Day 15 : Whitney Portal

Sunday July 13, 2014
14 Miles Today
243 Total Miles

I never really went to sleep last night. Right after the sun set the wind picked up. Then it picked up some more, and it just kept picking up. Soon a gale was blowing my little tent this way and that. The women that were camped next to the site I setup on said the winds were strong the night before. I lazed around the entire afternoon. Like the grasshopper in Aesop's Fable. I wasted the day when I could have put boulders on each of my tent stakes. Since I didn't do that, the wind pulled them up one at a time. I would go out of my tent and find a huge rock and put it on the stake that came loose. Then I'd get back in the tent and another one would pull loose. Why didn't I put boulders on every stake the first time I got up? Oh, things are so much clearer in the light of day. I didn't think of that then.

The last straw came when the wind blew dust into my tent, gritty black dust all over everything, including me. I looked at my clock, one-thirty AM. It's time. I began packing my backpack inside my tent. I got everything packed, dusty grit and all except the tent. I was afraid that the tent would blow away when I got out of the tent and removed  my stuff. There I was by the light of the full moon. Pulling out the poles and laying on my gritty tent. I reached out and removed one stake at a time then I just rolled the tent into a big ball and stuffed it in its sack.

I went over and woke up Felix and Kevin. I doubt they were sleeping, they were cowboy camping and hiding inside their sleeping bags from the dusty wind and the full moon. I asked them if they wanted to summit with me. The three of us were on the trail to the summit of Mt. Whitney by two AM.

The higher we climbed the colder it got. I am sure that by the time we reached the summit I was hypothermic. I was so cold it seemed I couldn't get warm. It was hard to talk, I kept slurring my words. We entered the summit hut. It was already full of Russians. I squeezed in and put on my down coat and hood. And stood there waiting to warm up. It was five AM.

The sun was already turning the sky pink and orange to the east. I went out and took a few pictures and got even colder. Back in the hut for me. I ate a Clif bar and drank some water. I tried waving my arms and stamping my feet. What I really wanted to do was have a hot drink or better yet sit in a hot tub. No luck on either option. 

The wind died down and Felix came in and told me so. I went back out and took some more pictures. It was the most astounding sunrise that I had ever witnessed. The whole summit experience, cold and everything was the perfect capstone on a most incredible trip. 

The hike down the Whitney Portal from the summit is long and steep. I was really surprised to see how many people would make that ardous climb from Whitney Portal to the trail camp. It was really crowded. After all of the beautiful places I have seen on this hike I would rate Trail Camp at a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is Eeew and 10 is spectacular. 

Day 14 : Guitar Lake

Saturday July 12, 2014
6 Miles Today
229 Total Miles

I arrived mid morning at Guitar Lake. None of the friends that I have met along the way were here. I assume that Jason, Jana, and Merrick made it here last night and left early this morning to go to the summit and head out to Whitney Portal. I have no wish to revel any further today. 

My plan is to be awake around nine-thirty or ten when the moon should rise over Mt Whitney. I hope to get some pictures of that. To facilitate that I have found a campsite where I can setup my tent facing east. I am trying to get some rest this afternoon as I will be up taking pictures and then a few hours later I will get up to begin my ascent of Mt Whitney. My goal is to arrive at the summit about one half hour before sunrise. 

There are no clouds at all and the sun and the radiation off of the rocks makes it extra warm. There are no trees so my only shelter from the sun is my tent. That works great if there is a breeze. Without the breeze it's like sitting in a solar oven. My second strategy is to sit out where there is a breeze in a soaking wet shirt. This strategy seems to be the most comfortable at this point.

One of the good things about all this radiation is that my solar charger is working great. I have it plugged directly into my phone and it is charging while I write.

Waiting for the sun to set is like watching grass grow. Nothing seems to be happening unless you doing something else for a while then come back and check again. There was finally enough shade behind a rock for me to rest comfortably in the shade. A guy named Phil showed up. He is cowboy camping out in the field. His base pack weight is around ten pounds, he travels without a stove or a tent. He said the last time he was here was last October in a snow storm... Without a tent or stove. Not my idea of a fun way to travel.

Felix and Kevin showed up later on the afternoon and they are camped in the site next to mine. They re supplied at Onion Valley and actually had some friends hiking in with them. The friends turned back because to altitude was too much too fast. We are all planning to wake up around twoish to hike to the top by moonlight and be there before the sunrise. 

Super Full Moonrise over Mt Whitney

Day 13 : Wallace Creek

Friday July 11, 2014
14 Miles Today
223 Total Miles

I've got short-timeritus. It's Friday and I have gone over Forester Pass. The terrain has changed into a high altitude plateau. There are few trees except down in the valleys where the creeks run. Away from the creeks it looks like a rocky desert wasteland. As I sit and write I sit on the biggest rock on the Bighorn Plateau. It's really not much of a rock compared to some of the rocks I have climbed over on this trip. 

My friends Jason, Jana, and Merrick are considering camping here if the weather is nice. Right now the weather is fabulous. My friends however are probably about three hours from arriving here. Three hours in these mountains and it could be raining...

...Jason, Jana, and Merrick had a change of plans. They now want to exit on Saturday rather than Sunday. This means they have to put in big miles, bigger than I want to do. We hiked together from Bighorn Plateau where I bid them adieu. They were a lot a fun to hike with and were really fun to talk with.

Wallace Creek is a great temperature I completely submerged myself for only the second time in thirteen days. Like last time, I combined laundry and bathing into a single convenient process. I am now resting in my tent while my wash-and-wear clothes dry. 

I left my camp early this morning. Earlier than my normal early. The climb to Forester Pass was some of the coldest hiking I have done all trip. The wind whipped down from the pass right into my face. It was cold enough that I had to change out of my traditional hiking attire into my more formal mountaineering wear. I was surprised how much better and stronger I felt climbing Forester compared to Glen or Mather. Forester is higher. Perhaps it is the lighter pack weight and that I have been living at ten thousand feet for over a week.

As I climbed I ate snacks. I had potato chips, M&Ms, Beef Jerky, dehydrated blueberries, a white chocolate and macadamia nut Clif bar, cashews, almonds and pistachios. The climb seems easier when I am eating. I need to make sure I save a lot of snacks for Whitney.

I found the plaque that Paul has told me about.

For some reason the Simon and Garfunkel song Sound of Silence was bouncing around in my head. That song I have never liked. There is a line in it "...to the ____ god they made." I kept trying to think of what kind of god they made. I have no idea why that phrase kept repeating itself over and over again. I tried every word I could think of in the blank. Then suddenly right before the summit I remembered 'neon', "to the neon god they made." 

I met a couple of guys on the pass who started a day after me and will finish a day before. They were really putting the miles in. 

There are ten Boy Scouts and leaders camped here at Wallace Creek. They have the same itinerary as I do. Guitar Lake tomorrow night then summit Mt. Whitney on Sunday. I think they then plan to camp one more night before Whitney Portal whereas I plan to hike all the way out on Sunday.

Mt. Whitney in the distance.

Mustache cloud

It's about four miles from Guitar Lake to the summit. I think that if I leave by three-thirty AM I should be on the summit by five thirty. That gives me about thirty minutes of pre dawn wiggle room.