I Mount
Whitney
About
a month ago I hiked the tallest mountain in Arizona, Mount Humphreys. It stands at about 12,637 feet. I had done this hike a few times and I
started to wonder….what other mountains should I hike?
I
googled “highest mountain in America”
The
first ten highest mountains were in Alaska.
Number eleven was Mount Whitney.
I thought to myself… “Mount Whitney is in California? I will be in California in a
couple weeks! I should hike Mount Whitney while I’m there!”
I
searched the web for blogs, I ordered a book from Amazon, asked my facebook friends if it was do
able. My husband brought my crazy idea
to work. The guys he worked with said I
was “crazy”. “You can’t hike Mt. Whitney in a day”, they told him!
If
you search the internet hard enough you’ll find a crazy group of Ultra runners
who do the Badwater Marathon. A 139 mile
race from sea level to the Whitney portal . Even I will admit that’s crazy but
they attempt it in one shot! I bet I
could go to California for my fall break
vacation, drive 5 hours from San Diego to Mt. Whitney and hike that mountain!
I
convinced my son he should do it with me.
We just needed PERMITS. My book said permits are nearly impossible to
get May-September. You have to enter a
lottery and hope you get in. LUCKILY it
was October. I got on the website and
there was 85 permits available. They
give out 100 a day. This should’ve been
my first clue. One of the most hiked mountains in America and only 15 people
wanted to do a day hike in mid-
October?! Nope, I just
thought…”AWESOME, I’m going to hike the tallest mountain in the lower 48!”
About
a week before the hike my son was SICK. He’d come home from school and
crash. I’m smart enough to know I
shouldn’t do it alone so I thought I might need to put my 3 week long dream on
hold. We got to San Diego and he wasn’t
feeling any better. My 15 year old
daughter said “fine, I’ll do your hike with you if he can’t go.”
My
husband told me this isn’t a good time, go do it with your girlfriends, just
relax and enjoy your vacation. It was
Sunday night. I needed to decide by Monday.
At the beach on Monday I thought… I should check when I need to get to Lone
Pine to pick up my permit. 4:30!! It was
10:30 and we had a 5 hour drive! I said
…”you guys, lets go hike that mountain!”
My son thought he was feeling better and my daughter just decided “eh,
why not”. So we loaded everything we
could find in the car and started the drive.
We
decided we’d sleep in the Tahoe so we could start early. My book said you could do a day hike in about
12 hours. We’d get up at 3:00 am be done
by 4:00pm at the latest and have time for dinner and to drive home. PERFECT
PLAN.
We
got to the ranger station and he told me I had forfeited my permits ( that I
paid $36 for) You have to check in by
NOON the day before or you lose your permits.
If they just so happen to have extra permits the day before then you can
get them for FREE. They did, 87 available permits. This would be important knowledge for
someone doing the hike May-September, know the permit process. All 3 of us got permits.
Ranger-
How have you prepared for this hike? Do
you know there is 3 feet of snow on the top of the mountain?
Myself-
Well, I read this book. I bought those spikey things to go on our shoes. We have our snowboarding jackets.
Ranger-
Crampons they are called, you will need those its icy. Theres also a storm front moving in. I want
you to get off that mountain quick if you see storm clouds.
Myself-
Sweet, I’ve got it! If I just so happen
to need a few more things is there a store in town?
Ranger-
Yes, Elevation is the store. Good guys. There’s one stop light in Lone Pine,
that where it is. ( side note, Lone Pine
seems a lot like the town in the show
Wayward Pines)
ELEVATION-
30 year old skinny guy in a ski bum shirt welcomes us. “You guys hiking
Whitney?! Awesome, let me show you some pics of my friend who did it last week-
theres tons of snow! You’re going to need some gear!
The
gear is WAY expensive! We buy a $40 backpack for my daughter and rent some
walking poles. $85 total.
Across
the street is the grocery store. We spend another $60 on snacks for the hike. Tacos food truck for dinner and up the
mountain we go.
ALTITUDE
SICKNESS- The last time I did Humphreys
my friend got REALLY sick. Level 2
altitude sickness, she had to be rescued from the mountain. I’ve been researching it a lot since then.
-My
kids had ZERO altitude training and that’s the #1 recommendation to help you
adjust. I felt OK about it because I’d been hiking.
-
Proper hydration is very important. We all drank 2 bottles of water the night
before and a lot during the hike. Electrolyte packets would’ve been smart too.
-
Proper nutrition- We ate a lot. Probably
4000 calories during the hike. We
stopped every hour to drink and eat. Nuts, seeds, dried fruit, peanut butter
and honey sandwichs, fresh fruit.
-Good
nights sleep- my kids slept on the drive up but I was going to be hurting.
-Drugs-
We took 2 Ibuprophen at 10 that night, 2 before the hike and alternated between
Excedrin and Ibuprofen every 2-3 hours during the hike. We also took a homeopathic remedy – Arnica to
prevent soreness and muscle swelling.
I’m going to say this drug regimen saved us. Healthy?
Not sure but it got us to the top with very little altitude training.
Pretty stream runs through the whole area.
The
drive up the mountain was very quite, not many cars on the road. We ended up in a parking lot that says “ night
hikers”. We figured this is where we would sleep in our car. There are bear
containers. The ranger tells us bears
don’t hibernate on Whitney and they will rip your car door off if they smell
food. One bear ripped the top off a Jeep Cherokee!
PREP-
Mom-OK kids, try on your spikes for the ice.
Kids-
Mom, are we supposed to wear them with Nike Frees? The spikes might move and stab us through our
shoe.
Mom-
Uh, hiking boots probably would’ve been better but I bet they are exaggerating
about the snow on the mountain, we probably won’t need them.
Kids-
Mom, we bought the wrong size batteries for the head lamps. We only have 1 head
lamp and 1 flashlight.
Mom-
OK, I guess we’ll have to stick together and hope we get down before its dark.
We
figured if we were asleep by 10 pm we can get up at 2:40am and be on the trail
by 3am. I got the driver’s seat- so
comfy. Trake in the middle row, he’s
6’2” and Brynly the back row on top of
the folded down seats. We basically
woke up every hour.
Logs that form a long bridge over a bigger stream.
THE
HIKE- Part 1. First 4 miles.
We
were excited to get on the trail. The weather was nice 65 degrees. The
beginning of the trail is very interesting. I highly suggest hiking to Whitney
Portal, its about 4 miles up the trail and you don’t need a permit. You cross over streams and waterfalls on
boulders, stepping stones, and even a long bridge made of logs. The scenery is beautiful. Of course, I’m just telling you my impression
of it from the view of the headlamp.
Have
you seen Wayward Pines? This part of the hike was like a scene from Wayward
Pines. The people in the show are stuck
in a town surrounded by really high mountains. They try and escape the
town at night by getting over the mountain. The escape is stopped by freaky looking
alien creatures that come out of the shadows with sharp teeth and tear them up! That’s basically what I was telling the kids
as we hiked. It kept them entertained.
PART
2- Throughout the first 4 miles we occasionally ran into a guy who was hiking
alone. He’d stop where we stopped and
chat a little bit. He was 60 years old
and had both of his knees replaced from his hiking adventures. Throughout the hike we’d come to learn that
he hiked Mt. Rainer 28 times and was a mountaineering guide for the mountain. He had
hiked the Himalayas with his own personal Sherpa many times. Did you know those
Sherpas only make a $1 a day? If they
make a Westerner friend the Westerner finds them a job in the states during the
winter and then keep them busy with Himalayan adventures during the
summers. His Sherpa was a cook in
Boulder, Colorado making $150 a day. He
could cook sushi at 15,000 feet when leading groups in the Himalayas!
He told us he has no desire to hike Everest because its to commercialized. There are many mountains over 20,000 feet in the Himalayas you could hike and be the only one out there, unlike the lines of people on Everest. I decided this guy was probably pretty wealthy.
He told us he has no desire to hike Everest because its to commercialized. There are many mountains over 20,000 feet in the Himalayas you could hike and be the only one out there, unlike the lines of people on Everest. I decided this guy was probably pretty wealthy.
Snow started to appear along the trail for the
next 2 miles. Being from Arizona we
thought this was pretty exciting. We climbed out of the tree line in time for
the sunrise. There were a lot of cool rocks, mountains,
streams, waterfalls and 2 lakes. I
enjoyed starting the hike in the dark and then watching the sun rise because it
gave us something to look forward to—seeing things. If you ask my kids they will tell you that
you shouldn’t hike in the dark because it’s ….dark.
BASE
CAMP- If people opt for a 2 day hike they camp here. There were 3 tents, surrounded by snow. It was 7:30 am, people weren’t venturing out
of those tents yet.
Our
hiking friend told us we were at 11,000 feet, he had a little gadget that told
him. This is where the snow started. We
couldn’t see a trail anywhere. I’m
guessing our friend hadn’t hiked Whitney in 20 years and his memory was a
little foggy. He told us we should
probably just go STRAIGHT UP the mountain rather than try and find the 99
switchbacks. It would be a calf burner but who knows where those switchbacks
are!
Luckily I had TWO pairs of spikes. I was a nice mom and gave them to my kids.
At 12,000 feet we could take maybe 10 steps and then need a break.
Halfway up the "make our own trail" we decided it was a dumb idea to follow a guy that thought Everest was a joke....even if he was 60 years old.
This
is when this “hike” got stupid. Or maybe
we were just stupid to do it in Nike Frees. Kick your toe in the snow, plant
your pole and take a step. We did that for about 2 hours. I think we went 2,000
feet higher and probably a mile. It was HARD. We were tired. If we had not met
our hiking friend we probably would’ve looked at the mountain and used common
sense. We kept thinking- “this guy is
60, we can keep up with him! We can do this!”
We didn’t think that in a
cheerful way though, it was more like if he can do it we WILL do it. We were
being quite stubborn.
FINALLY we made it to the trail crest.
It was noon. If we could get to the top in a hour we'd be OK.
This trail was on the edge of the mountain. It you took one little step off the side ......down, down, down you'd go. IN FACT, we had passed our tour guide at this point and when he met us at the top later he told us he had fallen and hurt his knee pretty bad (again).
I don't even remember very much of this part. It was REALLY long and the few people we passed said "you're not almost there." or "this trail never ends" or "no its that really far away peak".
SUPPOSEDLY it was 1.9 miles but it took us 2 hours to do so I'm thinking whoever keeps logs of mileage on mountains must be a little short on air/brain cells.
My daughter was tired. Shes super stubborn though, she was going to make it to the top. I walked slow and stayed with her.
My son had a headache for the last hour. I figured he was getting altitude sickness. I told him to go ahead of us. He'd get ahead and then rest and wait for us.
The tops of high mountains always look barren. We had to get way up there.
We couldn't find the trail once we got to Whitney peak so we climbed over a bunch of rocks to get to the hut at the top.
My daughter said "isnt this good enough? We are at the top!"
I told her we had to get a picture with the sign.
Dads friends and my facebook friends didn't think we could do this! We need a picture with that sign!
STUBBORN.
I yelled to the guys in front of us if they knew where they were going and they didn't.
ARG!! When was this mountain going to end!!
Our shoes were soaked, we were SO TIRED and we still had to go down the mountain!
FINALLY The hut! the Smithsonian Institute put it up there.
Not sure who the crazy people were who hauled up the supplies!
Beautiful views!
And then THE SIGN!!
Top of the world! Sorry should've cleaned the lens. Daughter carried that nice camera the WHOLE hike.
The way down was rough. My son felt like he was going to throw up. We had been over 13,600 feet for over 2 hours. I knew from my friends incident that if he started throwing up we'd be in trouble. He needed to get to lower elevation. I sent him ahead while I stayed with my daughter.
The route we took straight up looked pretty dangerous, more visible rocks to fall on. We managed to find the trail for the 99 switchbacks but it looked dreadfully slow, especially in wet running shoes.
We cut through a fair amount of them sliding on our butts. Thank heavens the predicted storm didn't come in, the weather was pretty nice. It helped to dry our spandex faster!
My son was waiting for us at the base camp and seemed to feel better.
It had taken us 6 hours to get up to this point, hopefully down would be faster.
My son gave us good advice.
"Just figure this trail will never end and we will be walking ALL NIGHT".
It was good advice because it never seems to end.
Everyone I talked to about hiking Mt. Whitney said.."It is the longest hike ever. It never ends."
In good weather the trail is really well maintained and easy to see. If you had the endurance to just keep walking you could make it up just fine. ( In good weather).
Our one headlamp and one flashlight stayed on through the whole hike. It wasn't quite enough light to prevent a few falls though. I was glad none of the falls were bad enough that I'd have to carry someone out of there. It slowed us down though.
When you can see the parking lot, don't get too excited you still have 6 really long switchbacks before you actually get down.
We were so tired.
I pricelined a hotel in a nearby town. Lone Pine is pricey.
It was the hardest athletic thing I've ever done. My son said his decathlon was harder. My daughter was pretty proud of herself. She'll tell you her mom is crazy though and use this story to prove it.
