The Mt. Whitney Day Hike

Brutal! The trail itself wasn't too difficult -- just LONG -- and the altitude past 12,000 ft affected me. Fatal mistake: not spending enough time to acclimate. We originally had planned on spending 3 nights at Whitney Portal (8200 ft) before starting the hike to acclimate but we were unable to get a campsite for all of those days and had to plan accordingly. BF planned the trip and after having gotten the permit in February for a September hike, found that mostly everything was full in early July when he looked! I didn't realize it was that popular. What we ended up doing instead was staying 1 night in Bishop (4200 ft) because all the hotels in Lone Pine and Independence were full and spending one night at Whitney Portal. In reality, we got to Whitney Portal in the late afternoon and since we planned on starting the hike in the early morning, we really only spent about 12 hours at 8200 ft.

NOT ENOUGH.

After we picked up our permits and checked into the campsite, we were informed that there was "high bear activity." The ranger told us that we were not allowed to open our bear lockers after dark and that we needed to store anything scented in there (food obviously, but also cosmetics, and even dirty laundry). She said that some bears had been following hikers and that if you set your pack down, a bear might steal it since they associate them with food. There was even a report of a bear growling at a few hikers. Yikes! I was really nervous about this, especially since we would have to grab our packs and food in the dark before the hike at 3 am.

We woke up at 3 am and started hiking by 4 am. The weather was mostly pleasant throughout the hike, ranging from 40-50 degrees. We used headlamps and started at an easy pace. I thought 4 am was early but glancing up, we could see scattered groups of flickering lights along the side of the mountain. I later heard some people had started at midnight! The first two hours in the dark were uneventful... one foot in front of the other... we barely spoke to each other and the sound of footsteps became meditative. By the time we reached Outpost Camp (10,400 ft) the sun had risen and we could see our surroundings. We are slow hikers and were passed by many. I already started feeling the high altitude towards Trail Camp (12,000 ft) which is only the halfway point (6 miles in). We had planned on refilling our camelbaks at Trail Camp using an advanced water purifier. Some advanced system... it didn't work! BF had tried it back home and it did, but we tried it at least a good 5 times before giving up. At this point, I was already thinking, "Oh well, no water... I guess we can't continue on..." Hah.

Luckily (or unluckily for me), some nice hikers let us borrow their water pump and we were able to get 2 more liters of water. Next up, were the "97 switchbacks" to the Trail Crest. Everyone had told me these were horrible, but they were surprisingly not as bad as I thought they would be. I ended up counting them, which I liked, as it gave me something to focus on and break up the work in chunks (just like in swimming!).

I had been having some negative thoughts up to this point, and later told BF that I would have been perfectly fine with turning around earlier and having to face everyone saying that we didn't summit. That is how bad I was feeling. But when we got to the Muir Trail junction and a hiker who had come from the summit told me, "Almost there! Just 2 miles to go!", I felt renewed. 2 more miles? Who can't walk 2 more miles?! That's nothing! Worse case scenario - it will take us 2 hours.

Oh how wrong I was.

Those last 2 miles to the summit were miserable. Parts of the terrain were rough - boulders and loose gravel - which just made for slow travel. The altitude started to affect me a lot by this time and I had to take frequent breaks. I had a pounding headache and was starting to feel a little nauseous.

We finally reached the summit at 2:30 pm (told ya I was slow!) and checked out the impressive view. We ate a bit, signed the register, took some photos, and then started the 11-mile hike back to Whitney Portal.

I already knew we'd be hiking in the dark again but I had no idea it would take us as long as it did. By the time we hit Trail Camp (halfway down), it was almost 7 pm and the sun was starting to set. Shortly after, it was dark again and we were back to using our headlamps. Mine started fading (I think the battery was dying) which meant I now had to walk in front so BF could help shine light for me.

By this time we were tired and cranky. In retrospect, it would have been nice to look at the stars and soak it in, but I wanted to be finished as soon as I could. My feet were achy and my headache hadn't gone away. There were other hikers on the trail still which was comforting at least and we even passed a couple going UP around 9 pm! Maybe they were trying to reach the summit for sunrise?

We finally, FINALLY!, reached the trailhead at Whitney Portal around 10:30 pm. What a grueling, long day! That was the longest hike I've ever done to date in time (18.5 hrs), distance (22 miles), and elevation (14,500 ft). It took us all of 10 minutes to change and jump into the tent for a snore-fest. Although I'm glad I did it, and I suppose it is some kind of "accomplishment", I feel that is one hike I will never need to do again. :)