Acclimatizing

In 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.

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.

Saddlebag Lake still frozen

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).

Tufa formations at Mono Lake

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.

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.

Here's what Whitney looks like from near the town of Lone Pine (10,000' up)

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.

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Overview of the Hike

I logically think of the trek up to Whitney in four main pieces:

1. Whitney Portal (8000') to Outpost Camp (10,000') - 3 miles
2. Outpost Camp to Trail Camp (12,000') - 3 miles
3. Trail Camp to Trail Crest (13,500') - ~2 miles
4. Trail Crest to Whitney Summit (14,496') - 2 miles

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.

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.

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.

As a reminder, here's a map overview from the Inyo Forest Service web site:

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Day #1: Whitney Portal to Outpost Camp

We'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.

At the Trail-Head

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Taking a Break Near Lone Pine Lake

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.

One of the Many Stream Crossings

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.

The Meadow Right Before Outpost Camp (Whitney Peak is looming in the far background)

Waterfall at Outpost Camp

Made it to Outpost Camp


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.

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Day #1: Outpost Camp to Trail Camp

Out 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).

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.

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.

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.

Taking a Break on the Way Above Mirror Lake

Made it to Trailside Meadow

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.

The steep trail out of Trailside Meadow - Nothing but Rock and Snow

Some Parts of the Trail are Covered in Snow

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.

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Day #1: Arriving at Trail Camp

We 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.

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.

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.

Arrived at Trail Camp

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.

We Finally Get Camp Set up at Trail Camp and Start to Feel Better

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.

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.

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.

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