the tent until the sun got too hot. Then, he would head back down to Whitney Portal and wait for me at the car. After watching him go until he disappeared from sight, I continued plugging away at the switchbacks, which were lined with beautiful sky pilot flowers, very sad that he wouldn‘t be on the summit with me.
I arrived at the top of the switchbacks at an area known as Trail Crest, which is 13,600 feet and felt absolutely fantastic. The trail swings behind the west side of Mt. Whitney, providing incredible views of snow-capped Sierra mountains, and actually descends a bit before heading uphill again toward Whitney’s summit. I caught up with and passed the three kids, who were all nauseous from the altitude and confused that the trail was dipping down. They were determined to keep hiking (and did eventually reach the summit.)
I followed the trail along a rocky cliffside with great views and a lot of exposure and occasional views of Whitney‘s summit hut. The trail winds past four “windows” areas, which provide fantastic views to the east, with a bit of a drop-off. By the time I reached the third window, I started feeling the altitude and started breathing heavy and had difficulty catching my breath. As I reached the final set of switchbacks across a snowfield, a lone day hiker passed me -- he had started at 3:30 a.m. at the trail head and reached the summit 5 minutes before me… amazing! I arrived at the summit hut at 9 a.m. taking four hours to hike 4.5 miles… pretty good time for me, especially at altitude.
The views from the summit were just too spectacular to describe… even pictures don’t do them justice. A series of snow-capped sentinels formed a beautiful, rocky semi-circle around Mt. Whitney, interrupted in the valleys by ice-covered lakes. It was an incredible view that I enjoyed for 31 minutes before turning to head down after celebrating my 19th state highpoint.
I think my brain immediately went on some sort of oxygen high for the decent… I was just flying down the trail. Even stopping to talk with nearly every hiker I ran into (giving out my extra water and plenty of advice and encouragement,) I managed to make it back down to Trail Camp in two hours, including a fun glissade down one of the snow fields obscuring the switchbacks. After packing up the tent and sleeping bag, I headed down the remaining six miles to the trailhead, where Dave was waiting. My time slowed a bit with five miles to go, when I got an never-ending nose bleed, so it took me about four hours to hike the final six miles. My feet were absolutely killing me for the final switchbacks and I was barely moving by the time I reached the trailhead. Dave and I then headed over to Whitney Portal Store for some terrific burgers before heading off to our next adventure.
Sorry, this is even longer than I expected. Thanks to anyone who actually made it through this!!
-Ivy
here.
I first hatched the plan to climb Mt. Whitney this summer two years ago… but didn’t do any planning until February, when I applied for an overnight permit to break the 22-mile roundtrip hike into two days. My permit application was processed on the day they announced the lottery had ended (my bad luck) so I did not get one of the 60 overnight permits available each day. I did receive one of the 100 dayhike permits and spent the next six months worrying whether I could do this long, high altitude-hike in a single day. Fortunately, when we arrived to pick up our permit, we learned they had four open overnight permits due to cancellations, which made the mileage do-able and the only real challenge would be the affects of the altitude.
Dave and I spent a couple of nights at 8,000-feet in Yosemite (and did some higher-elevation hiking) and a third night at 8,300-feet at Whitney Portal to help acclimatize. On Wednesday morning, we drove a mile up the road to the Mt. Whitney trailhead at 7:30 a.m. to start our six-mile backpack to Trail Camp. We weighed our packs at the start and Dave’s weighed in at 30 pounds, while mine was at 22. (His gear is heavier in general and I offered to split the weight evenly, but he refused to pawn some off on me.)
The trail starts at 8,300 feet and is a series of long, easy switchbacks. Even though it was still early, the sun was already blazing down on us, so we took advantage of every bit of shade we could find -- usually underneath an incense fir. We could see a waterfall cascading across the valley, so it made it really easy to track our progress during the initial miles of the trek, as we headed into the John Muir Wilderness. We crossed paths with a lot of hikers who said they were glad they weren’t us just starting out, and advising us where the best campsites were.
It took us about two hours to reach Lone Pine Lake, a beautiful little lake that ends on a cliff side. We stopped beneath a crooked, dead tree for a snack break and to filter some additional water. Another mile of hiking brought us to a gorgeous green alpine meadow, which is the home of Outpost Camp, located at 10,000-feet and 3.5 miles up the trail. The camp is beautiful, situated next to a rushing brook, waterfalls and decorated by plenty of wildflowers. However, it wasn’t high enough up the mountain for us, so after another short break, we moved on toward Trail Camp.
We were back on switchbacks again until reaching Mirror Lake, a lake that used to have a terrific reflection of Mt. Whitney. It has since silted up, and has a rust-colored ring around the edges, which has eliminated the view. Mirror Lake, at four miles up the trail, also signified the end of trees. For the rest of the hike, the only shade we’d find would be underneath large rocky cliffs. Although the trail turned into a giant rock stairway, it never became particularly steep and was pretty easy going except for side hilling along a few snow fields.
We were both starting to feel a little tired and were happy to finally see the frozen blue outline of Consultation Lake ahead of us, signifying our arrival at Trail Camp after six miles of hiking to an elevation of 12,000 feet. It took us six hours to hike the six miles. Dave, who suffered from altitude issues on several of our hikes, felt a twinge of a headache, but thought it was probably from the bright sun reflecting off the snow fields rather than altitude. I felt fine, though Dave noticed I slowed down after arriving at 11,500 feet or so.
As other hikers had suggested, we headed past the solar toilets and set up our tent near a rock wall windbreak. Our campsite had a great view of the 99-switchbacks that make up the next two miles of the hike up Mt. Whitney and we watched hikers walk down them (and glissade down snowfields) for much of the day. We were in bed as soon as the sun sank behind the summit, knowing we would get up early.
THURSDAY: I woke up at 4:30 a.m., after not sleeping much, worrying about whether we’d make it up to the summit. After pumping some water and preparing our packs, Dave and I headed up the first of the dreaded switchbacks at 5 a.m., just in time to catch a gorgeous red sunrise over Owens Valley. We could see three headlamps up above us of three kids -- 16, 14 and 10-- glowing ahead of us like fireflies. Some of the lower switchbacks were still covered in snow, so we managed to shortcut a few. Dave cracked me up with his switchback song “99 switchbacks to go on this trail, 99 switchbacks to go… we walk one around, another one down, 98 switchbacks to go.”
However, I could soon see that he wasn’t feeling well as he started slowing down. When we arrived at a line of rusty cables, somewhere around 13,000 feet, Dave decided to turn back because he had developed a headache. As we had agreed upon earlier, he would descend to Trail Camp to sleep in the tent until the sun got too hot. Then, he would head back down to Whitney Portal and wait for me at the car. After watching him go until he disappeared from sight, I continued plugging away at the switchbacks, which were lined with beautiful sky pilot flowers, very sad that he wouldn‘t be on the summit with me.
I arrived at the top of the switchbacks at an area known as Trail Crest, which is 13,600 feet and felt absolutely fantastic. The trail swings behind the west side of Mt. Whitney, providing incredible views of snow-capped Sierra mountains, and actually descends a bit before heading uphill again toward Whitney’s summit. I caught up with and passed the three kids, who were all nauseous from the altitude and confused that the trail was dipping down. They were determined to keep hiking (and did eventually reach the summit.)
I followed the trail along a rocky cliffside with great views and a lot of exposure and occasional views of Whitney‘s summit hut. The trail winds past four “windows” areas, which provide fantastic views to the east, with a bit of a drop-off. By the time I reached the third window, I started feeling the altitude and started breathing heavy and had difficulty catching my breath. As I reached the final set of switchbacks across a snowfield, a lone day hiker passed me -- he had started at 3:30 a.m. at the trail head and reached the summit 5 minutes before me… amazing! I arrived at the summit hut at 9 a.m. taking four hours to hike 4.5 miles… pretty good time for me, especially at altitude.
The views from the summit were just too spectacular to describe… even pictures don’t do them justice. A series of snow-capped sentinels formed a beautiful, rocky semi-circle around Mt. Whitney, interrupted in the valleys by ice-covered lakes. It was an incredible view that I enjoyed for 31 minutes before turning to head down after celebrating my 19th state highpoint.
I think my brain immediately went on some sort of oxygen high for the decent… I was just flying down the trail. Even stopping to talk with nearly every hiker I ran into (giving out my extra water and plenty of advice and encouragement,) I managed to make it back down to Trail Camp in two hours, including a fun glissade down one of the snow fields obscuring the switchbacks. After packing up the tent and sleeping bag, I headed down the remaining six miles to the trailhead, where Dave was waiting. My time slowed a bit with five miles to go, when I got an never-ending nose bleed, so it took me about four hours to hike the final six miles. My feet were absolutely killing me for the final switchbacks and I was barely moving by the time I reached the trailhead. Dave and I then headed over to Whitney Portal Store for some terrific burgers before heading off to our next adventure.
Sorry, this is even longer than I expected. Thanks to anyone who actually made it through this!!
-Ivy
Last edited:
Thanks for the great read. Nice job on a tough hike. Did the nosebleed clear up as you lost elevation or when you ran out of blood?
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