
Hiking the @Mt. Whitney Trail
Saturday July 9, 2016
A bunch of friends attempted to hike the Mt. Whitney trail to reach the summit in July 2016. But we ran out of time and had to turn back with just about 800 ft to the summit. We all wowed to return with a better strategy to hit the goal. So in early 2017 we all applied for the Mt. Whitney Permit lottery again. Out of 6, one of us won the lottery for a day hike permit in early August. But for various reasons the most of the team members couldn’t make it for the hike. Instead of forgoing that one lucky permit I decided to still go for it and asked around if anyone would join me. Found 2 friends who were willing to join. With just a little bit of training we set out for an adventure of a lifetime. And here is chronology of our hike to the summit at Mt. Whitney …
Thursday Aug 3, 2017 5:30 am: Started from San Jose.
12:30 pm: Reached Lone Pine. Drove right into the Eastern Sierra InterAgency Visitor Center. Waited in line to pick up our day hike permit. The original plan was to camp at Lone Pine Lake (alt: 9974 ft). The idea was to get a head start and hit the Whitney trail at 12:01am (our permit is valid at this time for 24 hrs). But the lady at the counter said that there were no more permits available). Disappointed and at the same time a light bulb went off in our heads. We asked if there were any overnight permits available. As luck would have it, she said she had just 3 available. We just grabbed on to them right away. So, now we can enter the Whitney zone any time we wanted. We decided to hit Outpost camp (alt: 10387 ft) which is well-inside the Whitney zone, there by getting a head start of about 3 to 4 hours.
1:30 pm: Had lunch at a pizza place. This time went for the 9 dollar pizza buffet and loaded up on all carbs we could. Filled our water bottles.
2:00 pm: Shopped for some supplies for the hike. Bought Subway sandwiches for dinner and headed towards Whitney Portal (alt: 8360 ft).
3:30 pm: Reached Whitney Portal. Started organizing our gear; distributing the weight evenly amongst the 3 of us. This time the gear included a 5-pound-3-person tent, sleeping bags and bear canister in addition to food, water, etc that we carried last time. Although I didn’t weigh my bag I think the weight I was carrying a little more than last time. The consolation was the head start we were getting and the extra load was only until Outpost Camp.
4:00 pm: Started hiking. It was hot. We were happy about the head start we got as we hiked up. Into one hour into the hike one of our hiker asked if we really packed our sandwiches. Our hearts sank when we realized they were still in the front passenger seat in the car. So two of us decided to leave all the gear and take the walk of shame down the mountain, cursing ourselves. But without any load it just took less than an hour to get back and continue with the hike. We lost some time but we shrugged it off because we were going stop at Outpost camp and rest. As we continued we had to cross a lot of streams. Since we didn’t want our shoes and socks wet we stopped and painstakingly switched to our Crocs as we waded thru them. And then switch back to our hiking boots. The walk thru the icy cold streams offered a jolt of refreshment to our feet.
8:00 pm: Reached Outpost camp (alt: 10360 ft) with some day light. Pitched the tent, ate our sandwiches and chatted our fellow campers.

9:45 pm: Packed all scented items, food including packaged stuff like Cliff bars, Gu gels and everything else into the bear canister and left it about 50ft from the tent.
10:00 pm: Hit the sack and I was out in 2 minutes. At around 11:00 pm we were woken up by some noise on our tent. The wind was howling and it started to rain and it poured like crazy. btw, there was 40% chance of rain in the forecast which we didn’t heed because the sky was so clear and it was hot as hell at Whitney Portal. But since we were in the tent staying dry we decided to hang in there and ride it out. But that lasted only about 15 minutes into the rain when I felt something cold on my shoulder which was just outside the cozy sleeping bag. Turned my head lamp on to see the horror. Water was literally flowing inside our el cheapo tent and within minutes the sleeping bag got soaked so did my pants, socks and everything else. What a bummer!! It continued to pour until around 2:00am, well past our planned starting time, 12:01am. We were thinking of calling the hike off at that point.
2:30 am: Things calmed down and we peeked outside the tent and could see the stars. That gave us hope that we may be able to go ahead with the hike. Even though we were soaking wet and cold we decided to give it a go and donned our headlamps and started off, about 2 1/2 hours after our planned time.
3:15 am: After a couple water crossings we reached Trailside Meadows (alt: 11395 ft). Good timing so far. At that point I had a mild headache but in good spirits. I popped a Diamox pill (altitude sickness medicine) before it got any worse. Had pre-dawn breakfast of a Snickers bar. And marched on.

5:30 am: Reached Trail Camp (alt: 12039 ft). The sun was peeking out with a deep red glow. Refilled water at the lake at Trail Camp. Downed a bottle of 5-hour Energy as I had done last time. I was going to need it and more. With about 2 1/2 liters of water and a boost of energy we headed towards the infamous 99 switchbacks. Marched on and on and on and on … Met a bunch of people who had already summited and on their way back. Chatted with them to find out how the trail conditions were. Every one of them said that the conditions were great and nothing to worry about snow fields that people had to cross just a couple of weeks ago. There were just 3 sections with snow that we came across. They were just slushy snow that didn’t need crampons or micro spikes.

8:20 am: Reached Trail Crest (alt: 13777 ft). This was the point we had reached at around 2:00 pm last year and decided to turn back as it was too late to continue up. But this time the goal seemed achievable since we had the advantage of time in our hands at the same time it is a complete unknown for me after Trail Crest. After about 10–15 minute break we continued. To begin with it was a welcome downhill hike but on the flip side it was going to be an uphill battle on the way back. As we walked the terrain got more and more treacherous with big boulders to navigate. There were more and more people returning from the summit and gave us reassuring words that we were almost there. At one point we could see the hut at the top of the summit so our goal was within our reach. To say it wasn’t easy is a terrible understatement. It felt like eternity to the last of the 3 needles. As there was some snow on the last stretch people had made a “new” trail using cairns/trail markers. It was good that we were going to avoid the snow but now we had to scramble with our hands and feet over boulders and then there it was ….

11:20 am: We reached the Mt. Whitney Summit (alt: 14505 ft). FINALLY !!!. The strategy of getting that head start worked. We checked out the little hut, signed the book, caught our breaths, took pictures and chatted with some fellow summiteers. There was a teeny bit of cell phone coverage at the summit but couldn’t really make a phone call but we were able to send a text message back home that we had made it.

12:00 pm: We started our descent and it was equally challenging if not more. Realized that gravity is a boon and a bane. Getting back to Trail Crest was hell with the hot sun right above heads. The descent was extremely harsh on our knees but there was no other option but to lumber down the mountain.
5:00 pm: Reached Trail Camp with just a little bit of water left. So we refilled our hydration packs and water bottles at the lake and headed down again.
7:00 pm: Reached Outpost Camp. Packed up our sleeping bags, bear canister and the tent. This time it weighed even heavier because things were still soaking wet. Counting on gravity’s help we geared up and continued our downhill hike.
8:30 pm: It was starting to get dark as we reached Lone Pine lake. With the annoyance of mosquitoes we donned our headlamps again and continued. The trail was comparatively easy on our knees and feet now with less rocks and more dirt. As we came upon those icy cold streams we didn’t bother to change to Crocs this time and just stepped into the ankle-deep water. Just too tired for it now and wanted to get this whole ordeal over with. As we continued to walk we could see cars winding up the mountain towards Whitney Portal. It was the there’s light at the end of the tunnel moment. But we still had about 2 hours to go. We passed by a few people who were just beginning their ascent. In my head I was thinking heh .. been there done that :-)
10:47 pm: Reached the parking lot and let the biggest sigh of relief. PHEW !!! This time we did it.
What we ate/drank: That Subway sandwiches that we initially forgot about, Snickers bars, Cliff Bars, Gu Gel, 5-hour Energy, tangerines, beef jerky, cheese sticks, just good old H2O, lots of it. As you can see most of what we ate were energy supplements and not “real” food which made us sick of these towards the end of the hike. I can’t think of eating any of these for another year.
Gear: backpacks ranging from just a simple day hike pack to one with which one can live off of, hiking boots, synthetic socks, extensible hiking poles, hats, sunglasses, fleece jackets, outer shell jackets, hiking pants, iPhones, a point-and-shoot camera, GoPros with mounts, tent, sleeping bags, reflective ground cover, bear canister and some more things that I can’t remember.