Hey Bulldog,
My brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and I met you on Mount Whitney yesterday (Thursday, July 21st). We met you, your wife, daughter, and a couple of others in your party (one of them was a sculptor, that's all I remember).
In any event, we fell about a mile short of the summit. Long story short, I'm the guy who blacked out on the way back on the crest. You and your family were very kind and offered to help in any way you could. I wanted to take a minute to personally thank you for going out of your way to offer assistance. In one of your earlier posts you talked about how it's important to offer help to others on the trail - I can vouch for the fact that you walk the talk.
I also wanted to take a few minutes to offer my perspective on a hike that fell short of the summit. I don't see too many of those posts on this board, but I think these stories can be just a valuable as a learning tool as the stories of successful summits.
We started our hike from the portal at 4:00 am on Thursday, July 21st. We arrived at Mirror lake and had "lunch" at 9:00 am. By 9:30 we were prepared to climb the harrowing 97 switchbacks that awaited us just beyond Mirror Lake. BTW, we ran into Bulldog's group at the start of the cables. Bulldog offered us advise and physical assistance in getting up that 8 to 10 foot climb to the cables.
We made it to the Trail Crest around 1:00 and proceeded to hike past the two windows. At 1:30 we stopped to take inventory of our situation. We were very low on water and equally important, we we were running out of daylight. We stopped a park ranger and asked him to assess our situation so that we could make a decision about whether to continue to the summit.
He advised us that we were 1 mile short of the summit. My brother in law estimated that we were still 1.5 hours away from the summit. Based on our calculations, we would reach the summit by 3:00 pm. After taking the celebratory pictures and soaking in the views, we figured we would resume our hike down around 4:00 pm, which meant that we would get back to the "97" switchbacks around 6:00 pm.
It was then that we realized we were in trouble if we continued our hike to the summit. A "successful" climb to the summit would mean that we would take the chance on dehydrating for lack of water on the way down. Also we would arrive at the 97th switchback, which was a snowy traverse, after it had been in the shade for an hour or so. The traverse was scary enough under ideal conditions. The thought of negotiating that part of the hike in icy conditions was an even scarier prosect. And even if we successfully negotiated that part of the hike and were able to overcome any hydration challenges, we would still be looking at completing the final 3 hours of the hike in darkness, possibly arriving at camp around midnight or later, assuming of course, that we didn't get lost in darkness on the way down.
Luckily for us, we made the right decision and decided to turn back to camp at 1:30. We would become aware of just how good our decision was just a few minutes later.
About 15 minutes after turning around on the Crest Trail, I was climbing uphill when I suddenly felt everything blacking out. The blackout started at the perimeter of my vision and progressed in an inward circle toward the middle until everything went dark. As soon as the blackout started, I had the presence to realize what was happening (though I've never fainted before in my life) and fortuitously, I threw my arms in front of me to brace my fall.
Luckily for me, I was going uphill and was leaning towards the mountain, so my fall was a short one and to the "correct" side of the trail. I shudder to think of the consequences had I fallen in a direction away from the mountain.
My brother-in-law and sister-in-law came to my aid. They said I had passed out for about 10 seconds before coming back to consciousness. It was a strange sensation to hear voices asking me if I was okay, and then to slowly see their faces coming out of the darkness and into focus. I tried to stand up, but they made me stay down and made me eat some snacks and drink water.
After about a 10 to 15 minute recuperation period, we proceeded back on our hike. My brother in law carried my backpack and held onto me. We took frequent breaks after only a few yards until I was able to regain full strength about halfway down the 97 switchbacks.
We finally made it back to camp at 10:00, 18 hours after we started.
Thanks again, Bulldog, for being one of the good guys on the trail. Many others also offered assistance. I've walked away with a newfound respect for those in the hiking community. Everyone really does watch out for everyone else.
We didn't make it to the summit on this hike, but in retrospect, I couldn't be prouder of our group for making good decisions and sticking together. You learn a lot about yourself and others when the chips are down. I like what I learned about every one of us in our group. For that reason alone, this hike turned out to be more successful than I could have imagined.
