What a day (actually 41 hours) I had trying to summit Mt Whitney. After months of training and several mountain hikes including a hike up Half Dome, the day had finally come to try an ascend the highest mountain (14,505 feet) in the 48 states.
My attempt started at 5:30am when I got up for my
running camp practice. Though I tried to take it easy, I still put in a couple miles in both the 6am and 6pm practice. Before my Half Dome hike I did the BTC fun run with my runners and wish I had not when things got hard at Half Dome but Thursday, I think I did not over do it.
After the 6pm practice, I bought the family pizza and pasta from my favorite Italian restaurant (
Joseph's). I got the pesto pasta and had a slice in preparation for the day ahead. After eating, it was time to head to the trail head and meet my hiking party. The plan was to head out on the trail at 3am and I figured I would drive up Thursday evening and sleep a little in my car when I got to the trail head.
The
drive up was actually nice (very little traffic) but I missed the 14 turnoff and was heading for Vegas. After the day was over, I wish I had gone to Vegas (I was reminded of Vegas by the guy in the photo). When I got to Lone Pine, it was time to for my poor car to do some climbing. The 13 miles to Whitney Portal was straight up and the temperature went from 95 to 65 during the climb. With no moon it was really dark and I did come across a doe and her two fawns leisurely crossing the road. Good thing my little car was going slow so I did not hit them.
When I got to the trail head (
0.0 miles: Trailhead (8,360 feet) area, it was around 1am and it was really dark. When I parked and turned off my lights, I could not believe how dark and quiet it was. The stars were amazing and I wish I had a camera that could take pictures of them but my could not. Despite the brilliant starlight, I could barely see my feet when I got out of the car (good thing my shoes where white).
I
wandered around the trail head with my flashlight and finally found where the trail actually started but since it was 2 hours before my group was to start the hike, I decided to rest in my car for a bit. By now, I had been up for 19 hours and was way to pumped to even think of sleeping so after a hour of trying to rest, I decided to hang out at the trail head and what for my team. I wanted to start hiking but they had our day passes and so I had to wait.
At 2am, people started showing up for their hike. One of the first, was a young lady from Pennsylvanian. She was with a group but wanted to start early to get a head start. I wish I could of joined her but I had to wait. It was so dark and a little spooky but this did not seem to bother this young lady at all. I doubt that I would head off own my own into the inky darkest.
There are bear warning signs all over the place and who knows what else is out there. Plus the trail is dangerous and I would not like to get hurt out there with no one around. But of she went and then more started showing up and soon their were little lights dancing up and down the mountainside. I could not see the trail but you could see the switchbacks because of the lights.
At last my crew appeared and
after photos, we were off into the great unknown. Though my group had ten day passes, my hiking group was the four ladies that I had been training all summer with. The crew was Debbie (only veteran and group leader), Patti, Elida and Zadie.
They all had miner's headlights and I just had a hand held light so I took my place in our peltoon and followed them. Elida lead, with Debbie, Zadie, me and Patti in tow. From the start, the trail was going uphill and there were some rocks and the trail break rocks in the way. As we hiked, faster groups passed us and some were coming down the trail at this early hour.
The ones coming down looked beat and I started to get even more concerned. Though it was dark, the people heading down looked super fit and looked like hell. Many spoke of heading out the day before and reality set in that this was going to be a long day. After we
crossed one of the three creeks on this first 3 mile ascent, we came across an older man with a tiny penlight and a big camera and little else.
This guy looked bad. He was barely moving and had cut up knees and hands. What he did have plenty of was a gallows humor and said he had fallen so many times that he had lost count. He was really out of it and did not seemed to care any more. It was a very unsettling experience, and I only hope he made it back to safety without further injury. Now more then every, I decided I was turning around at noon because I did not want to be that guy.
As we pushed ahead in the dark, Elida kept a steady pace up the trail. Elida is new to endurance sports and just started training this summer. When I took her to the bluffs the first time, she had a hard time staying on her feet but now she was a mountain goat in the dark. She is a machine and later on the descent, I truly appreciated her amazing toughness. She pulled us back to the trail head that day and Debbie and I could barely stay with her and we were the experienced marathoners and triathletes.
After finally getting to
Lone Pine Lake (3 mile hike to 9,980 feet), the trail finally got flatish. Here Patti and I teamed up and started to make some good time. Debbie and Elida stay with Zadie who was not feeling well and eventually turned around at this point. The
meadow are was real nice and now the sun had risen. We walked around it and then passed a
campground with quite a few tents. Then the trail went up again.
- 0.0 miles: Trailhead (8,360 feet)
- 0.85 miles: Enter John Muir Wilderness (permit required beyond)
- 2.7 miles: Cross Lone Pine Creek. Shortly after crossing, trail forks to Lone Pine Lake on left, right continues towards summit. (9,980 feet)
- 3.8 miles: Outpost Camp with Thor Peak dominating the view. (10,360 feet)
- 4.3 miles: Mirror Lake (10,640 feet)
We climbed for a mile and then dropped down a bit and I was so focused on trying to move forward that I did not even notice
Mirror Lake (10,640 ft) until I almost walked into it. It looked refreshing and it would have been a nice place to end my day but Patti and I had summit fever. As we struggled up switchback after switchback we still felt we could maybe make it. The hike was much harder then we were told and the rocks and steps were killing us but we felt good physically.
At this time we had a lot of walking in our legs and the altitude had not gotten to us except that it slowed us down a lot. We were doing less then a mile a hour even though we never stopped moving forward. The trail was steep and the footing was dreadful and the altitude slowed us down a lot. We were not panting, out of breathe or even altitude sick but we were so slow.
- 4.9 miles: 50 yards past Whitebark Stump, a dwarf whitebark pine is the last tree on trail
- 5.3 miles: Trailside Meadow (11,395 feet)
- 6.3 miles: Trail Camp, a good place to rest before the grueling 96 switchbacks to Trail Crest. (12,039 feet)
By the time we got to
Trail Camp (12,039 ft), we both knew that the goal of making it to the summit was fading fast. I said to her that I wanted to make it to the 96 switchbacks and that would be it. Patti hoped to do the same and thought she might try to go higher but for the first time all day, I saw some doubt in her eyes.
Only now as I am writing this did I found out that we were at the bottom of the switchbacks already. We were both newbies and it was the blind leading the blind. I thought we had to climb this monster in front of us and then do the switchbacks. With this wrong idea in my head, it is no wonder that my spirit had been crushed. The beast in front of me seemed in possible and I thought this was just a prelude to the
96 switchbacks. if I had know this was the infamous 96, I might of went further.
In this case ignorance was not bliss, as we left the trail camp (6.3 miles into the hike) I was resigned to defeat and Patti took off and that was the last I saw her. Though the trail was not that hard, it went on and on. I moved slowly trying to decide when to give up and turn around. Clouds were moving in and noon was approaching fast.
As I stopped to let hikers by (I always stopped for everyone because I needed the rest), I looked down and saw
Debbie. Though she was only a hundred yards below me, she was a quarter mile or more behind me on the trail. We talked briefly about what to do and then Elida appeared. She was moving slow but as we had found out before, she just keeps going and going.
I was so impressed by her, just a month or so before she had struggled on our 12 mile Mt Pinos hike and now she was 8 miles into a monster hike. We had passed the cables on the 96 and got to 13,200 feet and after some discussion decided to turn around. It was a wise decision that I do not regret. Debbie hope to get us to Cross Trail Crest (13,777 ft) but that half mile climb to there would have pushed us into hiking in the dark on the way back.
- 8.5 miles: Cross Trail Crest and enter Sequoia National Park. (13,777 feet)
- 9.0 miles: John Muir Trail joins from the west. Altitude sickness common. (13,480 feet )
- 9.3 miles: Cutoff to Mount Muir.
- 10.5 miles: Keeler Needle, just a short climb to the summit from here. (14,003 feet)
- 11.0 miles: Mt. Whitney summit. No water. Camping permitted. (14, 495 feet)
As you can see, once you get to the top of the 96, one cruelly descends 300 feet or so and I heard that was very disheartening to those who made it to there.
So after taking photos of our turn around spot (I named it
Elida Point), we started the disheartening trip down. The steps and the rocks hurt my feet and knees and the going was slow. Many were passing me and many had also turned around. The young gal I saw at 2am had turned around at the cables.
As groups passed me, I tried to draft of them as much as possible and heard many tales of hardship and few tales of triumph. So many were low on water and morale at this point and the switchbacks went on and on. At the Trail Camp, many stopped to filter water but I passed on doing that and decided to put on a second pair of socks.
For the first time on the hike, I sat down and it did not feel that good. I had to take my backpack off and find my socks and then try to get my shoes off and the socks on. If you know me, I am not flexible at all and this effort took awhile and was real hard in my physically state. The extra socks did help my feet with the downhill pounding and all those damn sharp rocks. The only thing worse then the rocks were all those uneven steps all over the place. Going up them sucks but going down them is agony.
Some of the pain was self inflicted because I never found a good pair of hiking shoes. I searched and searched but did not find any I liked. I bought a pair of HI-Tech ones but they trashed my feet on a ten mile hike so I went with my Ascic running shoes. I did Half Dome in them and my feet were okay so I figured I would stick with what works. I had been told the trail was not to rocky but it was.
So as I put on a pair of socks, I realized my 6 mile hike back to my car was going to be painful. How painful was beyond my comprehension. I was alone (Debbie and Elida where behind me) and I wanted to get down before dark. For three miles, I slowly went down the painful trail. A few pasted me by but for the most part, I was all alone.
At one point, I just wanted to stop for good. I was so mad at myself for doing something so stupid. What was I thinking! I am 46 years old and weigh 250 ponds at least (I have not been on a scale in years), sure I have been walking 40 to 60 miles a week for years and even did a couple 80 mile weeks but it was not enough. I even did a 90 mile week and did Half Dome a few weeks before but this hike was a really bad idea.
'During snow-free summer months, some individuals in excellent physical condition, can climb to the summit and return the same day." To do Mt Whitney in a day is beyond my ability. To hike 22 miles and climb 6000 feet in a day does not make sense if you do the math in my case. In physics, there is a formula F=MA, force equals mass times acceleration. With my mass, you have to have a huge acceleration and I doubt what I was attempting was physically possible.
I was halfway down those awful trails hoping to get to the meadow. Every step was painful and I was really down. I looked at the cliffs by the side of the trail and thought for a second if I fell down one maybe I could get medi-vaced down. When on hikes like this you can not quit and get a ride back to the finish line. You got to get down the mountain on your own some how.
I started making deals with myself between cursing myself for even trying to do this thing. I told myself no more physical challenges, just coach my running camp athletes and walk my chugs. Do not do anything that makes oneself or others ask why. Thirty years ago I ran my first marathon at age 16 and felt this way with 4 or 5 miles to go. I staggered into the finish with a 3:01 clocking and said never again.
But now I am at 11,000 feet with 4 miles to go and I am going a mile a hour. I want to quit and get a ride to the finish line but that is not in the cards. So I keep moving and then something that I did not want to deal with starts to happen. I started getting horrible stomach cramps and had to go. The cramps came in waves and took my breathe away and I had to do number two.
This was not something I wanted to do because you have to pack it out and that was adding insult to injury. I had four more hours to go and I was going to have to carry that with me the whole way. Plus I was above the tree line and there was no where to go. So I found a rock and got out the "wag bag" and it sucked big time! Plus the cramps were still there.
Now I was tired, dehydrated and had horrible cramps and still had to walk. Plus I had my full "wag bag". I was afraid to eat or drink because I thought I might get worse. Besides the difficultly and stress of hiking and the altitude, I am very stressed about not getting hurt on the trial.
Every step could be your last, it is so easy to turn an ankle or twist a knee. If you get hurt, you still got to get down under your own power. Hiking and knowing this takes a huge mental toll and now I am at my wits end and physically I am a wreck. Then it starts to rain! But this makes me happy and snaps me out of my despair and the cramps dissipate.
I make it down to Mirror Lake (10,640 ft) and at least the trail is sort of flat for a bit. But there is one more painful descent to Outpost Camp (10.360 ft) but at least their are people there and a flat meadow to cross before the last 3 mile descent. As I get to the camp, I look up and see Debbie and Elida and my spirit lifts. I am so amazed by Elida, when we did Mt Pinos she had such a hard time going down trails that I would never believe she would make it down that mess.
But she looked better then all of us. Debbie had altitude sickness (firsty time in three ascents) in the form of a headache and nausea for most of the hike and would have been very strong otherwise.
Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS)
Most individuals will experience some form of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) above 10,000 feet. Children are more susceptible than adults. Symptoms of AMS, will vary greatly by individual and will not necessarily be related to age or physical condition. they include. Aspirin or similar analgesics are often taken for symptoms.
- Headache
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Yawning
- Irregular breathing or Shortness of breath
- Loss of appetite
- Disturbed sleep
- Anxiety Attacks
- Hallucinations
- Cyanosis (blue-tinged lips and tongues)
Once they joined up with me, I was determined to hang with them and it became the Elida show! For the next 3 plus miles she took the lead and set the pace and we just held on for dear life. She was a machine and did not stop once. Every step I wanted to slow down but I knew if I lost her draft, my journey would be much longer.
Now we were hiking the part that we did in the dark and it was a beast. If I had gone up in the daylight, I might have quit a lot earlier. The final twenty plus switchbacks were very cruel indeed, every rock was curse and we all asked how much further. This went on for hours before we finally got back to the cars.
In the end, we hiked 16 miles in 16 hours (left at 3am and finished at 7pm) and climbed almost a mile. The mile descent was far worse and now as I properly disposed of my "wag bag", I had a three hour car ride home. I had been up for 36 hours and I was exhausted but at least nothing hurt except for my feet for the most part.
I was disappointed that I did not summit but was proud that Elida and I had made it so far. I still thought I had not made the 96 switchbacks, which was another regret but I did not regret turning back at noon. I did not want to be that poor man staggering around and falling down in the middle of the night.
I always try to be as safe as possible and knew if I got in the car, I could drive a hour or so on pure adrenaline despite my exhaustion. I got on the lonely 395 and drove until I started seeing things that were not there. The carlights started looking like giant cranes moving in the night and I knew I needed to pull over and I did. I safely parked and took a short nap but the winds of the high desert were howling and rocked my car quite a bit so I decide to continue my drive.
But when I got outside of Tehachapi, I had to pull over again. but at least there was some civilization nearby. By now, I had been up almost 40 hours and had only taken a few brief naps and for the first time in my life I was hallucinating. It was not once or twice either. Interestingly the hallucinations were not scary and sort of kept me company.
I decided to pull into the hotel parking lot to take a nap and immediately fell into a deep sleep. As i was sleeping I thought I was dreaming because I heard a loud train barreling along. It was so real and then I awoke and had no idea where I was! Plus there was a train barreling along right by the hotel! It scared me awake that's for sure. For a brief moment, I thought I was on the track!
Talk about an alarm clock, my nap had only been 5 to 10 minutes but I was wide awake now and finally got home at 10:30pm. As I unloaded my car, I looked across the street and saw a skeleton, a witch and a Frankenstein like monster in front of my neighbor's house. I thought hard to remember the date and said to myself, "Why do they have Halloween decorations up so early?". Then I realized my new found friends had returned and I went into the house laughing to myself.
Once inside, I told my family of my adventure and started uploading photos. Oddly I was not hungry at all but I was beat up and decide to take a hot shower and finally go to bed after being up since Thursday morning. As I got out of the shower, I started shivering so hard that it was painful. For ten minutes, I shivered violently and could barely stand but it finally went away and I went to sleep sort of.
Every hour I woke up super thirsty and had to get up to drink knowing that I needed to sleep because running camp practice was at 7am. As predicted morning came to soon and when I went outside it was cloudy and really muggy. But I was glad to see my runners and ended up walking 6 miles while they ran.
As I finish this blog up, it has been 24 hours since I finished my hike. While cropping my photos, I remembered how I felt when taking them. I regret not taking more on the descent but it would have taken to much energy. At the time, even taking the camera out of my shirt pocket and shooting was far to hard a task. Looking back, I can not believe I was that tired.
Plus I can not believe I still want to do another physical challenge. I remember a saying that went like this "Good thing us humans forget, because if we did not, everyone would be a single child and no one would do a second marathon". While on the trail, I told myself never again and I will stick by that. I will never try to summit Mt Whitney in a single day but a multi-day might be a possibility.
WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN!
JFK 50 Mile Challenge
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