Mount Whitney

By Alyssa and Brittany

MT. WHITNEY
Here’s a fact you should all know about Mt. Whitney…they make you poop in a plastic bag and carry it around in your backpack. Thank goodness none of us had to use ours, but that is life on the mountain…down and dirty.  If I wrote this blog when I was walking down the mountain I’d be cursing the hike and telling you never to attempt it unless you were insane. Funny how much your thoughts can change once your feet aren’t swollen and you have a good night’s sleep!

PREPARATION
Climbing the highest peak in the lower 48 states is no easy feat so the most important thing to do if you are considering climbing Mt. Whitney is: research, research, research! Since we were hiking in late May, our research was geared towards early season hiking. Whitney Portal’s message board and Whitney Zone’s forum were the two sites I went on the most. You should talk to anyone you know who has hiked it and read about how to train for climbing a mountain. We also spent a lot of evenings chatting with the employees at REI who helped us pick out gear and gave us advice.

THE HIKE

We stayed in Lone Pine the night before which sits at the base of the Whitney Portal.  We got a private room at the Whitney Portal Hostel which was totally affordable and clean.  Watching the sunrise as you hike is one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen!  Watching deer eat breakfast at dawn, hearing the waterfalls run, and breathing in the scent of the trees is magical.  We made two rules beforehand: 1) if anyone felt altitude sickness we would turn around and 2) if anyone felt uncomfortable on the trail we would turn around. We never got nauseous or had a headache and only felt slightly foggy brained at the 12,000 ft mark. We attribute our lack of altitude sickness to drinking a liter of water every hour, eating regularly, and walking at a very mild pace.  

The Cables

We reached the cables section at 12,900 ft, a part of the trail covered in snow and ice-coated granite rock with a steep drop off. After negotiating this section and almost making it, the ice covered rock was too dangerous for me to pass. Rule number 2 was enforced and we turned around. There were people passing without crampons and axes, but we were not comfortable doing this. I sighed a huge breath of relief when Alyssa started to worm her way through the cables and said “no way!”  It wasn’t about reaching the summit (although we would have loved to!), it was about knowing our limits and listening to our intuition. There’s a 98% chance we would have made it through the cables ok, but we weren’t going to go against our rules just to prove a point to ourselves. Alas, at 13,000 feet and almost 8 miles, our battle on Whitney was over…or so I thought.

The hike back was hideously long. We started feeling gungy just below Trail Camp and I blame the energy gels, Clif bars, and power bars (read: pure chemicals that didn’t agree with our stomachs). I had never eaten an energy bar before, so I was so excited to try all of my sweet treats in flavors like cookie dough and toffee peanut. By the end I never wanted to touch a bar again in my life. I was almost in tears the last hour to the car, stabbing my trekking poles into the trail and feeling almost nauseous because my feet were so sore from walking for over 12 hours.  As usual Alyssa flew down the mountain and waited for Andre and me for about 45 minutes. I was going down at a pace just shy of a jog. I wanted to get back to the car so badly!

About to request a heli lift at Trail Meadow

I would HIGHLY recommend camping overnight if you are lucky enough to win the lottery for a permit.  We started our hike just before 4 am when it was still dark out.  I didn’t get back to the car until 6 pm—and we did less than 16 of the 22 total miles!  When you’re doing physical activity for that long, even at a very easy walking pace, it takes a toll on you mentally and physically.

THE AFTERMATH
Burgers and onion rings at The Mt. Whitney was our condolence food for hiking 15.6 miles and not reaching summit. We only slept a few hours the night before and after being in the sun hiking for 13 hours we were tired. Lone Pine is a curious little town and there’s not much to do there but eat at mom and pop restaurants. It’s like a cousin to the not-so-far-away desert towns. Don’t get me wrong though, I loved it! I have every intention of going back and conquering Mt. Whitney!

A2B POINTERS

-Get some good quality gear: the employees at REI are really helpful when it comes to picking out boots and other items you’ll need

-Come up with a game plan ahead of time: ie if you don’t reach the summit by X time, it’s time to turn around

-Only walk about 1-1.5 miles per hour (yes, you will feel like a snail but trust me, you won’t burn out 2/3 of the way up and it gives you a chance to acclimate)

-Keep refueling once an hour even when you’re not hungry

-Drink approx 1 litre of water per hour even when you’re not thirsty (I was peeing about 3-4x per hour)

-Bring some sort of water purification system with you.  There’s no way you’ll be able to pack all the water you’ll need so you’ll have to collect from the streams.  I brought a UV light Steripen which worked great and was easy to fit in my backpack

-Layer, layer, layer! There were times I stripped down to a tank top and five minutes later had to put all of my layers on because of the wind

-Trust your gut—if you’re not 95% confident about something, don’t do it

-I am anti-sunscreen but because of the altitude you will fry! Make sure you’re wearing a big enough hat or put some SPF on

-Talk to Doug at the Whitney Portal Store.  He is by far the most informative person we talked to

Tree Huggers

It’s funny how all the negative feelings faded completely by the next day.  I would 100% hike it again and can’t wait to summit next time!