I just summited Mt. Whitney via the mountaineers route while 5 months pregnant.
My mental approach was this: I have permits, so I might as well try. Prepare as best I can. Go slow. If I start to feel sick, I'll turn around and go down. So that's the plan.
I have summited one 14er in the past, years ago (not pregnant), and suffered from altitude sickness (drove up the night before) so this time I planned much better. We arrived at the portal campground Saturday, 3 days before our Whitney permits for Tuesday. We hiked the Meysan Lakes trail Sunday, up to Grassy lakes. I definitely felt the altitude and was slow. Monday I hiked about 1.5 miles up the main Whitney trail but wanted to conserve most of my energy for Tuesday.
Tuesday 2:00am: Meet at the start of the main trail. I didn't sleep much the night (if you call it that) before, anxious of course. So I was tired and not very confident. But starting the hike in the dark is always cool so I enjoyed that aspect of it. At the big creek crossing, we took the north turn off onto the mountaineers route. There were 8 in our group, well, 8.5 if you count the fetus
4 members started up fast and separated from myself and three others. I normally am a fast hiker and am out in front, but with the pregnancy, I deliberately kept a slow steady pace, and, I've spent enough time in the mountains to know this was NOT a sprint.
Our group of 4 slower hikers got a little of course below the ledges and had to backtrack, but we met up with the rest of the group as they slowed down on the ledges.
We all stopped at Lower Boy Scout Lake, just after crossing the creek, for a quick snack. It was still dark. I wasn't really paying attention to time.
The group stayed much closer together from here on out. The sun started to come up as we were passing just below Upper Boy Scout Lake (I think - I never really knew where we were haha). Sunrise in the mountains is like nothing else, everyone should go up to 10,000ft or so sometime to see it.
Getting above the tree line now, we all just micro-navigated the infinite pile of rocks.
A few brief stops among the rocks before reaching Iceberg Lake, the peak comes into view. It looks so close, yet so far away! I still feel fine. I'm actually cruising a little fast and more comfortably than others in the group at times.
We stopped at Iceberg lake for a long time, too long. It seemed someone in the group kept having to do something, filter water, use a wag bag, eat... I think we spent almost an hour there. I put on thermals under my shorts anticipating wind chill as we went up the chute. We finally got going. Here's the view from Iceberg looking up the chute
Only 2.5 thousand feet to go! ha. That's still a lot. But I feel good. I like this photo because I don't look preggo at all.
View of the lake:
The chute seems steep. I'm sure it wasn't that bad, but with my balance being a little off and not having done any climbing in a while, yea, it seemed steep.
My belly sticking out here:
At the notch, the winds were definitely strong, so the layers came back on. We waited on a small guide group that was descending the climbing route.
Then up the class 5 scramble we went
SOOO CLOSE!
Finally made it! Celebration kiss with hubby at the top:
A few group shots, no hiding the baby belly here:
A few with my husband:
And my best friend:
Signing the book:
Huge thanks to KEN! for having the balls to lead this group to the top and bring red bull for everyone!
Oh, wait, we have to get down still...
We decided that we were too tired to downclimb the mountaineer route without ropes safely, so the long long trail it is. The group got separated again because one guy took off and didn't tell us he had to leave early that evening, and a few others tried to keep up with him but that just separated us more. Amidst the confusion, the rest of us regrouped along the windows. We stopped to give our legs a rest. Then we had a vomiter. So suddenly we went from taking our time again to trying to rush and descend. We took his gear, and he took off fast, and again, we separated. No big deal.
The trail down is just long, long, long. But a nice view since I hadn't seen it before. As the guy took off ahead, and we tried to keep up, we lost a few in the back. And ultimately wouldn't regroup with everyone until we were back at the portal. The switchbacks are relentless. I cannot imagine going up them. The only stop we really made was at mirror lake for a quick photo:
Trying to beat the darkness and get back to one friend waiting for us at the campsite...
We looked for the mtnr route short cut to the parking lot but missed it. My left knee was really starting to bother me on the last few miles, all we could do was just go go go.
We made it back to the trailhead at 7:33, just before dark but too late for burgers at the portal store.
I still can't believe we did that. In a day. It was possibly the second longest and most challenging day of my life, second only to the birth of my first son. I'm hoping baby girl arrives a lot easier
I did buy a baby girl souvenir tshirt and replica geological marker at the portal store. We joked about naming her Whitney. But we already have a name chosen. She will have a great story for show and tell. I hiked Half Dome with my son, and now Whitney with my daughter. It was truly an epic day and I surprised myself with how well I did. I never once felt altitude sick. But my calves were sore for several days after. I'm very grateful to Ken for leading us, my husband for supporting me, my best friend for flying here from Ohio to join us and all my other friends who came along. It's an experience I will cherish forever. I still have yet to find any other accounts of a pregnant woman climbing Mt. Whitney. Not surprised, it was a bit crazy.
