Extremely hard but incredibly worth it!

Not many people spontaneously decide to climb one of the highest peaks in North America, but when my aunt extended the offer I couldn’t resist. Climbing Mt. Whitney sounded like a great adventure and a worthwhile reason to skip a day of work!

Had I ever climbed a mountain? – NO. Did I own hiking boots? – NO. Had I ever done more than a 6 mile hike? – NO. Although I was not prepared to hike Mt. Whitney, I am always down to try something new and push outside my comfort zone.

I definitely expected to be writing a post titled “The 5 Things that went Wrong on Mt Whitney” or “11 Things I Wish I had known before the Hike,” but thankfully I did not acquire enough content to bring one of these posts to life.

So instead, here is my 3 Day Adventure on Mt. Whitney:

Day 1:

If you are unfamiliar with Mt. Whitney, it is the highest summit in the contiguous United States and the Sierra Nevada. Eleven miles gets you to the summit at 14,505 ft. Acquiring a permit is the first step in climbing Mount Whitney – my aunt is a rock star and managed to obtain 10 overnight permits! You can learn more about the Whitney lottery here. There are two types of permits – Overnight and day pass. You couldn’t  pay me to do the whole thing in one day – even if you are in great shape, altitude sickness is no joke and can affect anyone.

 

Hanging at the Whitney Portal Campground

Our permit dates were for August 21/22 (Sun/Mon), so we caravanned out to Lone Pine, CA on Saturday to start acclimating. We picked up our permits, bear canisters and WAG Bags (will describe later) and then headed to the Whitney Portal Campground. My jaw dropped the second we arrived at Whitney Portal Campground. The area is nestled under giant trees and has a beautiful creek running through it. I felt like I had walked into another world, quite the contrast to my normal scenery in LA.

We quickly got to exploring and hiked up along the stream to the Whitney trailhead. Here an impressive waterfall greets you. It is not a part of the Whitney Trail but you can climb up pretty high along the waterfall. We had high ambitions that it would lead us to Lone Pine Lake (follow the water to the source right?). Unfortunately it did not, but we got some awesome views from the top and enjoyed off-roading a bit.

Waterfall near the Trail Head

 

 

 

When we met up with the rest of the pack at the base of the waterfall, we continued our quest to hike up to Lone Pine Lake via the Whitney Trail (you can do this portion without a permit). Initially we heard it was only a mile up the trail, but as we kept walking it seemed like people were telling us it was farther and farther away. We decided to save our energy for the actual hike the next day and headed back down to the base to have a burger at the Whitney Portal store and enjoy our time in the campground.

 

Day 2:

Having an overnight permit allows you to break up the Mt. Whitney hike. Our group decided that we would hike the first 6 miles to trail camp, spend the night, and then summit and complete the descent on the second day. Camping at the Whitney Portal Campground allowed us to acclimate a little bit and situate us really close to the start of the trail. Since we only had to hike 6 miles the first day we were able to leisurely get our gear together and even grab a filling hot breakfast from the Whitney Store. I have never seen a pancake so big in my life, a nice carbo load before a long hike.

Adventure about to Begin

Around 9 AM we began our hike. Everyone weighed their bags before we took off – mine came in at 31 lbs, a lot better than the 50 lbs my uncle was carrying. We began our adventure – a long caravan of smiles and backpacks.

The first 6 miles of the trail are easily the most beautiful. Every time we turned the corner we were stunned by the beauty that surrounded us. From beautiful lakes, to wide open meadows, to the countless amounts of waterfalls we saw along the way. I have never seen so much beauty in one place. I am so thankful that we had overnight permits because this allowed us to take in all the scenery in a relaxing way. We spent almost an hour swimming and hanging out at Lone Pine Lake, we took many photo pit stops, and we spent a long time resting in the meadow by the ice waterfall.

 

Lone Pine Lake

The Meadow

 

 

Ice Waterfall and Meadow

People who hike Whitney in a day miss a lot of this because it is usually dark when they are passing these parts, and by the time you are on the way down you really just want to hurry up and finish.

It took us 6 hours to hike to Trail Camp the first day (on the way back it took less than 3). Arriving to Trail Camp in the afternoon was nice because there was not that much to do up there. We mostly just set up camp, refilled waters and ate food. It was nice to have a book and some playing cards to pass time until the sun went down.

Trail Camp Views

 

 

 

A couple amazing realizations happened on this day:

Freeze Dried Food:

I got to experience my first Freeze Dried food! I was excited to see if my Chicken Terryaki and rice would actually taste/look like Chicken Terryaki. Just add boiling water and wait about 10 minutes and you have a full meal at your hands. The dinner tasted great, and was a nice contrast to the PB&Js and Cliff Bars I had consumed all day. I would definitely recommend the Mountain House brand!

Water Filters:

To express how little hiking experience I have had… Before climbing Mt. Whitney, I never understood how people on long treks were able to keep a solid water supply. Turns out you just need a small filter to purify all the water you need. You can literally attach the filter to a water bottle filled with creek water and drink straight from the filter. I was mind blown!

WAG Bags:

You are not allowed to take a dump on the Whitney Trail. With every permit they provide a WAG bag. We were excited to see who would need to use the WAG bag first. It basically consist of a big plastic bag that you squat over to do your business and then tie up when you’re finished. Pretty easy, the only bummer is having to carry your poop back down the mountain.

Marmots/ Bear Canisters:

Can you find the Marmot?

In addition to WAG Bags, the park services provides you with Bear Canisters, or more like Marmot canisters. Although the terrain at Trail Camp is pretty barren, there are still a lot of animals that manage to survive up there. One of them being Marmots – these are really fat, fluffy oversized ground hog looking animals. They look cute, but they are demons. They will literally try to eat anything that has a smell. One even tried to eat through a tub of Icy Hot that accidentally was not put into the canister – I’m sure the Marmot did not enjoy that. Anyways, make sure you have enough bear canisters to fit all your food, toothpaste, etc. because those little guys will find it.

The Stars:

Holy cow the stars are AMAZING! I just wish it was easier to sit and gaze at them while on the mountain. It gets extremely cold once the sun goes down so we were all tucked in our sleeping bags before it got dark enough to see all the stars. Fortunately, I had drank so much water that day that I had to pee at least 3 times that night and I got a lovely view each time. I have never seen the milky-way so clear, and shooting stars were in abundance! They also felt so close, like I could reach out and take a scoop of stars from the sky.

Day 3:

We woke up at 5 AM to pack up our belongings and finish the last 5 miles to the summit. A huge benefit of camping at Trail Camp is that you get to leave your large pack there and just take a small back pack to the top. This made hiking so much easier. It’s really cold in the morning and at the summit so we wore a lot of layers. I had on a fleece, down jacket, leggings and cotton pants. I hiked all the way to the top in this and never got too hot.

Cloudy sunrise, but still beautiful!

99 Switch Backs:

This part is probably the most physically and mentally challenging part of the trail. It consists of 99 switchbacks to get to the top of the ridge. We stared at this daunting task the whole time we were at Trail Camp. The switchbacks are not very steep, but you feel like you have walked so far and barely gone anywhere. Thankfully we were fresh and half asleep when we ascended them and it did not feel too lengthy (I felt like the way down was much worse.)

At the end of the 99 Switchbacks. Incredible view into Sequoia National Forest

Once you complete the 99 Switchbacks you actually end up on the backside of the mountain with a stunning view down into Sequoia National Forest. From here it’s about 2.5 miles to the Summit and you only gain about 1,500 ft. However, the terrain is a little more difficult here. The trail is narrow and you have to maneuver around a lot of granite slabs, sometimes even needing to use all fours.

Rugged terrain of the last 2.5 miles

The altitude is also a significant factor here and makes you move a lot slower and need a lot more breaks. I am glad I went slowly, trying not to ever get my heart rate up, because I made it to the summit without altitude side effects. You get a clear view of the summit when you are about 2 miles out. It is exciting but also daunting because it looks so far away. The last stretch of the trail is a little hard to define and I ended up just scrambling over a bunch of boulders until I made it to the top.

The Summit:

I was the first of our group to make it to the summit! The euphoria I felt still feels tangible. I was on such an adrenaline high. We had finally made it! After signing the log book I headed out towards the peak to take in the view.

That Was Easy!

It was incredible to see how far we had hiked! The craziest thing is that there is cell service on the summit! My phone had already died but others were able to FaceTime their family from the peak! My whole family made it to the summit of Mt. Whitney, all 10 of us!  I was stoked because statistics say only 30% of the people who attempt the climb actually summit. We definitely beat the odds! It was rad to share the experience with such a big group of family and friends.

Schuck Yes! We all made it!

 

Living on the Edge

 

My Sister and I at the Summit

 

The Descent:

I spent about 30 minutes at the summit, and then had to swallow the reality that I still had 11 miles to hike. The stoke of summiting lasted about 2 of those miles, and then all I could think about was how do I get off this mountain as fast as possible. My sister started feeling the effects of Altitude Poisoning when we were at the top so we had to help her get down the mountain quickly. She was a walking zombie, but a very fast one. I felt bad because her experience of summiting was definitely hindered because she felt very sick. By the time we made it back to Trail Camp my feet and knees were already hurting pretty bad. I didn’t have any blisters, but the impact of the downhill on my joints definitely hurt. I’m thinking that trekking poles would have made this a little better. Most people had them, I did not. We spent almost an hour recouping at Trail Camp and waiting for my sister to feel better.  I was not looking forward to throwing my large pack back on. The last 6 miles I felt like gravity was doing most of the work and was just trying not to eat shit. My mind and body were both exhausted and all I could think about was the pain in my legs. I was motivated to be done. I knew there was a freezing cold stream to relieve my tired feet at the end of the trail and I could not get their fast enough. I actually ended up running the last half mile of the trail because it was easier on my knees than trying to fight the downhill and gravity.

Squad at the Finish Line

The End:

Complete happiness when I reached the bottom of the trail. I had officially done it! After 10 hours of hiking, I threw my whole body in the freezing water, a perfect ice bath, and waited for the rest of the crew to finish. Everyone was beaming at the bottom. The feeling of accomplishment masked the pain and tiredness and left us all smiling. We took a big group photo at the bottom, bought some Mt. Whitney souvenirs and jumped in our cars to make the drive back to LA knowing we would get the best sleep of our lives that night.

Thankful we were done with the hike