TL;DR
Play permit roulette in order to score the chance to backpack to the top of California or if you’re feeling bold, Whitney-In-a-Day. We spent 3 days, 2 nights in the beauty of the eastern Sierras to do this 22 mile round trip hike.
Thoughts
Well here it is, the tallest peak in the contiguous United States. Its sort of weird, you get all hyped applying for permits months and months in advance, planning the trip and then you just wait. Then the day finally comes to put your shoes on and haul your backpack up the trail and you’re like “Whoa, I’m doing this”. I know I’ve mentioned this feeling before but it really does get me every time. This year we were lucky enough to be awarded lottery permits for a 2 night backpacking trip on Whitney in late September. Its tough getting overnight permits for this hike. A fantastic overview of the permit process as well as the hike itself can be found over at Modern Hiker. We applied for a smattering of different dates and ended up with the last weekend in September which was optimal. Summers are prone to afternoon thunderstorms making the top out dangerous while early spring can be wet or covered in snow.
Permits need to be picked up from the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center in Lone Pine either the day before or day of entry onto the trail. Whitney Portal campground is a good base-camp if you are able to pick-up the permits the day before. Its about a 20-30 minute drive between the two. Its also good if you don’t handle altitude well. Lone Pine sits at ~4000ft whereas Whitney Portal is at 8,300ft. A night there could help with acclimating before pushing on to the two other camps or the summit. We were planning on staying in Whitney Portal the night before but didn’t make it to Lone Pine until 2 in the morning. D had forgot his sleeping pad so we opted for a motel. The next morning we picked up the permits. They also give you WAG bags since all waste must be carried out. Luckily, we found out the other person in our group had a spare sleeping pad. Note to self, maybe pack extra sleeping pads just in case. Just thinking about how awful the trip would’ve been for D had he not had a sleeping pad made us grimace.
Leading up to the hike, we were constantly monitoring the weather. We found that Mountain Forecast gave us the best data we needed to make decisions. Notably, the wind speeds and temperature vs altitude helped us plan how we would break up our 3 days of hiking. We were starting on Friday morning, hiking out Sunday afternoon. Wind speeds were picking up and temperatures dropping starting Saturday evening so we aimed for a Saturday summit. 3 of the 4 in our group had gone to Peru and done the Inca Trail while the 4th had a lot of high altitude backpacking experience so we felt like we could handle the hike to the 12,000ft Trail Camp and then summit the next day. From the Whitney Portal trail-head it’s 6.2mi basically all uphill (~3700ft gain). But it’s a very beautiful uphill, especially with the fall colors we got to see.
The eastern Sierras rise up so suddenly compared to the western side. You can really feel their size as they dominate one side of the landscape. Despite being a trail with an ungodly amount of switchbacks, it has its moments that make you just say ‘Wow’. Lone Pine Lake stands abnormally bright blue against the brown of the White range and Lone Pine area. It looks like it was poorly photoshopped into place. But it really looks like that. From the moment you begin hiking, the granite mountains tower over you like giants. The trail meanders through several meadows that simply take your breathe away. A midst everything in this world, here is a small portion left untouched except for a small trail that skirts the edge of a creek. Its quiet except for the sound of running water. I love these moments. I feel like such an invader, an interrupter. Here in this tranquil place, I am the unnatural occurrence, yet to find these places and be in them for a brief amount of time is why I love hiking. Its a weird contradiction.
3.8 miles from the trailhead is the first backcountry camp, Outpost (~10,365ft). We had just eaten lunch and felt relatively good. Outpost camp is a gravelly stream bank covered by some scattered shrubs and a fair amount of shade. Water was plentiful even though it was late in the season. It had only taken us a few hours to get to Outpost so it was early in the day. With no altitude effects yet, we decided to continue on to Trail Camp. 6.3 miles from the trailhead is Trail Camp (~12,000ft). While Outpost camp was on the fringe of a meadow, Trail Camp was a bit more desolate looking. With no natural vegetation, each of the camp sites have built up rock wall wind breaks. Trail Camp sits at the base of the notorious 100 switchbacks. The lake at Trail Camp hadn’t dried up so we were able to refill water and make dinner. From Trail Camp you can still see out to Lone Pine while also sitting in the shadow of Whitney and its fellow peaks. Its quite a sight to be at the base of them all the while thinking “I have a ways to go”. After setting up camp and eating dinner all of a sudden I felt queasy and decided to drink a bunch of water and go to sleep. The temperatures tanked that night making the following morning one of the coldest I’ve ever experienced camping. Weather estimates were saying it was going to be around 18-25 deg F and it sure did feel like it. We got a late start by hiking standards. Most of the campers had left for the summit by the time we got moving. We were leaving most of our gear at camp, only taking food and water in day packs. Even though the sun was out, the air was still frigid. This was the first time that I hiked in my thermal/puffy/windbreaker + fleece tights and was still slightly cold. I made slow work of the switchbacks. I hate gasping for air at altitude, it makes me feel panicky. But if I go slow, I never lose my breathe and can keep the same pace without stopping. Passed several groups along the way who had to stop. The sun had yet to melt the snow on the cables so that area was frozen solid. Walking on the ice was dicey to say the least. That’s what happens when something melts and refreezes overnight. D later told me the trick was to walk along the edge where the cable posts are mounting. Even though you’re on the edge, its actually easier since there isn’t any ice and you can grab on the cables directly. A couple fugue states later at we were at the trail crest.The trail crest marks the top of the switchbacks and the boundary between Inyo National Forest and Sequoia National Park. The trail also crosses over from the east side to the west side of the range. We took a short break then continued to push on.
Now, on the other side of trail crest is a sign that says “Mt Whitney 1.9mi”. Maybe it was the altitude, or we were tired, or both but this felt like the most utter lie I have ever been told. We continued hiking for what seemed like a whole day. The sun beat down hard with the cold wind drying out your skin. All you know is that there is granite everywhere and that Mt Whitney is somewhere on this meandering trail through granite rubble. The western side of the crest just looks like slopes of rock fall, all peaks sort of losing their shape. We trudged onward, seeing more and more people heading back down from the summit. What makes it hard is that, despite being a peak, you don’t really see your destination. I caught a glimpse of the hut at the top once, but never saw it again until I was actually in front of it. You just kind of meander for a while and then eventually pop out on top. And what satisfaction is it to see that little hot and the summit register with its appropriately placed “That was Easy” button. The day was clear despite the wind so we hung around the summit for a while, eating some lunch and taking pictures. Mt Whitney may be the tallest mountain in the continental US but all the surrounding peaks are pretty darn close. It doesn’t have that regalness that Mt Rainier has. There was a cool Backpacker magazine article about how simply identifying mountains by their summit altitude can be misleading since the base altitude can vary greatly. Some mountains you can drive up most of the way whereas other you have to hike for miles before reaching the top because you start as almost sea level. The Mt Whitney hike is hard but definitely not the hardest.
We felt pretty chipper heading back down. We got to the base of Mt Whitney’s nextdoor neighbor, Keeler Needle and D decided he was going for it. So 3 of our group of 4 dropped our packs and began the scramble up the backside of the needle. Somehow the altitude didn’t feel like a thing anymore. Plus the scrambling was a change from the trudging we had been doing all day. Keeler Needle isn’t for the faint of heart. There isn’t a trail, you just climb up big boulders. On either side are shear drops that look like they go back down to where Trail Camp is. It gets narrower and narrower until you’re at the last piece at the end. D and V went out to the edge but I did not have that much faith in my bouldering ability 3000ft off the ground. It was pretty cool to look sideways at Whitney though. Plus we were the only ones up there.
We made good time going back down. The sun had passed over the crest so the east side was in shade and it was getting cold, fast. We got to trail camp, packed up camp and got out of there. Fatigue was setting in so going back down was a bit hard for me. We finally made it to Outpost Camp just as it was getting dark. We were just glad not to be camping at Trail Camp again. 10 degrees and 30-40 mph winds did not sound fun. Outpost camp was still cold but nothing we couldn’t deal with. We were still running on that summitting high plus we had a warm meal and warm bags. We packed out the next morning, adding another adventure to the books.
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