According to Wikipedia, Mount Whitney, in the native Paiute language is Too-man-i-goo-yah. Perhaps in my case, it should have been, dumb-man-i-go-yah? A confluence of events drew me to this mountain, none of which was planned a fortnight prior. In fact, a summit of Mt. Whitney was never on my to-doo list and almost didn't happen. This all starts with a certain German and the Badwater marathon.
Do you remember your first exposure to the Badwater marathon? This grueling race starts at the lowest point in Death Valley below sea level, in the middle of summer, goes 135 miles, ending up at Whitney Portal, the trailhead to Mt. Whitney at 8,200 ft. Your first real exposure may have been the documentary "Running on the Sun", which for whatever reason, has German subtitles. Well, this year I was asked to join a team to crew a German running the Badwater. When we moved back to California, one of my spousal stipulations was that I not sign up to run the Badwater. Well,... loophole found!
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| Sunrise into Lone Pine |
Mid-April, our fearless runner asked if I could meet him in Death Valley, for introductions and to scout the course. My better half being half-way across the country, I thought why not, and while I'm there, there is this mountain I could do some training on. Also, it's the last weekend before permits to Whitney become really hard to obtain.
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| Mt.Whitney in the middle. It's been a dry year. Trail conditions should be good, right? |
What is an adventure? It's when you embark on something without knowing what's going to happen. Initial trail conditions were good, there were a hundred cars parked at the trailhead, all signs pointing to something resembling your average mountain trail run/hike, albeit well over 10,000 ft elevation.
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| Starting up the trail |
The trail is divided into five sections, starting at Whitney Portal, 8,200 ft- 3.3 miles, 10,000 ft, Lone Pine Lake
- 4.8 miles, 10,700 ft, Mirror Lake and Outpost Camp
- 6.5 miles, 12,000 ft, Trail Camp
- 8.8 Miles, 13,600 ft, Trail Crest
- 10.8 miles, 14,500 ft, Mt. Whitney
For most mountaineers, they recommend two or three nights for the trip, overnighting at Trail Camp, a day trip to the summit, with a potential prologue night at Outpost Camp for elevation acclimating.
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| Clear trails to Lone Pine Lake |
The weather report should not the be comforting for overnighters. Those taking advantage of the permit-free weekend should be prepared for temps town to -1F with winds up to 50 mph. For me, Saturday would be just below freezing but gusty. Not very comfortable, but at least sunny.
I lost the trail under the snow after Mirror Lake, veering a few meters too far to the left. I started to following footprints up a chute farther to my left but corrected course when I realized that the trail would not be that close to a rockfall. I later learned that a noob tourist got lost in that area earlier in the week and was recovered the day before.
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| I think these are footprints. Either way get myself up there |
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| Consultation Lake |
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| Consultation Lake for you phone viewers |
Once I got to Consultation Lake, there was no question where I was. Trails and creeks can hide under snow but lake sure can't, even when they are frozen. I hadn't seen anyone for nearly two hours, but Trail Camp here was bustling. At last I was surrounded by the relative safety of others. That would not last long.
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| There's a chute there somewhere |
The final section up the mountain to Trail Crest is an arduous 2.3 miles and +1,600 ft gain. On paper that doesn't sound terrible, but the trail is hard to find, on a steep slope covered in hard snow. Plant ice ax, move left foot, move right foot, make sure feet are secure, pick up ice ax and repeat. It was slow going, just one mile per hour. Same going down.
On this section, I saw several climbers to my right going up and then down a steep chute. I wondered if the trail was actually in that direction but thankfully it was not. I ran into only one other hiker on this hill. He was coming down as I neared the top. He and his 30-yr old son were climbing the chute when this old fart came to his sense and decided the switchbacks were the way to go. I gave myself one more hour to summit. For safety reasons, it's best to settle on a turnaround time before starting. Considering winter-like conditions, I gave myself a 6 hour cutoff.
From Trail Top, at just four minutes before my self-imposed cutoff, I got a glimpse into the glorious view of Sequoia National Park.
The descent wasn't much faster. In fact, pretty not at all faster until I got to the final section below Lone Pine Lake. I jogged and shuffled a bit, at least enough to call this a "run". Cleaned up at the car, had a cup-o-noddles, and then went into town for a recovery burger. Drove an hour into Death Valley and camped.
By morning, I had a breakfast burrito from the gas station in Stovepipe Wells. Microwave burritos are excellent in the right context. That gave me enough fuel for an hour bike ride, to kill time before I was to meet my Badwater runner.
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| I climbed for what felt like 10 minutes and came to this sign |
All in all, an amazing trip. I felt extremely fortunate that everything turned out to enable the trip and that my beach side home was only a few hours drive home. Mountains, deserts, beaches. We have a lot to be thankful for.
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