The following is a brief account of my recent, successful attempt to summit Mt. Whitney.
My plan was to leave San Diego on Sunday, August 14, and spend that night and the next at the Horseshoe Meadows/Cottonwood Lakes Campground, in the Eastern Sierra. The campgrounds are at 10,400 feet elevation, and only about 20 miles from the Mt. Whitney trail head, so I figured it would be a great spot to acclimate to the high altitude. It was both beautiful, and relaxing. On Tuesday, August 16, I planned to start my hike on the Mt. Whitney Main Trail from Whitney Portal, elevation 8,300 feet. That day I would hike up the 6 miles of trail to my "base camp": Trial Camp, elevation 12,000 feet. From there, the following morning, Wednesday, August 17, I planned to make my summit attempt. I was going to spend the rest of that day and night, after (hopefully) summiting, at the same campsite - followed by a hike out the next morning. I stuck to every part my plan except for staying a second night at Trail Camp. This was because I developed a bad case of " Cheyne-Stokes respiration" at 12,000 feet. That's the doc's jargon for altitude induced sleep apnea. According to what I've read it occurs because of the affect of altitude on your blood chemistry. Altitude lowers your blood/Co2 concentration, which is your strongest subconscious trigger to breath. So, since your blood/Co2 levels drop significantly at altitude, your brain doesn't tell your lungs to breathe. At least not until the level of oxygen in your blood drops. Then you wake up gasping. It only happens when you're sleeping because no one forgets to breathe when they're awake! I also got a little homesick after three days alone on the mountain, and I decided after summiting at 9:20 in the morning that I could be down by 2pm, and home before 8pm. It wasn't a very hard decision.
Without further ado, here is my trip report - with pictures!
DAY 1:
One of many stream crossings on the lower part of the trail. I saw some small Golden Trout at this crossing.
They're super pretty, little fish.
Lone Pine Lake. About two miles into the trail. My first real stop to look around.
A nice waterfall at the top a really pretty alpine meadow.
Here's is that meadow.
Blue Grouse. One of a handful of new birds added to the list. (Along with Clarke's Nutcracker, and Black-capped Rosey Finches.)
Taken just above Mirror Lake. Every fifth lake in the Sierras is named Mirror Lake.
Consultation Lake. It appeared just as I turned the corner of a switchback, about 3-4 miles into my first day of hiking.
The view from my campsite the day before summiting. Mt. Whitney is the tallest peak, in the middle. It's about 2,500 feet above.
Me, not feeling too hot, at 12,000 feet. I slept terribly.
DAY 2:
The beginning of the trail on summit day. This portion is known as the "99 switchbacks", even though there are only 97. The trail zig-zags to the left, between the snow fields in the foreground, then to the right, and up that steep slope, just to the left of the smaller snow field in the background. By the end you've ascended 1,700 feet.
The Trail Crest sign, at 13,600 feet. It's about a quarter mile past the top of the "99 switchbacks". The trail descends about 100 feet between the two points.
The view from the top of the switchbacks, down to my campsite. My tent is setup on the right shoreline of that green lake, at the topmost edge of the snow.
A bad picture off the backside of ridge of peaks in which lies Mt. Whitney. Those millions of acres of wilderness back there are in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
The view down into Owens Valley from the summit of Mt. Whitney. It was about 100 degrees down there (death valley is just on the other side of the mountain range in the background), and about 50 degrees on the summit
WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!! Yours truly at the top of Mt. Whitney. 14,497 feet. It felt amazing standing up there. Especially knowing that I did it alone. I was pretty proud of myself for seeing the trip through, despite everyone dropping out on me at the last minute. Every day I had to push a little beyond my comfort zone, and summon the nerve to go on. Being alone (basically)in the wilderness for 3 nights, and 4 days, can be pretty challenging mentally. There were a few times I didn't think I'd finish. Eventually I got the job done, though.
The sum of all hiking time/distance - 13 hrs/22mi. Day one: base camp - 6mi, 4 hours. Day two: 1st leg - Summit 5mi, 3.5 hours/2nd leg - decent 11mi, 5hrs. Not too shabby.
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