Mount Whitney: Highest Point in the lower 48

Dean and I began our trip to Mt Whitney in a luxurious motor home, which served as our base camp in Whitney Portal and later in Death Valley and on to San Diego, but I diverge. On the way from Placerville we blew a tire at about 8:30 pm and nearly an hour and a half from our campsite on June 2nd.  Fortunately, AAA and Dean's initiative led to  a quick resolution to our problem, with a very hard working road service man showing up with heavy duty equipment to change our tire and send us on our way.  The road up to Whitney Portal at night was steep and harrowing, but we were determined to make camp and did so successfully that night, just before midnight.

The next day we used our time to enjoy a cowboy museum in Lone Pine and prepare our supplies to begin climbing Whitney on June 4th.

Mt Whitney is dramatically different from Yosemite Valley.  It's much more wild and rustic, at times it seems prehistoric, a moonscape.

We had our work cut out for us on the first day.  The plan was to gain nearly 4000 vertical feet and over 7 miles with 50 lbs of equipment in our packs.  We began climbing just before 6:00 am.  As it turned out, we received warnings regarding 50-75 mph winds that night.  So we chose to camp lower at Outpost Camp nearly 1500 feet and 3 miles lower than our original plan.  We stopped at 2:00 in the afternoon and set up our tent about an hour before the wind began to howl.  It turned  out to be a great decision.  Our camp afforded some protection from winds that did approach 70 mph during the night.  At one point Dean held the tent down from the inside while I wrestled it from the outside and re-hammered the stakes that had pulled out.  We piled giant stones on the stakes to hold them in place for the rest of the night and tried to sleep.  At the first sight of daylight we were up and packed, leaving our camp behind to return that night after our summit attempt.  We faced a 14 mile round trip hike with 4000 feet of elevation gain to reach the top at 14,497 feet.

The water on the edge of a running stream was frozen, the temperature had plunged during the night, but the wind was beginning to die down and we finished our breakfast determined to make our best attempt.

At first we continued to have wind gusts approaching 30 mph, but by mid-morning it was sunny and beautiful.  We paced ourselves and stopped to eat and drink about every hour.  The climbing was nearly constant once we reached our intended camp at 12,000 feet.  Most of those who camped there had abandoned their attempt with their tents shredded by the high winds with little or no protection.  While we faced a much longer day, we were happy we still had a clear shot to climb the mountain.
Much of the trip up the 99 switch backs to Trail Crest is a blur of cardiac max out and the shear will to put one foot in front of the other.

As we reached the top of the switch backs we stopped to catch our breath, eat and drink.  We were not aware until we began again how close we were to the most magnificent view of the entire hike.  We stepped through an opening in the mountain and from horizon to horizon nothing but beautiful mountains and the Kings Canyon/ Sequoia National Park below us.

A small sample of the view near Trail Crest

It was getting late enough in the day that I was now having doubts about the wisdom of going to the summit.  I was pretty sure that we were facing some portion of the hike down in the dark, but the weather was perfect and promised to continue that way.  AT some point during the next hour very close to 14, 000 feet on the Pinnacles, Dean sent word that he wanted me to go for the summit and he would wait for me back at Trail Crest.  When I heard that, I " put the throttle down and went for the summit.  It was approaching 4:00 pm when I arrived, only one other climber was there and he left quickly.  I signed the register, took a few good hard looks around and headed back for "home".  It took me about an hour and a half to get back to Dean.  We made it down the most dangerous parts of the climb before dark, but had to hike for two hours on a dark trail with our headlamps before finally reaching camp, about 7 hours after leaving the summit.  It was a spectacular and exhausting day!

The Summit Plaque On Mt. Whitney

This hut atop the summit can be used as shelter in an emergency

On Top, Tired but happy!

The next morning Dean and I awoke again at dawn, quickly packed out and got to our morning chore, new tires for the motor home.  Then having conquered the highest point in the lower 48, we headed to Death Valley for a swim, a drink, a good meal and some relaxation near the lowest point in America, Badwater.

That white sign on the hill marks sea level!

Death Valley