Q's Adventures: Mt. Whitney (day 1)

14,505.

What's the highest you've ever been?

This past weekend, Chris, Jason, Darren and myself trekked to the tallest mountain in the Continental U.S. with the goal of making it to the top!  Why, you might ask?  Well, why the hell do I do anything?  Because I can!  And because its there!

Friday we took off around 2, went down to Morgan Hill to pick up Jason, and began the drive to beautiful Lone Pine, CA (editors note: Lone Pine is not beautiful).  Somehow, we were able to fit 4 men, 4 backpacks full of overnight backpacking gear, and 4 overnight bags with post-hiking clothes and toiletries into my tiny Mazda 3!  I was so proud of my little car!

Lone Pine is about 400 miles away.  Which means 5 1/2 to 6 hours of driving was ahead of us.  I was very proud of my travelling companions...we made two stops total.  Once in Buttonwillow for gas and Subway, and once in, well, the middle of nowhere on US 395 for a bathroom break.  That's it.  I love it...knocked that drive out!  We checked into the hotel and crashed, ready to start our trek the next day!

Saturday morning we arose in time to have breakfast at the Alabama Hills Cafe before the Eastern Sierra Wilderness Office opened.  At 8, we were at the Wilderness Office to pick up our Whitney permit and rent a bear canister.  Then we packed up the car and drove up to Whitney Portal to begin our ascent of the mountain!

Yeah, that mountain!  The drive up to Whitney Portal is short...only 13 miles, and it goes up about 5,000 feet in elevation from Lone Pine.  It also goes through the Alabama Hills, which apparently are famous for being the set of many Western films and TV Shows!  I dunno about all that, but it was pretty cool!

We got to Whitney Portal just before 10am, packed up, and hit the trail right at 10.  Not too shabby!  We had 6 miles to get through that day...from Whitney Portal (elev. 8400 ft) to Trail Camp (elev. 12,000 ft).  Not a bad trek...but not one we had to pound out quickly.  This gave us ample opportunities to see the sights of the trail on our way up. And, let me tell you, it was incredible!

First we crossed this creek!  It was pretty cool.  Also, of note here, my waterproof hiking shoes ended up actually being waterproof!  SCORE!

That's Darren trekking across Lone Pine Creek.  What an intrepid mountain man he is!  After the creek we pretty much had to trek up this 2 mile stretch that went up to 10,000 ft., where we came to our first real stopping point...Lone Pine Lake!

Tell me that's not freaking gorgeous!  I mean, pictures don't even do it justice...the blue of the water was only surpassed by the blue of the sky...which played well with the white of the mountains and the green of what few trees were actually there.  Unbelievable!  We spent a good hour here, hanging out, exploring, and, well, claiming this territory for the Sharks...

HELL YEAH THIS IS SHARKS TERRITORY!  Anyways, we finally came back, ate quickly, refilled our water bottles, and continued on our way!  Shortly after leaving the lake, we entered the Whitney Zone, where our permits are required!

I guess we're in for the long haul!  Bring it on!  So up we climb, and eventually reach the next flat area...this gorgeous meadow area with some awesome trees, streams, and waterfalls.  It was actually a really nice place, and also the site of one of the two camp areas we could have set up shop at!  Our goal was the higher camp, but this would have been a really nice place to stay.

Above the meadow and the waterfall, we came to our next lake...Mirror Lake!  Mirror Lake was kind of green, as opposed to the brilliant blue of the previous lake.  Which was fine, but not nearly as picturesque.  We stopped here for about half an hour, ate some food, pumped some water, and dunked our heads in the lake.  Man, that felt awesome.

After mirror lake, we moved onward and upward, towards the next meadow and the next stopping point.  However, it was during this particularly brutal upward stretch (that took us above the treeline), that we ran into our group of friends who had gone up the day before and were now headed back down!  Pasha, Craig, Stephen, Adam, and Sean were all coming back down, having successfully completed their ascent that morning!

We chatted with them for about 20 minutes or so, and it was awesome to catch up with the guys.  Especially Sean...I love that guy!  We got the tale of how Stephen got altitude sickness pretty bad, but still made it to the top.  And everyone else made it ok.  Finally, they took off, and we continued our ascent.  This seems to be a good chance to mention that, as we ascended, we talked to those coming down.  And the stories started to come out:

"Yeah, I got so sick at trail camp.  I don't remember much of the ascent."

"I had to turn around 1,000 feet from the top. I just couldn't continue."

Apparently the altitude is no joke.  People really do fail to make it to the top of this thing.  Jason had read that only 1/3 of people who attempt the summit actually make it.  I had read it was close to 1/2...but either way, we were attempting something that most people fail to accomplish.  Our task seemed daunting, but we were up to the challenge!

After this uphill stretch, we came upon this beautiful meadow, with this amazing stream that was starting just above us from a melting snowbank.  It's freaking amazing...so relaxing.  We immediately ditched our shirts to dry off, soak in some rays, and relax.  It was amazing.  Here, take a look:

Haha, ok, we're goofballs.  It happens.  Anyways, we stayed here like an hour.  We really didn't want to leave, but it was getting closer to dinnertime, and we wanted to make it to camp.  The last trek to camp was BRUTAL!  It was about a mile, and straight uphill...not fun.  And we were tired, and ready to be done hiking for the day.  But we eventually made it and set up our little camp.

Camp was really pretty. Up against the final slopes to Whitney, and looking back towards the Eastern mountains on the other side of the Owens Valley.  Very picturesque!  Here's a few of my favorite shots...

I took tons here, but I don't wanna post too many pictures.  We wandered around quite a bit to try and get acclimated to the elevation, and keep from being overly bored.  And it was a pretty area...worthwhile!

Eventually, we were tired, and the sun was down, so we retired to our tents to try and rest up.  The day ahead would be yet another adventure!

(To be continued...)