tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35114936992884414472023-11-15T10:32:39.241-08:00Climbing Mt. WhitneyKevin and John's Most Excellent AdventureJohn Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-87870104919291765922010-06-30T14:10:00.000-07:002010-07-01T09:27:50.456-07:00Prologue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006220838342203/918205670_pKrYp-L.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006220838342203/918205670_pKrYp-L.jpg" /></a><div>Telephoto view of Mt. Whitney from Lone Pine (15 miles away and 10,000 feet below)</div></div><br />
I don't really know why I got interested in going to the top of Whitney. It's something that's been in the back of my mind for years and it just kind of came forward. Running the marathon last summer was such a great focal point for fitness training and really having discipline about keeping to a training regimen. Then, the idea of Whitney came up and it seemed to fit in the same general category. I'd have to train hard for it and it could feel like a significant accomplishment and maybe I'd get some interesting photos too.<br />
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I was coming off knee surgery in September and working on recovering from that and was committed to building up the strength in my legs to protect my knees from future injury. So, somewhere around December/January, I started thinking more seriously about what it would take to do Whitney. In my usual fashion, step one was to read everything I could find about the trip and learn all about it. (I bought four books on the subject and found zillions of useful web pages). As I read, I learned that if the weather and trail conditions cooperate (typical summer conditions), it's a hike that challenges your fitness level, but it's not a technical climb. Perfect, I'd need to prepare and get in great shape, but it should be doable.<br />
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I wasn't really sure who I'd go with. I kind of hoped that Kevin would want to do it with me, but I wasn't sure whether Kevin would be interested in the trip because it would involve a lot of training and preparation and the trip itself would be really physically demanding, but I explained what the whole thing involved and asked him if he wanted to do it with me. He said yes and seemed to get excited about both the challenge and the reward. I reiterated what would be involved to make sure he fully understood and really sounded committed. He did.<br />
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So, this was perfect, it would be a father-son trip. We'd prepare together and train together and hopefully make it to the top and back down together.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/plan.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-15578669208784391442010-06-30T14:00:00.000-07:002010-07-01T09:50:59.164-07:00The PlanThe starting point for most ascents of Mt. Whitney (14,496 feet) is from the east starting at Whitney Portal (8000 feet). Whitney Portal is a campground, a store and a hiker's parking lot which is about 12 miles from the town of Lone Pine (4000 feet elevation) in Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierras. Whitney Portal is about a 7-1/2 hour drive from the Bay Area (going over Tioga Pass in Yosemite).<br />
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The round trip to the summit of Whitney along the main Whitney trail is 22 miles. There are a number of ways to do this 22 miles. Some people attempt it in a single day. They leave the trail-head at around 2-3am and hike the first couple hours by headlamp before sunrise. They plan to hit the Trail Camp camping area at 12,000 feet around 7am, then maybe get to the summit by 11-12am and get down before sunset or sometimes finish after dark by headlamp. The single day trip has a number of advantages. It's logistically a lot simpler because you only need a permit for one day, because you go lightweight for the entire trip and because you don't have to have any backpacking equipment. Lots of people try it this way. On our particular trip, I'd say that 2/3 of the folks were doing the single day.<br />
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Here's a look at the main trail from the <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/recreation/wild/traillarge.shtml">Inyo National Forest web site</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/recreation/wild/traillarge.shtml" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/whitney-trail-map/919926894_X2ZNy-O.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
Besides the obvious physical challenge of doing the whole thing in one day, the single biggest obstacle to any ascent of Whitney is altitude sickness. Above 10,000 feet and certainly above 12,000 feet, a significant number of people start having trouble adapting to the thinner air. Altitude sickness is something to be dealt with very seriously because, if the early symptoms are ignored and the ascent is continued, it can result in death. Basically, if you start feeling altitude sickness, you have to descend immediately. You can't wait for it to go away, you can't take some medicine for it - you have to descend (usually at least 2000 feet). There are two general forms of serious altitude sickness - cerebral (brain swelling) and pulmonary (fluid in lungs). With high altitude cerebral edema (HACE), you start to lose judgment and coordination. Many mountaineering accidents and even deaths on Whitney (two people died last year) are thought to be influenced by poor decision making because of the effects of HACE. With high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), you start getting fluid in your lungs and you simply can't get enough oxygen and you suffocate. HACE is more common than HAPE and the very early warning signs for HACE are a headache that just won't go away, even with something like Advil. Symptoms progress to the point where you can't walk a straight line and might even appear to be drunk. While science has not pinpointed any particular reason why some people get altitude sickness and some do not (it has nothing to do with fitness level), it has clearly shown that acclimatizing to your base altitude and then ascending slowly is the best thing you can do to improve your odds against altitude sickness. The ideal ascent rate is 1000-1500 feet per day. Since Whitney is a 6137 foot climb from the trail-head, you can see the challenge. Somewhere between 1/3-1/2 of those who attempt the summit don't succeed because of altitude issues. It is the major reason people don't make the summit.<br />
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So, since we weren't trying to cram the trip into a weekend and wanted to increase our odds against altitude sickness, it was an easy decision for us that we weren't going to do the single day trip. Then the question becomes how many days to you take to go up. A conservative plan would be acclimatize well beforehand and then hike up to 10,000 feet, spend the night at a camping area known as Outpost Camp, hike up to 12,000 feet, spend the night at a camping area know as Trail Camp, then go to the summit the third day. Slightly less conservative would be to hike up to Trail Camp at 12,000 feet the first day and then summit the second day. We decided that we would plan for a three night trip. If we got to 10,000 feet the first day and still felt pretty good, we'd see if we could go on to 12,000 feet. If we made it to 12,000 feet, we'd either summit the second day or we'd have a buffer day if the weather on the summit was lousy and we could wait it out.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/permit.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-5542905428432512002010-06-30T13:50:00.000-07:002010-06-30T20:51:50.646-07:00The Permit<style type="text/css">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">About 2-1/2 miles up the Whitney trail, you enter the Whitney Zone which requires a permit for all hikers, even day hikers. Because of high traffic on the trail and environmental damage from high numbers of people, the forest service instituted a strict permitting system that limits the number of people entering the Whitney Zone each day to no more than 100 people. Since demand in the summer far exceeds that number, they have a lottery system. You send in your application in February with a permit fee ($30) and a list of dates you would accept in priority order (you can list as many dates as you want). In March, they start doing a drawing from all applications received on time and they just draw them one by one and give you the first date on your application that is still available. In April, they let you know what did or didn't get. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Because of snow conditions, the later you can go in the summer, the better your chances are. But Kevin was planning on taking a two week summer school class the first two weeks of August and then he starts school so August was out. I sent in an application for basically any three nights in July. Then, Kevin applied to this science program at the University of Santa Cruz which is all of July. We weren't sure Kevin would get into this highly competitive science program, but a couple days before the deadline, I decided to send in a second application for any three nights in June, but clearly listing out the later days in June as our first priority because snow can really still be an issue in June.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What I had read on the web was that if you get your application in on time and you include a number of mid-week options that don't have Friday, Saturday or Sunday in them, you will probably get something. I was really, really hoping we'd get something workable. Somewhere in early April, we got a rejection for the first application I had sent in for the July dates. My heart sunk - now it all depends on the second application for the June dates. I started to wonder if all the planning and training so far would be for naught. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Then, a couple weeks later, we got the permit for the nights of June 23-25th. Not the very end of June, but way better than the early days in June. Then, Kevin got into the Cosmos science program for July so the June dates were the good ones for us anyway. The trip was on - yeah. Now we had something concrete to plan for.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/training.html">Next Page</a> </div>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-58134256735999748922010-06-30T13:40:00.000-07:002010-06-30T20:52:22.593-07:00TrainingMy focus for training was building strength in my leg muscles to protect and support my knee and to allow me to start running regularly to rebuild my endurance. I've tried other endurance things like elliptical trainer and stationery bikes and they just don't keep me interested so I knew I needed to find a way to get back to running. I was working with a physical therapist on the training program for my knee strength and doing a lot in the gym four days a week. Slowly I got to where I could run again and I took to running on dirt trails (to stay off the hard pavement) and running hills (to work on building the muscle and to stress the cardio). To keep my risk of injury low, I was careful to not run on successive days and to give myself a day off if the body felt like it needed it and keep the training going in the gym in between. My runs got longer and I started tackling larger hills. I could see measurable progress in my leg muscles, particularly the quad on my surgery knee. I got to a point where I ran a couple half marathons for training and separately ran some trails with more than 1000' of elevation gain.<br />
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For Kevin, we got some fortunate timing because, independent from the Whitney trip, Kevin joined a rowing club and started training with them. For those of you who don't know rowing, it's a great all body sport: legs, core, arms, endurance. I could see pretty early on that Kevin was getting good overall fitness and strength training with the rowing team so all we'd have to concentrate on with him would be some practice with backpacking and hiking.<br />
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I wanted to try to do some practice hikes at altitude (~10,000 feet), but we had such a snowy and late winter this year that I really couldn't find anything in Northern California at altitude in May/early June that was feasible and compatible with the rowing schedule. So, we settled for doing some steep hikes around here (2000 foot climbs) to get used to hiking in our boots and carrying our backpacks.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/weather.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-27475624084650858232010-06-30T13:30:00.000-07:002010-06-30T20:52:49.591-07:00The WeatherWe had an unusual winter here in Northern California. We were pretty much on track for normal snow-pack in February and then it just didn't stop snowing in the mountains. Much of the Sierras ended up at 140% of normal and so much of it came late (April and even May) that by the beginning of June there was a lot of snow still in the mountains and, while it was melting, there was so much of it.<br />
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This is significant for the Whitney trail because above 12,000 feet, there's a very steep climb up to Trail Crest at 13,600 feet that normally consists of 99 switchbacks. When the switchbacks are buried under snow and ice, the whole complexity of the climb changes. No longer is it a hike on a trail, but it becomes a snowy climb straight up that requires stiff boots, crampons and ice axes, some skill at using those and a much more physically demanding day. If you succeed in getting up, the descent is less physically demanding, but can be technically difficult to do safely. In fact, one person died last year on Whitney on this descent. They were glissading down (more on this later), lost control of their speed and hit some rocks.<br />
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As of early June, all I can do is read the reports from people coming back as to what it's like (there's a bulletin board online where many people post about their experiences). With about 10 days to go before our trip, I conclude that it's going to be snowy/icy and we need crampons and ice axes. I don't really want to buy them so I finally find a place in the east bay that rents them. I take our boots over there and talk to them about renting. They conclude that our hiking boots are not stiff enough for crampons. There's too much flex in the toes and crampons won't hold their grip and might not stay on. His recommendation is that we rent mountaineering boots that are made for crampons. They are very stiff and quite heavy and we've never worn them before. But, I finally make the decision that we have to be safe on the snow/ice, even if it means we might not make the summit. Unfortunately, the crampons and ice axes add another five pounds to our packs. Things are getting more and more difficult as the day nears. At this point, I'm thinking to myself and starting to help Kevin realize that we may only have a 50% chance of making it to the summit.<br />
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There's a well known saying about Whitney that any trip that you get back safely from is a good one because the mountain will always be there for some other day. We may have to remember that if the snow conditions make the climb too risky for our lack of technical experience.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/acclimatizing.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-71274409248541981062010-06-30T13:20:00.000-07:002010-06-30T20:53:22.444-07:00AcclimatizingIn laying out the overall agenda of the trip, we set a goal to spend three days at an altitude of at least 8000 feet before starting the hike to help our bodies get used to the altitude and to help our odds with altitude sickness. Since we have to go over Tioga pass in Yosemite just to get to the trail-head and we both like trout fishing, we figure the first day, we'll spend around Tioga pass (9945 feet) trout fishing. The plan is to hike into a lake a little above 10,000 feet that we had some good trout fishing at last August and spend several hours there fishing. After fishing, we'll go on to Mammoth Lakes and spend a day there hiking to another lake where we can fish. Then, the third day we'll head on to the trail-head and maybe do a short hike there.<br />
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The first day turns into a bit of an adventure. We hike up to Saddlebag lake near Tioga pass and when we get there, we find the lake is frozen over.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Before-Climbing-Mt-Whitney/Whitney-201006200734322106/918187923_hckC5-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Before-Climbing-Mt-Whitney/Whitney-201006200734322106/918187923_hckC5-L.jpg" /></a></div>Saddlebag Lake still frozen<br />
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There's a small sliver of water showing along one shore so we try fishing there for a couple hours, but it's just not enough access to the lake to make anything happen. This is our first indication of how much snow there really was here this winter. It's nearly the last week of June and the lake surface is still frozen solid. We pack up, hike out and try briefly at a lake at a lower elevation, but the sun disappears and it starts to get cold so we head on to Mammoth Lakes (with a brief stop to see the tufa formations at Mono Lake).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Before-Climbing-Mt-Whitney/Whitney-201006201245092146/918210333_h8qQQ-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Before-Climbing-Mt-Whitney/Whitney-201006201245092146/918210333_h8qQQ-L.jpg" /></a></div>Tufa formations at Mono Lake<br />
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The second day, we were planning on hiking to another lake at 10,000 feet and we inquire at the hotel about directions to the trail-head The woman behind the counter summons a hotel worker who knows the local trails and we ask him how to get to the trail-head. He asks if we have snowshoes because the trail is still 5-10 feet of snow. OK, we should have known by now. We pick a lake at a lower elevation and hike there. Fishing there is fun because we catch a number of fish, but they're all too small to keep and eat. After trying to find larger fish in the lake, we eventually decide to go somewhere else. One of the other lakes mentioned to us was Convict Lake so we hike out and drive there (no hike required), inquire about what kind of fishing equipment is working and start fishing. In a couple hours we catch three keeper rainbow trout, one pretty sizable. As the sun goes down, we pack up. Now, we have to figure out a way to cook these trout. We're staying in a hotel, but I brought a small barbecue. So we buy some charcoal, some minute rice and drive to an area in the woods we'd seen on our previous hike where we can pull over on the dirt road, set up the barbecue and cook our trout. It's dark, quite cold and the only light we have is our headlamps, but we get the grill going, cook the rice on the backpacking stove and barbecue the trout. It's a scene worthy only of someone who truly loves freshly caught and cooked trout (Kevin). It's dark and I'm really having trouble telling whether the fish is done or not. Eventually I figure it's done and we bite into it and it was amazing. The best fish we've ever had. Of course, we're starving and the whole late night drama of cooking it in the middle of nowhere in the cold probably contributed to the experience, but it really did taste awesome. One of the fish was such a good size that we had more than we could eat.<br />
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The third day, we do some last minute laundry to make sure our trail clothes are clean and then drive down to Lone Pine to pick up our Whitney permit and our WAG bags. They confirm at the permit office that crampons are required. For those of you who haven't seen the eastern Sierras down highway 395, it's an amazing site. Whereas the western Sierras rise up over a span of 50-100 miles, on the eastern side, they just shoot straight up. Lone Pine is at around 4000 feet and Whitney is 14,496. That's a rise of more than 10,000 feet in less than 15 miles. Some of the rock faces go nearly straight up 5000 feet from the valley. It's a sight to see. I know we went there when I was a kid, but if you haven't seen it as an adult, it's something to put on your list.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006220831562199/918219464_rRcDE-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006220831562199/918219464_rRcDE-L.jpg" /></a></div>Here's what Whitney looks like from near the town of Lone Pine (10,000' up)<br />
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After picking up a few last minute fresh groceries for our last dinner and breakfast before the hike, we head up to the campground at Whitney Portal. We set up camp, check out the trail-head and trail-head parking and the little store there and decide to just relax for the rest of the day, skipping any more warm-up hikes. We feast on spaghetti and broccoli, set the alarm for 6 am and get ready for the next day.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/overview-of-hike.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-31589495987295498982010-06-30T13:10:00.000-07:002010-07-01T09:55:33.726-07:00Overview of the HikeI logically think of the trek up to Whitney in four main pieces:<br />
<ol><li>Whitney Portal (8000') to Outpost Camp (10,000') - 3 miles</li>
<li>Outpost Camp to Trail Camp (12,000') - 3 miles</li>
<li>Trail Camp to Trail Crest (13,500') - ~2 miles</li>
<li>Trail Crest to Whitney Summit (14,496') - 2 miles</li>
</ol><br />
Our plan (if everything goes well) is to to do the first two steps the first day, spend the night at Trail Camp and then do the next two steps the second day. If things don't go according to plan, we have an extra day of provisions so we can either take two days to get to Trail Camp or wait out bad weather for an extra day before going to the summit.<br />
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The rule of thumb we've read is that if you're in decent shape, your pack is around 20% of your body weight and you take average length breaks, then your hiking time can average about 2 miles per hour plus one hour for every 1000' you climb. The two segments from Whitney Portal to Trail Camp would be 6 miles and 4000'. By the rule of thumb, that would take us 3 hrs + 4 hrs = 7 hrs. If we hit the trail by 8am, we could arrive at Trail Camp by 3pm with plenty of time to rest, set up camp and cook dinner before dark and maybe talk to some climbers coming down that day.<br />
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If getting to Trail Camp proved difficult or if we felt issues with altitude sickness, we could shorten the first day and camp at Outpost Camp and then add a day to the trip. Unfortunately, there really aren't any places to camp between Outpost Camp and Trail Camp so you have to pick one or the other. <br />
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As a reminder, here's a map overview from the Inyo Forest Service web site:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/whitney-trail-map/919926894_X2ZNy-O.jpg" /></div><a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-1-whitney-portal-to-outpost-camp.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-69835527997286346702010-06-30T13:00:00.000-07:002010-06-30T20:57:19.835-07:00Day #1: Whitney Portal to Outpost CampWe're up at 6am, pack up our campsite, do the final loading of our packs, drive up to the trail-head parking, put any remaining food from the car in the bear boxes and we're finally ready to go by 7:55 and we start up the trail.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230055492219/918213413_2QzBf-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230055492219/918213413_2QzBf-L.jpg" /></a></div>At the Trail-Head<br />
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The segment of the trail up to Outpost Camp consists mostly of lots of switchbacks and is a pretty well maintained trail. It's mostly granite gravel with a bunch of stream crossings. There's tons of water in the streams, but they've put boulders in the streams to step on and our boots are waterproof and we have hiking poles for balance so their really is no issue. There are a few waterfalls to look at along the way and lots of little springs popping up. You can literally fill your water bottles just about anywhere you want to.<br />
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Kevin and I have found in our practice hikes that we both take 15-30 minutes to sort of get into a rhythm and get our body cranked up for what we're asking it to do so we start out fairly slowly. The terrain is steep (2000' in 3 miles is a pretty good grade), but the trail is in good shape. We've got hydration tubes so we can literally drink any time without breaking a step. We've read that it's easy to get dehydrated while exerting at altitude so we're being cautious to drink as much as we can. There are a lot of spots along the trail where we can refill with water from the stream so we don't have to worry about how much we consume. We take a couple short breaks to adjust equipment, but our stops at first are mostly just short little stops to catch our breath after a steeper section.<br />
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After about an hour, it really sets in just how heavy my pack is (more on this later). For those of you who haven't done much backpacking, the goal is to get most of the weight on your hips with the hip belt and take just enough weight on the shoulders to balance things. Both Kevin and I are having trouble finding that balance. More weight on the shoulders means more work for your core to support everything. I wouldn't say we're bothered by the 8000' altitude (we've been at that altitude for three days now), but it is still significant exertion in thinner air. <br />
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There's a regular progression of folks coming down the trail and I attempt to talk to pretty much everyone to find out what conditions are like up top. One of these first ones we talk to is a day hiker who tells us he got up to 13,000' and then had to turn around because of altitude sickness. He's really bummed. He left at 3am, got most of the way up one of the hardest sections and had to turn around. At 9:30am he's almost all the way back down. We talk to other backpackers who had summited the day before and everyone confirms that you need ice axe and crampons for the chute (more on that later too).<br />
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After about an hour and a half, we start a climb up a steeper section of the trail. Gone is the nice gravel trail and now we're going up something quite a bit steeper with large steps up granite boulders. There's a large waterfall coming over the steep section that we're making our way up. At the top of this section, we pass the turn off to Lone Pine Lake which is the last place you can hike to or camp without a Whitney permit and we take our first serious rest. So far, so good. Not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but doable so far. If the rest of the hike is like this, we're OK, but obviously the air continues to get thinner as we go.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230251102228/918241219_Qrxge-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230251102228/918241219_Qrxge-L.jpg" /></a></div>Taking a Break Near Lone Pine Lake<br />
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At 10am, we enter the actual Whitney Zone where permits are required. While it doesn't mean anything in particular, it's a good point of progress (we're about 2/3 of the way to Outpost Camp) and we know exactly where we are on the map. A little while later we hit another steep progression of switchbacks. We're well over 9000' now and can really feel it when the slope gets steeper than normal. The rented mountaineering boots are starting to bother me in one particular place (on my left shin). Every step forward and up seems to press on the very front part of the shin and hurts a bit. At this point, I'm not really sure what to do about it (a point of foolish neglect) so we press on. We make it up this set of switchbacks and come out into a large meadow with a gorgeous stream running through it. We get glimpses of the Whitney peaks up above us - something we've haven't seen in awhile.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230244112221/918223765_E8er3-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230244112221/918223765_E8er3-L.jpg" /></a></div>One of the Many Stream Crossings<br />
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The trail flattens out as we walk through the meadow and, at the far side of the meadow is Outpost Camp at around 10,000'. At 10:40am, we are ready for a good long rest there. We've both just about emptied our hydration bladders (2 liters each) so we're also going to fill up with water here. The rest feels nice and we break open some trail snacks. There's only one other camper in Outpost Camp and they're not around at the moment, just a tent and some equipment nearby. By now, my left shin is hurting quite a bit so I take the opportunity to take my boots off and try to figure out what's wrong. There isn't anything obviously wrong, but I decide that maybe they were just laced too tight and I'll try to go looser with them. I run the risk of a blister if my foot is slipping around too much, but the current path isn't working too well so I might as well try something different.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230334512236/918231039_QNk8K-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230334512236/918231039_QNk8K-L.jpg" /></a></div>The Meadow Right Before Outpost Camp (Whitney Peak is looming in the far background)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230339382245/918243054_zg4HS-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230339382245/918243054_zg4HS-L.jpg" /></a></div>Waterfall at Outpost Camp<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230339512246/918237219_G65jx-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230339512246/918237219_G65jx-L.jpg" /></a></div>Made it to Outpost Camp<br />
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We both feel pretty good about making it to Outpost Camp in 3 hours. That seems like good progress and there's no way that we feel like camping here - we definitely ought to press on to Trail Camp. Kevin remarks that if the second half of the day is like the first half, it won't be so bad. I briefly remind him of the increasing altitude just to manage expectations, but the optimism is good. Three more miles and 2000' more to get to Trail Camp. After about a 20 minute break, we press on.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-1-outpost-camp-to-trail-camp.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-2168746088877065142010-06-30T12:50:00.000-07:002010-06-30T20:57:59.530-07:00Day #1: Outpost Camp to Trail CampOut of Outpost Camp, it took almost no time at all for the full force of this first day to show itself. There's a climb out of Outpost Camp that takes you to Mirror Lake (a well deserved name and an absolutely beautiful view).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230438212247/918251332_TBvCH-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230438212247/918251332_TBvCH-L.jpg" /></a></div>We get another view of the Whitney peaks from there and then there's a steep set of switchbacks that rise above the lake. The trees are completely gone at over 10,000' once you get above Mirror Lake and the trail is switch-backing over rough granite. Just moving up and through the chunks of granite is significant work and we're both starting to really feel the altitude. <br />
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We have to stop several times to figure out where the trail is. If you know what to look for, you can spot the trail markings (lines of rocks on the turns), but it's also pretty easy to miss one and then wonder why you can't find the trail. There are also numerous patches of snow now that sometimes obscure parts of the trail or have forced people to detour around them and make their own segment of trail. Looking at the map, it looks like once we get through these switchbacks maybe it won't be so steep, but that turns out not to be the case. In fact, I think this was one of the hardest parts of the whole first day. We're ascending along a granite ridge without switchbacks, but it's still pretty steep and the footing is a lot of work. Our boots grip the rock well and the hiking poles really help with balance, but the going is pretty rough. We're having to take numerous short breaks to catch our breath. <br />
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We finally make it up that ridge with Mirror Lake far below at 12:40, nearly two hours from Outpost. We're both breathing very hard and we've both developed a cough that won't go away. You try to take a deep breath, it makes you cough, nothing comes out and you still feel like you need to cough. It's afflicting both of us, but affecting Kevin a bit more. After finishing with this steep ridge, it levels out briefly into Trailside Meadow. We can't really see much of the meadow because it's still mostly covered in snow, but we take a good break there.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230539472254/918253108_TFZHe-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230539472254/918253108_TFZHe-L.jpg" /></a></div>Taking a Break on the Way Above Mirror Lake<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230606072256/918246644_UPhKb-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230606072256/918246644_UPhKb-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Made it to Trailside Meadow <br />
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Out of Trailside Meadow, the trail goes back to some steep switchbacks. Some of the switchbacks are covered in snow and we have to traverse on the snow. It's a bit unnerving because if you lose your balance, you can slide a long way down the snow covered hill, eventually hitting some rocks. We tread carefully, stomping our boots into the snow to get good footing and using our hiking poles for added balance. As we rise up these switchbacks, we start to get a view of Consultation Lake which is still frozen over. At this point, we're both getting a bit worried about the coughing. It isn't constant, but it won't go away and it's making it harder and harder to catch our breath. Because we've both read up on altitude sickness, Kevin is particularly worried that he's feeling the early signs of HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema) which could mean immediate descent is needed. That stress probably isn't helping either.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230625352258/918254722_Dyzdo-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230625352258/918254722_Dyzdo-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The steep trail out of Trailside Meadow - Nothing but Rock and Snow <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230638412260/918266400_YJ3HD-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230638412260/918266400_YJ3HD-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Some Parts of the Trail are Covered in Snow<br />
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According to the map, we're not particularly far from Trail Camp in either miles or additional altitude so we take a break on the steep climb out of Trailside Meadow, hoping that slowing down will help the breathing. At this point, Kevin gets to discover how to use the WAG bags. The least interesting part of the whole Whitney hike is that you have to capture and carry out all your solid human waste. This is because the trail and camping areas are so confined and there are so many people every day on the trail that doing it any other way leads to an environmental mess. To do this, your permit comes with a WAG bag for each person. It stands for Waste Alleviation & Gelling Pooh-Powder. I won't go into the all the details, but there's an internal and external bag and you lay out the internal bag flat on the ground, do your business, roll up the outsides of the bag to contain the waste, tie off the top of that bag, then put it in another zip lock bag to fully contain it. There is a gel and powder that reacts with the waste to somewhat neutralize it. You use the bag as many times as you need to on your trip, pack it out and deposit it in special human waste trash containers at the trail-head It's not fun and it's extra weight to carry, but it works. We brought extra large ziplocks and garbage bags to make sure it was contained inside. When you get to Trail Camp and see how barren it is, you totally realize that there just isn't any place for four months of visitors to do their business and not have the whole place get disgusting so everyone packs out their own. After our WAG break, we push on for Trail Camp.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-1-arriving-at-trail-camp.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-20777853207848068482010-06-30T12:40:00.000-07:002010-07-04T07:02:34.278-07:00Day #1: Arriving at Trail CampWe finally get up the set of switchbacks and all of the Whitney peaks come into view and we can see Trail Camp in front of us. The last bit into Trail Camp is not steep at all. We are totally exhausted. It's about 2pm so we made it in six hours which is pretty good time. <br />
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We stop at the first place that looks like an empty camp site. We can see only three or four other tents around, but we may not be able to see all of Trail Camp so we're really not sure how many people are there. We drop our packs and just sit there. I'm not all that excited about the camp site we're in so (without my pack) I walk around a bit and find a better camp site about 100 yards away. It takes us awhile just to get up the energy to move our packs over there. Once we do, Kevin lays down on the ground and just lays there initially catching his breath and then just trying to summon some energy. We're at 12,000' and have never felt so tired in our lives. I look up at the snow covered chute that leads up to Trail Crest and I honestly think that there's just no way we can do that tomorrow. I figure that we're going to sleep here tonight and go back down in the morning. It just doesn't seem possible that we can go further up tomorrow. I'm trying to move around to get some things out of my pack and every motion just sends me completely out of breath. I really can't do anything, but sit there.<br />
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Kevin's really worried that his cough is related to HAPE and I tell him I've got a Wilderness First Aid emergency booklet and we can look it up. He's urging me to do that, but I can't summon the energy to find it in my pack. I get up a few times to try and just have to sit back down again. I don't feel ill - I just have no energy to do anything and everything I do makes me out of breath. I guess this is our welcome mat for the first time at 12,000 feet. Finally, I find the energy to locate the Wilderness First Aid emergency booklet and we look up the symptoms of HAPE. It describes a productive cough, fast heart rate and shortness of breath even at rest. Kevin doesn't have these symptoms. He's completely lucid and coordinated too so there are no symptoms of HACE either. He is visibly relieved. We're both still exhausted.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230756032267/918262680_MwWe4-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230756032267/918262680_MwWe4-L.jpg" /></a></div>Arrived at Trail Camp <br />
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I don't remember the exact timing of things, but we basically just sit there for quite awhile, maybe as long as an hour or an hour and a half. We can see the chute coming down from Trail Crest and can see the people who went to the summit this day coming down so that keeps us occupied. The longer we sit, the more we start to recover. This is very good news. Eventually, we feel like we can move around in our camp site and start to set up camp. We get the tent up and start thinking about dinner. Though it's only 4:00 or so, it's clear that the sun is going to disappear early here (because it sets right behind Mt. Whitney which towers above us) and we're really hungry and tired. We cook dinner about 5pm (a homemade dehydrated beans and rice mixture that really tastes good). After dinner, we're both feeling a lot better. Several hours of rest and some good hot food and now we're feeling like maybe we can tackle the summit tomorrow. What a difference a few hours made. My assessment is that we just overdid it on the climb from Outpost Camp as we got above 11,000'. We needed to take it slower with more long breaks and we probably needed to eat more along the way too to keep our energy up. The rule of thumb said it should have taken us seven hours and that's probably how long we should have taken (three more 20 minute breaks in the last hour and a half). We were both just so driven to get there that we just kept pressing on. Perhaps we were running on some adrenaline at the end and when we got to camp that extra burst just gave out and we were spent. In any case, we definitely overdid it that day. We needed to pace ourselves better for the whole duration of the day's climb.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230911542268/918268709_vBLxe-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230911542268/918268709_vBLxe-L.jpg" /></a></div>We Finally Get Camp Set up at Trail Camp and Start to Feel Better <br />
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We started getting things organized for the night and filled up our water supplies for the summit the next day (we have to carry 3 liters each because there's no water once we leave Trail Camp). The sun disappears behind Mount Whitney at 6:30pm and it starts to get cold quickly. While there are no bears up at this altitude, you have to protect anything with a scent from the marmots. They will chew holes in your pack or tent to get at anything that isn't protected. You are required to carry a bear proof container for your food (which protects it from marmots too), but we discovered that not everything we have that has a scent (toiletries and first aid stuff) will fit into the bear container since we haven't eaten much of the food yet. Kevin comes up with the idea that if we find a crevice in the rock, we can put them in the crevice and then barricade it into the crevice with rocks. Worst case, we lose some toiletries, but at least we won't have holes in our pack or tent. The whole scheme works out perfectly.<br />
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During our rest at Trail Camp, we talk to a number of the hikers coming down from the summit. We get several tips on suggested routes up the chute and folks tell us to hit the chute sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning before it starts getting soft. We decide we'll get up at 6am, eat a good breakfast and get going as soon as we can after that. At 7pm, though the sun has disappeared for us, it's far from dark (the sun doesn't actually set on level ground until 8:30), but we're exhausted and cold so we retreat to the tent. We just lay there for awhile, content to just relax and be out of the wind. A little while later, we decide to get ready for bed and by 8pm, we're both sound asleep.<br />
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Sleeping under Mount Whitney at 12,000 feet is anything but a good night's sleep. It gets cold quickly (there was fresh ice on the river in the morning) and it can really be windy. I don't know about Kevin, but I was out cold exhausted until around midnight and then some big gust of wind really shook the tent and woke me up. After that, sleep came in fits and spurts at best.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-2-heading-up-chute-to-trail-crest.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-13188499479451679452010-06-30T12:30:00.001-07:002010-06-30T21:00:02.508-07:00Day #2: Heading to the Whitney Summit from Trail CrestThe trail to the Whitney summit goes around the backside (west side) of the Whitney peaks, the opposite of what we could see from Trail Camp. While the east side is mostly a vertical face, the west side has some vertical faces, but it also has lots of boulder fields at a sloped angle. The map says that it's 900' of net elevation gain from Trail Crest to Whitney Summit spread over two miles. Given what we just did on the chute, that 900' doesn't seem like that big a deal, but there are a bunch of things working against you. Besides being at nearly 14,000 feet, the first thing working against you is that the trail goes steeply down the backside at first. I don't know if this is the only way that could have been built to the Whitney summit, but the trail goes down a ways to meet up with a spur of the John Muir trail so people doing the Pacific Crest trail (from Mexico to Canada) can do a side trip to the top of Whitney. In any case, we go down a bunch, meet up with the spur from the Pacific Crest Trail and then start the ascent up to Whitney. <br />
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After about 30 minutes of hiking, we can spot the shack on top of Whitney in the distance. It's exhilarating to see the final destination, but it was also a long ways off in the distance. It didn't seem like a long climb (relative to everything else we'd done), but it seemed pretty far away nonetheless. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240417512308/918307559_pxepb-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240417512308/918307559_pxepb-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Our First Look at the Back Side of Whitney Peak (in the distance) - The Hut on Top is Barely Visible <br />
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And, just making steady progress at 14,000 feet was hard. At first, we were doing really well. We passed several groups of people we'd been at Trail Crest with. We passed several of what are known as the "windows". These are essentially the v-notches between the sub-peaks. When you go past a window, you can see both east and west (a long ways down in both directions). I thought they were pretty cool, but Kevin didn't feel very comfortable in the windows. We also had absolutely gorgeous views westward over the Sierras of hundreds of other peaks and lots of frozen lakes. Really, really rough terrain, but amazingly beautiful.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240401162305/918313313_sDbL3-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240401162305/918313313_sDbL3-L.jpg" /></a></div>Views Westward Over the Sierras <br />
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Then, the pace and altitude started to catch up with us. We hit a long set of sweeping switchbacks and then went across the west face of the Whitney peak itself to get to the north side which was less steep and the trail went up the north spine of the peak. We had a couple long traverses through snow fields and when we got to the north spine of Whitney, I needed a long break. I really thought we were close enough that we were going to make it, but I thought it might really take a long time because I couldn't go very long between breaks. We'd hike a bit, take a sit down break, then hike some more. Kevin was doing better that I at this point, but we were still encouraging each other. At one of the breaks, I explained to Kevin that I was just going to need a lot of breaks, but with the right breaks I thought we could make it. I noticed that we couldn't actually see very far in front of us up the spine and I figured that was a good thing. That meant the the slope must be flattening out as we progressed. There are no pictures from this part of the trip because all I could think about at the time was getting to the top. Even at breaks, I didn't even think about taking the camera out.<br />
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Just when I thought I was going to need breaks every few minutes, something kicked in and we just powered up to the top. Again I don't know if it was adrenaline or the slope flatted a bit, but we came over a rise and could see the shack at the top there in front of us and it was only five more minutes to get up there. I don't think I've ever seen Kevin so happy. He really, really, really wanted to make it to the top. We arrived at the top around 12:30. <br />
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Remember that magic rule before of 2 miles per hour and one additional hour for each 1000' of climb. That's exactly how long it took us on this last segment (2 hours to go 2 miles and 1000' up) to get from Trail Crest to the Whitney Summit. We weren't carrying heavy packs at this point, but the added altitude probably evened things out. Five and a half hours from Trail Camp to get to Whitney Summit. Not a speed record, but plenty of time left in the day and no bad weather threatening us.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-2-at-top.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-57002674165523944102010-06-30T12:30:00.000-07:002010-06-30T21:01:39.050-07:00Day #2: Heading up the chute to Trail Crest at 13,600'The sun came up at 5:30am and lit up the tent. By 6am we were up. Fortunately, in the full force of the sun with the granite heating up, the air heated up quickly and the morning wasn't as cold as I feared it might be. We cooked an oatmeal mixture for breakfast which was only so-so and then dumped everything out of our packs that we didn't need to take to the summit. We still needed a fair number of things: water, food, extra clothes (it can be really cold and/or windy up on the summit), first aid, ice axe, crampons, WAG bags, etc... But tent, sleeping bag, stove, and most of our food could stay here. Our packs were a lot lighter.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006232307532274/918270774_nk2pH-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006232307532274/918270774_nk2pH-L.jpg" /></a></div>Our Camp by First Light - Whitney Peaks in the Background<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240010072276/918282816_xdR2S-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240010072276/918282816_xdR2S-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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The "chute" up to Trail Crest (45 degree slope of snow in front of the peaks) <br />
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By 7am, we were on our way to Trail Crest. This leg of the journey essentially consisted of three parts: 1) Hike up some switchbacks on the rocks, 2) then traverse over to the chute and 3) then climb the chute. We managed the switchbacks OK, but any uphill or rock scrambling at this altitude was still tiring. When we hit the place where the trail and rocks were covered with snow, it was time to put on our cramp-ons. I'd done it before at home, but since we aren't experts at this, it tooks us a little while to get this right, but we got them on firmly. We traded our hiking poles for the ice axes and started traversing up and over to the bottom of the chute. This was tough going. Not only was it uphill, but the snow wasn't very strong and we'd break through sometimes. The crampons gave us great traction though. A little while into it, we realized that our hiking poles would be better than our ice axes for this part of the climb so we swapped those. It takes quite a while to get over to the bottom of the chute. What looks like a simple traverse from far away actually has a lot of elevation gain in it and we have to take frequent breaks. We start out counting 50 steps and taking a break to catch our breath.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240107252280/918273965_6E5gW-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240107252280/918273965_6E5gW-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Other Hikers Making Their Way to the Bottom of the Chute<br />
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Finally, by 8:30am, we get to the bottom of the chute. We've been told that the bottom of the chute is 30 degrees and the top is 45 degrees. I don't know if that is hiker's exaggeration or not, but whatever the angles are, it does get steeper at the top and it's darn steep. There's a few people ahead of us and quite a few more day hikers behind us. Everyone seems to be going up the left side (there's some rocks in the middle and you can go to the left or right of the rocks) so we follow. The general idea is that you want to find a set of boot tracks that you can follow where some previous people have made footholds into the snow that you can step in. I'm leading the way and sometimes it's easy to follow a good path and other times, you just can't find an organized set of boot paths. What used to be 50 steps and then a rest is now 25 steps and then a rest. Soon that goes to 15 steps. Progress just seems to be agonizingly slow because Trail Crest is so far above, but if you look below it's easier to see how much progress you've made.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240136082284/918288168_nJckb-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240136082284/918288168_nJckb-L.jpg" /></a></div>Kevin Making His Way up the Chute <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240207122290/918293887_vYe8t-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240207122290/918293887_vYe8t-L.jpg" /></a></div>When we reach the boulder field in the middle of the chute, we find a boulder that we can take a longer rest on and we have a snack. We been going for two hours now, but we can still see our camp area and it just doesn't seem like we've gone very long. We're both physically fine now, the chute just seems like such a daunting challenge and it's so hard to get enough air to go up such a steep slope that I really don't know if we're going to make it up or not. After a break on the boulders, we see four folks from above us turn around and start going down. While they do have crampons, they don't have hiking poles and they just don't think they can make it all the way up. Then, we see a woman coming down by herself. She explains that she made it to Trail Crest, but hurt her foot on the way up and doesn't think she can make it to the summit of Whitney so she's going back down. This is not an encouraging sign. For the length of the boulder field, we really struggle. We both need rests - sometimes it's me calling for the rest, sometimes it's Kevin. We can really only go about 10 steps before needing to rest. <br />
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I set a goal that we'll rest on the last boulder in the boulder field. When we finally get there, we take off our packs and just try to catch our breath. We're clearly a long ways up, but the chute has gotten significantly steeper. Without any more places to sit and rest and the additional steepness, I'm just not sure if I'm going to make it up. We just sit on this boulder for awhile.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240250002292/918290960_6tWPU-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240250002292/918290960_6tWPU-L.jpg" /></a></div>You Can See What the Crampons Look Like in This Picture of Kevin<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240206432288/918286534_WtUL9-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240206432288/918286534_WtUL9-L.jpg" /></a></div>Other Hikers On Their Way Up Behind Us <br />
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A few other climbers go by. Then, we see this long group of day hikers coming up. When we're finally ready to move on, they are even with us. We get into line with them and something about the rhythm of the long group of people just works. Because the whole group really can't go any faster than the slowest person ahead of you, it ended up being a rhythm of five steps, pause, five steps, pause. It was a perfect cadence that just worked for us. I don't know if we were just trying to do too much before or if there was something psychological about being part of that larger group or if our adrenaline just started pumping, but we followed this cadence for 30 minutes right up to Trail Crest with no long breaks at all. Turn brain off - just follow the person in front of you. It just worked.<br />
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We were ecstatic to get to Trail Crest at 10:22. It had taken almost 3-1/2 hours to get up the 1500 feet to Trail Crest. Though there was still a long ways to go to get to the Whitney summit itself, this was the part of the day we were most worried about and we really thought we could do the rest of the trip. It seemed like the Whitney summit was in our grasp. Lots more work to do, but the most daunting parts were done. Of course, like most things at 14,000 feet, it wasn't all that simple. The view at Trail Crest is unbelievable. You can see both east and west - east into Owens valley and down to the town of Lone Pine and west over hundreds of other Sierra peaks and frozen lakes. It's also got quite cold. We were apparently sheltered from the wind on the chute (hiking in only a long sleeve shirt) and we needed both fleece and windbreaker as soon as we got exposed to the wind.<br />
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Off came the crampons, we took a few photos, mixed ourselves some powdered Gatorade (which tasted great) and had a good snack watching everyone else come up the chute. Not even a peep of altitude sickness in either one of us so somewhere around 10:30, we headed off to the Whitney summit.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240326322302/918314987_7mLmT-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240326322302/918314987_7mLmT-L.jpg" /></a></div>Jubilant to Be At Trail Crest - The Chute Has Been Conquered<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-20100624040128-pano/918305578_6VudW-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-20100624040128-pano/918305578_6VudW-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>The View from Trail Crest to the West Over the Sierras<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-2-heading-to-whitney-summit-from.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-45934755335506882042010-06-30T12:20:00.000-07:002010-06-30T21:02:24.522-07:00Day #2: At the TopWe made it to the top! We dropped our packs and wandered around a bit to look in all directions. The view was amazing! To the east, you could see the town of Lone Pine 10,000 feet below in Owens Valley. To the north, west and south, it was nothing but other peaks. There are fourteen other peaks of more than 14,000 feet in the Sierras, but none quite as tall as Whitney and we could likely see some of them too. Kevin stood on a rock at the top, raised his hands and proclaimed he was the highest person in the continental U.S. at that moment. We shared some high fives and a few long hugs.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240539172310/918310704_djRAM-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240539172310/918310704_djRAM-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Kevin on top of Mt. Whitney - Highest Person in the Continental U.S.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240539532311/918309098_Y3WnK-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240539532311/918309098_Y3WnK-L.jpg" /></a></div>Yes, we were really there.<br />
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I head read that some people can get cell phone coverage on top of Whitney. I didn't know what service provider they used or if my Verizon phone would work or not, but I pulled it out and powered it up. After fiddling a bit, I realized that if I got to a part of the peak where I could see the town of Lone Pine, that it said I had coverage. I tried to call Steph. The first call didn't go through. I tried again. This time it started ringing. Steph answered and we talked to her from the top of Whitney. We'd been out of touch for a couple days (while hiking) and she knew this was one day we might be trying to summit so she was really happy to hear that we made it. Just trying to tell her how I felt, I got overcome with emotions a couple times and almost lost my ability to talk. I handed the phone to Kevin and he talked to Steph for a bit too. How cool it was to share the very moment from the top of the mountain! After finishing our conversation with Steph, Kevin discovered that we even had a 3G data connection and Kevin posted to his facebook page from the top of Whitney.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240541182313/918324460_KQXgv-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240541182313/918324460_KQXgv-L.jpg" /></a></div>Looking Eastward Down to Owens Valley and the Town of Lone Pine (where our cell coverage came from)<br />
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We took a few of the obligatory summit pictures and then took a long rest. It was a pretty nice day. A bit of a breeze, but not overly windy. Some random clouds, but nothing threatening us. If you got out of the wind between boulders, you'd be comfortable in only a shirt, but otherwise needed some other kind of coverup. We grabbed a snack, but I really wasn't very hungry (which was probably a mistake - again I should have eaten more). After a good break, we each signed the log book at the top and started down around 1:30.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240545282315/918327256_5kaWP-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240545282315/918327256_5kaWP-L.jpg" /></a></div>John on Top of Whitney (and feeling a bit victorious)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240614152318/918318163_ahKVZ-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240614152318/918318163_ahKVZ-L.jpg" /></a></div>Father and Son on Top of Whitney<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240614522319/918322815_j43md-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240614522319/918322815_j43md-L.jpg" /></a></div>Looking North to Other Peaks (Mt. Tyndall 14,018')<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240616062324/918318998_fR2ZE-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240616062324/918318998_fR2ZE-L.jpg" /></a></div>Kevin Next to the Park Service Plaque<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-2-down-from-top.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-13745523965737787952010-06-30T12:10:00.000-07:002010-06-30T21:03:04.701-07:00Day #2: Down From the TopThe trip down to Trail Crest was uneventful, but long. The first part went quickly as it was all downhill, but then my legs really started getting tired. I noticed that I was missing my step on the boulders sometimes. I would intend for my step down to go one place and it wouldn't always end up there. I never fell, but stumbled a few times. It wasn't a case of mental sharpness, but rather just muscle fatigue. With numerous places along the trail where missing a step could be fatal, we had to take some breaks and rest. We really just wanted to get down, but the legs were tired. After what seemed like a really, really long time, we finally got to the junction with the John Muir Trail. I knew that wasn't far from Trail Crest, but I also knew that it was all uphill from there to Trail Crest. It was steep, but not long and even though we need a few breaks to get there, we finally made it to Trail Crest. I hardly took any pictures in this segment because were really tired and just focused on getting back. I'm not sure of the actual time we got to Trail Crest, but I think it was somewhere around 3:30.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240701432326/918326412_6BePt-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240701432326/918326412_6BePt-L.jpg" /></a></div>The Back Side of the Whitney Ridge (looking along the sub peaks) <br />
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Now we were at Trail Crest with the task of getting down the chute safely. There are basically two choices. You can hike down in the soft snow, using the softness of the snow to cushion your boots and let you take steps down or you can glissade down. Done properly glissading is a controlled slide that goes a lot quicker than hiking and with a lot less effort. There are several different positions you can choose for glissading. The two important and invariant aspects of all positions are that your butt is sliding on the snow and your ice axe is dug into the snow behind you as a break to control your speed. You do not wear your crampons because if they catch in some hard snow, it can break your ankle or worse. Kevin and I have never done glissading before. Absent the right conditions, we weren't going to do it here either. The reason is, if you lose control of your speed on a steep slope that doesn't have a safe runout at the bottom and a safe way to control your direction, you can crash into rocks. People have died glissading on this very slope by hitting rocks at speed.<br />
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We sit down for a break at Trail Crest and watch others going down. First, there's a huge chute carved out by the other glissaders. At the top it's almost three feet deep into the snow. Not only does it make it virtually certain what track you're going to follow, the sides of the chute also give you ways to get your feet involved in slowing your speed. Second the snow is pretty soft (warm day) which makes it softer and slows your speed. Third, there's a group of about eight people in front of us. One guy who has done glissading before is explaining and demonstrating to everyone else in the group how to do it (who are all newbies at it like us). One by one, we watch everyone go. They seem to be able to manage things. Nobody goes out of the worn glissade path and everyone finds a way to stop themselves at some point. We decide that we can do it.<br />
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I go first. I'm sitting on my butt, with backpack on. My legs are out in front of me with my boots prepared to dig into the snow. My right hand is wrapped in the ice axe strap behind my body and holding the top of the ice axe and my left hand reaches across my body to the end of the ice axe. The idea is that the two hands together press the ice axe into the ice to slow yourself down. The harder you press, the more it will slow you. It's actually a pretty contorted position because half your body wants to be facing downhill and the other half applying force uphill. But, done right it works. <br />
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I'm off. At first, I'm able to keep the speed down. Then, the speed starts to pick up and I'm having trouble slowing myself down. I have no idea how fast I was actually going, but all I can is that I was terrified. Probably the worst that would have happened is that I would have caught up with the person down the chute in front of me, but it was terrifying to not feel in control of the speed. I try digging my legs in further. There's a huge pile of snow building up in front of me - scraped off the chute by my heels. That isn't working so I apply as much pressure as I can on the ice axe. That works. The ice axe grabs, starts to slow, then grabs into a solid piece of snow/ice and I come to an abrupt stop. That took a lot of force, but it worked. OK, I'm not sure I enjoyed that, but I just came quite aways down the slope and I think I understand how to do this.<br />
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Kevin has picked a bit different position than I have and is having a similarly difficult time stopping. He's also pushing a big pile of snow in front of him and he eventually comes down to where I am and come right into me. By then, he has slowed some and the big pile of snow in front of him provides a cushion between us. Not how it's supposed to be done, but we're OK. Kevin is pretty worried about things at this point so I explain to Kevin what I'm doing to make it work for me and he adopts his own version of that. We briefly discuss the option of walking down the rest of the way, but decide that the rest is not quite as steep, we're now past the top of the boulder field and still in a good worn path and there's a pretty good runout at the bottom so even if we don't quite have it down yet, we should be OK.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240904172328/918336363_ubTyS-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240904172328/918336363_ubTyS-L.jpg" /></a></div>Kevin, Glissading Down the Chute <br />
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Now it starts to get fun. It goes from terrifying to exhilirating. We've both figured out how to stop better and the slope has mellowed a bit. In fact, we're bummed that we have to constantly wait for a super cautious glissader who's going really slow in front of us. As the slope mellows, we jump tracks to another path to get by the slowpoke and slide all the rest of the way ourselves - having a blast. I'm even able to get the camera out and get a couple snaps of Kevin coming down the lesser part of the slope.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240904392337/918329850_YDMiu-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240904392337/918329850_YDMiu-L.jpg" /></a></div>The Glissading Position <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240904452343/918341520_X7XnW-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240904452343/918341520_X7XnW-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Kevin Comes to a Stop With Ace Axe Dug Into the Snow<br />
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We reach the end of the glissade and start the traverse hike back to Trail Camp. I really don't remember what time we got back to camp, but it was somewhere around 4:30-5:00. We are soaking wet from the glissade (thank goodness for having all non-cotton clothing because it dries fast), but also reveling in how fun the second half of the glissade was and that we made it to the summit. We cook dinner (ramen, beans and spices), secure things for the night and climb into the tent at about 7pm and after chatting about the days activities, we're once again asleep by 8pm. The plan is to get up whenever we get up in the morning, pack up and hike out.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-3-night-and-then-hike-out.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-77459014662291662452010-06-30T12:00:00.000-07:002010-07-04T07:19:47.230-07:00Day #3: The Night and then the Hike OutThe night starts out as the previous night. We crash at 8pm and pretty much instantly fall asleep. I don't know how long I slept, but it started to get really windy and then started to rain. Though much of our gear was still in the tent, our packs were out in the rain exposed and we really didn't want them all wet or any of the stuff in them all wet. Right about when I was going to decide to get up, get dressed go outside and secure the packs, the rain stopped. I drift off to sleep again. Sometime later (I have no idea how much time elapsed here), it starts really raining. This isn't going to stop quickly. I put on my fleece and head outside to drag each pack in under a corner of the rain fly on the tent. We had garbage bags I could have put over the packs, but the rain fly looked like it would keep them mostly dry and this was a lot quicker. I dive back into the tent brush off my bare feeet and jump in the sleeping bag to warm up. The rain and wind continued for awhile. I look outside at one point (I think around 4:30am) and see the first light of sunrise off to the east underneath the storm clouds. I'm thinking about taking a picture of the colors, but before deciding to do so, I doze off. Because of the clouds, we don't get the early morning sun on the tent and we're able to sleep in a bit more and we end up getting up at about 7:30. The rain has stopped and it's now clear overhead, but it's clearly still raining off to the east. By about 8:00, we get some sun that starts drying things out.<br />
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We cook some breakfast (oatmeal) and start the process of getting the whole camp site into our packs. It takes a little while and by 9am we're finally ready to go. I take one last picture at the camp of the two of us (camera on self timer propped on a rock) and then we start the hike down. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006250105242344/918344751_c8RGB-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006250105242344/918344751_c8RGB-L.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Last Look at the Whitney Peaks Before Hiking Out<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006250202412349/918349759_9RK2M-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006250202412349/918349759_9RK2M-L.jpg" /></a></div>Marmots Looking for Our Food<br />
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<a href="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006250220312351/918342923_tUNKs-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006250220312351/918342923_tUNKs-L.jpg" /></a> <br />
The Two of Us Ready to Start the Hike Out<br />
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Much like the descent from Whitney, this descent is mostly just long and arduous, but not particularly noteworthy. We stop for a break at Outpost Camp (2000' down), take a short break and assess our water situation and decide we don't need more water. This time people going up the trail are asking us about the top and we're happy to relay our experiences. We find a gentleman on a day hike (just hiking, not trying for the top) that asks us if we've seen his wife and daughter because he doesn't know if they're up ahead of him or turned around and went back. We explain that we haven't seen them on our way down so he turns around and starts down behind us. It seems odds they would be that separated. We talk to several other groups that don't have crampons or ice axes and figure they're just going to go to Trail Camp and not try for the summit. As we're hiking down on a Friday, it seems like there's a lot more traffic coming up the mountain than there were the previous couple days. I'm also surprised how many people there are that are just out for a casual day hike, just to go part way up the trail. One gentleman explains that he's just going as far as he can get by noon, then turning around. We even see a trail runner coming up the trail in front of us carrying a single bottle of water. He glances at his watch and then turns around and starts running down.<br />
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We run into another guy who's been camping at Lone Pine Lake (just below the Whitney Zone where you need a permit) and he says the fishing there is really great.<br />
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Mostly we're trying to just pass the time and get to the bottom. It's not hard. It's not taxing on the lungs. Our packs just feel really heavy and we want to be done. Unfortunately for us, you can see the road at Whitney Portal from a long ways out. What looks like it should take about 20 minutes to reach takes an hour and finally at about 12:30, we hit the trailhead. <br />
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We head for the car, drop our packs off and my first order of business is to get my boots off. We change into some tennis shoes, stow our gear in the car and walk over to the Whitney Portal store where we order veggie burgers and fries with a large gatorade and we sit outside savoring the best tasting burger we've ever had. Wow, that was good. The Whitney Portal store has a small shower in the back and we pay for two showers and each get cleaned up a bit before our long drive home. By around 2:00, we're on the road. When we get down to Lone Pine, we call Steph and let her know we're OK and give her an idea when we'll be home. The drive home is uneventful and we arrive home at about 9:30pm.<br />
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<a href="http://climbwhitneytrip.blogspot.com/2010/06/epilogue.html">Next Page</a>John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511493699288441447.post-88027840986270855562010-06-30T11:50:00.000-07:002010-07-01T09:22:18.951-07:00EpilogueWhile we never really got to the point of aborting the trip or discussing giving up, there were three significant points in the trip where we both wondered if we were going to be able to make it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><div><img border="0" height="212" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230625352258/918254722_Dyzdo-S.jpg" width="320" /></div>Above 11,000' - trouble getting deep breaths<br />
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</div>The first was late in the climb the first day at above 11,000' when we both starting getting a cough and it was difficult to get a deep breath without coughing. At the time, the cough was both causing issues for our progress and was making us wonder if it was a sign of something more significant that was wrong. We both wondered if it was an early sign of HAPE and if we'd get to the point where we had to turn around and descend to keep it from getting worse. I remember one particular break we took on the trail where Kevin was having a real hard time with the cough and getting quite worried about it too. We rested and, as we rested, it seemed to get a little better (we probably should have rested even longer).<div style="clear: both;"></div>Eventually, we started hiking again and before thinking we had to take another break, Trail Camp came into view. Fortunately for us, our bodies recovered after a few hours of rest in Trail Camp and the coughs disappeared. If it had not gotten better when it did, we would have probably descended to Outpost Camp that first day. Without a medical diagnosis, I can only assume that we just overdid it the first day. Our packs were too heavy and we ascended too fast and our lungs needed a slower pace to adapt to the altitude gain. An eight hour pace to Trail Camp with a lot more long breaks (instead of the six hours we took) probably would have made it easier on our lungs. We had the time in the day. Taking nice long breaks at Lone Pine Lake, Mirror Lake and Trailside Meadow and eating food each time could have really helped.<br />
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I imagine that this is how a lot of climbers get into trouble, but we were so driven to achieve our first day goal that as long as our bodies let us push on, we pushed hard. We passed many other backpackers on the trail and were passed by none. Neither one of us had to push the other - we just both really wanted to achieve our goal so we were pushing ourselves. Even though we had plenty of time that day and could have taken it more conservatively, were were driven to push forward at the earliest point we could. Starting the hike an hour earlier might have also been wise because it would have been cooler and would have given us more confidence that we could take our time.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; "><div><img border="0" height="212" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006230756032267/918262680_MwWe4-S.jpg" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: right;">Exhausted when arriving at Trail Camp</div><div><img border="0" height="212" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240010072276/918282816_xdR2S-S.jpg" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: right;">Looking up at the chute from Trail Camp</div></div>The second point where I really wondered if we were going to be able to continue was when we first arrived at Trail Camp. I've never been this exhausted in my whole life. We found a camp site and just sat down and rested. For over an hour, we couldn't do anything. From the camp site, we could look up at both Whitney Peak and at the chute that we would have to climb the next day. I remember staring at the slope thinking to myself that there was just no way we were going to be able to make it up that. I couldn't even get up and move around to get something out of my pack. How in the world was I going to climb the chute the next day? For more than an hour, I thought we were just going to rest and camp here tonight and, in the morning, we'd pack up and hike out - defeated by the altitude. Fortunately, after a few hours of rest our bodies started to adapt and recover and, by the time we'd eaten dinner, our optimism for the next day had returned.<div style="clear: both;"></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; "><div><img border="0" height="450" src="http://jfriend.smugmug.com/Family/Climbing-Mt-Whitney-2010/Whitney-201006240207122290/918293887_vYe8t-M.jpg" width="299" /></div>A break on the chute<br />
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</div>The third point was ascending the slope of the chute the second day. We started out with 50 steps and a rest, then 25 steps, then 10 steps. Progress was really slow. Other groups of people were passing us and it didn't seem like we were making steady progress. The slope was getting steeper and steeper and harder and harder. By the time we got half way up, I was ready for a long break on a boulder. I didn't contemplate giving up, but on the other hand, I wasn't confident that we were going to make it up either. We finished the break and started going again. Almost immediately, I felt like I needed another break. We set a goal of getting to the end of the boulder field in the middle of the chute and taking a break there on the last good resting spot. Again, I was in need of the break by the time we got there. If you looked up, the top just seemed no closer. But, if you looked down, you could clearly see that we had made a lot of progress. I remember after resting awhile, Kevin asked me if I was ready to go. I answered "no" and just needed to sit there awhile longer.<br />
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Finally, I was ready to proceed. At the point we started going, a caravan of other hikers was going by and we just fell into their line - putting our feet into the same boot steps in the snow that the person in front of us had used. It was the best thing that ever happened on that climb. Because of the complexities of a line of people, they had a rhythm that consisted of about five steps and then a pause and that rhythm just worked for us. We made it to the top of Trail Crest without any further long breaks and really without any further doubt as to whether we were going to make it. There's probably a lesson here in the "slow and steady" pace wins the race.<br />
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I had one more difficult spot near the Whitney summit. The trail to the summit just seemed interminably long and though it wasn't steep in comparison to what we'd done the previous day or earlier that day, any uphill at 14,000' just saps the energy out of you. I remember getting to one point in that segment where I told Kevin that I was going to make it, but it might take awhile and I might need pretty frequent breaks. We sat down for awhile (10 minutes or so). Kevin was ready to push on because the summit wasn't far away, but I just needed to sit longer so he waited with me. I thought I was going to need to take a break like this every few minutes, but when we finally started going again, I suddenly felt much better. The slope to the top was flattening out some and the long rest had apparently helped. All of a sudden, we came over a rise and there was the top and it was easy to find the energy to go the last bit.<br />
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Overall, I think we prepared well and we weren't missing anything that really impacted the trip. There are, however, a number of things that we'd do differently if we ever did this again. Firstly, our packs were simply too heavy. We should have gone much lighter. We didn't weigh our packs fully packed before the trip (probably a mistake - though I wouldn't have known then what not to bring), but did weigh them when we got back. Accounting for the weight of two liters of water, but not as much food or fuel as we started with and not any of the contents of our WAG bags that we disposed of at the trail-head, my pack was 41 pounds and Kevin's was 39 pounds. In addition, I was carrying five more pounds of camera in a front pack (that gave me easy access to my camera without taking my pack off). So, accounting for some of the food we ate and fuel we burned, my total carrying weight may have been as much as 50 pounds on the way up. I've read that a good target is 20% of your body weight which for would be a pack of about 37 pounds for me and 32 pounds for Kevin and if you're really diligent, you may be able to go even lighter than that.<br />
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Here's all the things we would not bring next time:<br />
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<ul><li>Bring way less food (we had more than double what we needed)</li>
<li>Bring smaller bear container (for the smaller amount of food)</li>
<li>Bring fewer warm clothes (we had jackets and fleeces we never used)</li>
<li>No ice axe and crampons (we needed them this time, but later in the year one would not need them)</li>
<li>No extra batteries for headlamps (we barely used them at all)</li>
<li>One fuel canister was enough for the stove (we had two)</li>
<li>Acquire extra WAG bags so we could take empty ones up to the summit</li>
<li>I had way too much first aid stuff - pair it down to smaller quantities</li>
<li>Go without some of the toiletries (wash cloth, comb, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc...)</li>
<li>Lighter tent (rather than buy a new tent, we were using a two man tent we already had that isn't very light)</li>
<li>Know the right portions for meals. In Whitney, if you cook too much quantity, you have to pack out the (now-hydrated and heavy) extra food you just prepared.</li>
<li>Take everything out of it's native containers and into ziplocks. More compact and lighter weight. We did this with all things related to food, but not other things like Advil and some of the first aid stuff. Every ounce of packaging adds up.</li>
</ul><br />
And some things we did that worked out really well:<br />
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<ul><li>We each carried a hydration bladder in our pack with a tube coming out the top of the pack so we could drink at any time while hiking. This was great. It really encouraged us to drink a lot more and was really convenient.</li>
<li>We were plenty warm. We both had 15 degree sleeping bags and they were more than warm enough.</li>
<li>All food was individually packaged into ziplocks and many meals could be eaten by just adding water to a ziplock and stirring. This meant no dirty dishes other than your own spoon. Very nice.</li>
<li>We had no altitude sickness at all. We got a prescription for and took Diamox which helps your body acclimate to higher altitude. We also spent three days before the hike at 8000 feet or above doing mild exertion (light hiking). I can honestly say that I felt a lot better at altitude on the day of the hike than I did the previous days so acclimation seems to really work.</li>
<li>Car camping in the forest service camp ground at the trailhead was really nice. It's a nice campground along a river. There is a backpacker's campground specifically for one night stays before your trip, but doing car camping from the forest service campground was much nicer.</li>
<li>The small Wilderness First Aid book I had was great. It was very reassuring to be able to look up the symptoms of HAPE and confirm that we didn't have any of the serious symptoms.</li>
<li>Cell phones do work from the top of Whitney (at least on Verizon). That was really fun to be able to talk to Steph from the top.</li>
</ul><br />
And, some things I'd change next time:<br />
<ul><li>Eat more calories between lunch and dinner. I'm convinced that one of the reasons I got so fatigued the first two days is that I simply didn't eat enough calories for the amount of exercise we were doing. While we ate a decent breakfast and dinner, the plan was to snack through the day whenever you were hungry on nuts, trail mix and dried fruit. I simply didn't eat enough. After fully hydrating on the way home and eating a couple big meals, I was still 5 pounds lighter than when we left. That means I was probably 7-8 pounds down during the trip. Next time, I'd bring more things like energy bars and maybe even GU energy gel for quick energy.</li>
<li>Dinners were good. Breakfasts were not so good. Snacks didn't work out that well. We didn't starve, but could have done better. We brought a lot of dried fruit because it's relatively light, has lots of good things in it and we love it. But, we quickly discovered that dried fruit makes you go to the bathroom regularly and with the WAG system that isn't something we wanted to do. So, most of the dried fruit came back uneaten.</li>
<li>Take more long breaks on the first day ascent where you conciously rest and eat. If our six hour ascent had been seven or eight hours and we'd rested and eaten more, we probably wouldn't have been as spent when we got to Trail Camp and maybe wouldn't have had the cough issues we had.</li>
<li>Go when you know the trail will be clear (late July or August). This will also let you use lighter weight boots than the mountainerring boots that we rented.</li>
<li>I don't know if it was worth it bringing my big dSLR and it's associated weight and bulk (nearly five lbs). This first trip, we were so focused on the objective of the trip and so exhausted doing it that I didn't spend much time on photography. Perhaps a subsequent trip in easier conditions could leave more time and energy for photography, but most of the pics I took on this trip could have been done with a small, lightweight camera.</li>
</ul><br />
If we did all these things, I think our packs could have been nearly 10 lbs lighter. If switched to a small compact camera, I might have carried 10-15 lbs less.John Friendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946073307212839869noreply@blogger.com