Story:
My friend Manish and I went to climb Mt Whitney 14,495 feet (4,419 meters), highest point in contiguous US, over the weekend.
We started the hike on Sunday Oct 4th from Whitney Portal trail head (elevation 8400 feet) at 4 am on a clear night lit up by a full moon. We slowly made our way up in high winds and cold weather wearing headlamps, heavy woolen gloves and a couple of layers of clothing. Many who had started earlier or had camped at one of the higher elevation camps had abandoned their attempt because of the wind and cold. Thankfully the wind calmed down as we reached 12000 feet but it still remained cold in the low 20s (F not C).
At 2 pm we had reached 13800 feet, a mile and 700 feet short of the summit, but a mile did not feel the same after having just walked 10 miles uphill. Here we made a difficult decision to turn back as we had a long walk back to the trail head. We returned to the car at 9 pm exhausted and wobbly legged but elated. We had hiked 17 hours, covered 20 miles with an elevation gain of 5300 feet. It would have been 6000 feet and 22 miles had we reached the summit.
The rest of the pictures are here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwania/sets/72157622402178391/
Select slideshow, then Full Screen (bottom right corner), then enable captions (upper right corner.) Hit escape to get out of Full Screen mode.
This is what the switchbacks look from a distance (Thor Peak).
http://picasaweb.google.com/Jeffscof/2009WPSMBTHORGROUPHIKE#5394557467042653154
Now we know we have at least one goal for next year.
Distances from Whitney Portal
Miles Km Feet Meters
---------------------------
Whitney Portal 0 0 8,360 2,548
Lone Pine Lake 2.5 9,850 3,002
Outpost Camp 3.7 5.8 10,360 3,159
Mirror Lake 4.0 6.4 10,640 3,243
Trail Camp 6.0 9.6 12,000 3,658
Trail Crest 8.2 13.2 13,777 4,199
Mt Whitney Summit 11.0 17.7 14,497 4,419
My friend Manish and I went to climb Mt Whitney 14,495 feet (4,419 meters), highest point in contiguous US, over the weekend.
We started the hike on Sunday Oct 4th from Whitney Portal trail head (elevation 8400 feet) at 4 am on a clear night lit up by a full moon. We slowly made our way up in high winds and cold weather wearing headlamps, heavy woolen gloves and a couple of layers of clothing. Many who had started earlier or had camped at one of the higher elevation camps had abandoned their attempt because of the wind and cold. Thankfully the wind calmed down as we reached 12000 feet but it still remained cold in the low 20s (F not C).
At 2 pm we had reached 13800 feet, a mile and 700 feet short of the summit, but a mile did not feel the same after having just walked 10 miles uphill. Here we made a difficult decision to turn back as we had a long walk back to the trail head. We returned to the car at 9 pm exhausted and wobbly legged but elated. We had hiked 17 hours, covered 20 miles with an elevation gain of 5300 feet. It would have been 6000 feet and 22 miles had we reached the summit.
The rest of the pictures are here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwania/sets/72157622402178391/
Select slideshow, then Full Screen (bottom right corner), then enable captions (upper right corner.) Hit escape to get out of Full Screen mode.
This is what the switchbacks look from a distance (Thor Peak).
http://picasaweb.google.com/Jeffscof/2009WPSMBTHORGROUPHIKE#5394557467042653154
Now we know we have at least one goal for next year.
Distances from Whitney Portal
Miles Km Feet Meters
---------------------------
Whitney Portal 0 0 8,360 2,548
Lone Pine Lake 2.5 9,850 3,002
Outpost Camp 3.7 5.8 10,360 3,159
Mirror Lake 4.0 6.4 10,640 3,243
Trail Camp 6.0 9.6 12,000 3,658
Trail Crest 8.2 13.2 13,777 4,199
Mt Whitney Summit 11.0 17.7 14,497 4,419
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