Mount Whitney

Californians do not take their altitude lightly 

Logistics:

• Whitney is 22 miles out and back trip. While it would make for a long day hike, I argue that it is well within reach to do in one day; parts of the trail are even runnable (adding an interesting challenge to this summit).

• To hike Mount Whitney, apply for a permit ~6 months in advance of your trip (sometime in April). Good news, you can list up to 15 choices, so it is likely you will get a date!

• Consider if you want to hike Whitney in a day, or hike halfway to Trail Camp, stay overnight, summit and hike out the next day.

• Wait 6 months.

• Book a campsite for the night prior to your Whitney ascent  - highly recommended to book Whitney Portal for the convenience and altitude acclimation.

Recap:

Prior to hiking Mount Whitney I read dozens of trip reports warning of the effects of altitude sickness, many suggesting additional days at altitude before attempting the colossal task of summiting the tallest peak in the lower 48. While much of this is sage advice, and thoroughly convinced me, it is important to keep in mind the majority of society is comprised of “Normies” (as FDK has dubbed normal folk who do not exercise regularly and sometimes in the extreme) for whom such advice might actually be relevant. I suggest attempting the next Whitney summit as a HOG (hike/jog).

E and I headed out to Whitney on Saturday morning with the goal of hitting the ranger station in Lone Pine before 4:30. We chose to make a loop out of the drive – first driving south through Bakersfield and making a giant U up to the Eastern Sierras. We made the ranger station in Lone Pine around 3pm with plenty of time to spare, checked in, and were informed the station was fresh out of “Wag Bags” (adorably-named plastic baggies you are expected to poop in for the duration of your time on Whitney Trail), but not to worry! The local outdoor store down the road had extras. So we hopped in the car, drove two miles and requested our poop bags for the weekend. To which the owner replied, “We’re fresh out”, without offering an alternative.  I balked, “where do you suggest I poop for the weekend?” she finally offered a “Smelly Bag”, a small, black plastic bag traditionally used to store weed. I requested two.

Non-traditional poop bag for the weekend

After our delightful experience in town we drove up the freshly paved road to Whitney Portal Campground. A word of caution here, Lone Pine is aptly named, in that there is not much to look at. Some dumpy piles of dirt comprise the Alabama Hills and some odd boulders makeup a rock climber’s playground in the desert. When you come to a campground you’ll likely think it is Whitney Portal, but quite the contrary you can drive another 1000+ feet in elevation to a second campground in an odd forest oasis above the desert scrub. This much nicer campground is the gem you want.

Picturesque little campground above the scrub

We opted for the overnight permit at Trail Camp, which allowed us a leisurely morning on Sunday. Six uphill miles were all that was on the agenda. The next morning we parked, read informative signs that set the proper expectation not to be rescued and fully disclosed the dangers of altitude sickness, and began our hike up. It was surprisingly hot, temperatures in the 70s, but the following weekend it snowed, proving weather in the mountains will always be highly unpredictable. All told it wasn’t bad, and without the packs it would have been even better. We made it to Trail Camp in a little over three hours.

Trail Camp - I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of people

Trail Camp is at the base is Whitney. You hike through what E calls a “gully” (not quite grand enough to be a gorge) between two mountains. Trail Camp is largely rock and a small lake, highly exposed, and windy, situated at 12,000 feet. More acclimation!

view of the "gully" on the hike up

Not bad scenery in the alpine country

The biggest take away from this for me was it is hard to sleep at 12,000 feet. Knowing we’d have a God-early start we hopped in the tent, listened to our creepy audio book, and planed to sleep by 8pm….come 4am I was still awake. E didn’t get much sleep either. Turns out it’s pretty damn hard to get comfortable at that elevation. I’d read a few dozen reports on this but didn’t really believe the Normies…I was totally wrong.

One of those peaks is Whitney

We started our ascent of Whitney the next morning at 4:45. The final summit of Whitney is a long series of switchbacks up the face, before dropping over a ridge, and summiting from the back.  Many reports complain about the switchbacks, perhaps tackling them in the dark helped, but again I didn’t find them too bad. Once we dropped over the ridge the path was more exposed and the sun was rising. I was fairly running to summit, giddy with the prospect of catching the sunrise. Whitney is surround by several peaks (given a picture of the range I still couldn’t identify Whitney properly), which create these pillars above the trail and excellent vantage points for the rising sun. I was in heaven, forgetting my vertigo and climbing between the pillars to catch the same sunrise a few dozen times.  Alas, we did not make it to the summit before the sun was fully up, but we still got to stand at the height of the lower 48! A pretty awesome experience.

The view of the mountains sitting behind Whitney is equally beautiful!

View from between the pillars looking out toward Trail Camp on the way to the summit

made it! 

The hike out was largely uneventful. I made E take most of my pack weight (FDK will recall the how brutal the Cascades were on my knees), so for me it wasn’t bad. Those last two miles I was about done with the trip and ready for a real bathroom and running water, but all told I was pleasantly surprised the trip didn’t prove to be the misery many trip reports promised.

We made it to the car and started the second half of our loop up to Yosemite. We drove through Bishop for a Dirty Hippie (Chai Latte with a shot of espresso) and some epic almond croissants from Schat’s, and then on to Lee Vining for a “fancy gas station” dinner of the best fish tacos I’ve ever had.

Sunset over Tenaya Lake before our quest to find a campground in Yosemite 

All told it was a lovely trip. I’ll apply for a permit in April if anyone cares to repeat this adventure next fall.