Nightglow Window

Whitney In A Day: Long, Any Way You Slice It.

After hitting the trail at 2:45 a.m. we're now at mile 6 and 12,000 feet in this picture. I had been feeling like crap since about 10,000 feet -- headache and nausea and too many remnents of last week's cold. By this point I had lost my voice and could barely stomach anything to eat or drink. It was my first bout with altitude sickness ever and it was pretty scary. And there still was a very, very long way to go to the summit. (7:10 a.m.)


JC does water filter duty at trail camp, 12,100 feet.




JC, Doofus, and Mia at Trail Camp.( 8:17 a.m) This is where the humbling really began. After staring up at the 99 switchbacks and realizing there was still five miles and about 2,500 feet to climb, I waved the white flag at this point. Bummer. It was a decision I'd battle with for a few hours, but then felt good about (and one I felt *really* good about later, but I'm getting ahead of the story).




The switchbacks up to Trail Crest -- I circled Mia (bottom middle of the photo) but the scale of this shot is almost impossible to describe. F-ing huge doesn't come close.


So like a wimp I turned around and slowly made my way down as the girls pushed on. By this point, at 9:52 a.m. above Mirror Lake at 11,300 feet I was already beginning to feel a little better. By the time I had reached the lake below at 10,640 feet I was finally able to stomach food and my nausea started to abate. My headache was still in full effect though.


Part of Trail Crest from Trail Camp. Trail crest is around 13,600 feet. Mt Whitney still isn't visible at this point.




The view back down toward the portal.


Looking back up toward Whitney from Big Horn Sheep Park at 10,300 feet. (10:52 a.m. or about 8 hours since leaving the portal)




One last look at the Whitney High Country before heading down to the Portal at 8,300 feet. I arrived feeling tired by pretty good at 12:45 p.m. -- 10 hours and 13 miles since I started.


Meanwhile, Mia and JC had pushed on and had reached the 14,497.61 foot summit at 12:30 p.m. The last stretch up the switchbacks, along trail crest, and up to the summit had taken them more than 4 hours of solid slogging. (JC photo)


The view back down Trail Crest from the summit. (12:43 p.m.)


Summit shack on Mt Whitney's summit (JC Photo)


Back down along trail crest looking down into the Western Basin on the other side of Whitney. (2:24 p.m.)


JC and Mia would make it, but I had to be patient. They arrived back in camp at 8:00 p.m. or 17 hours and 15 minutes since they started at 2:45 a.m. The only thing worse than waiting five hours for them to arrive was the thought of still being out on the trail with them at that hour. They were troopers though and arrived back at the car with shaky legs but high spirits. It was an incredibly impressive display of tenacity and endurance -- and I was very, very impressed.