I was hesitant to write, but in the spirit of avoiding future accidents, I do it anyway. We saw the group coming down on our way up. We even exchanged a few words with him. It was a little confusing what he said, but I blamed it on the language issue. We probably had another 30 minutes up to the top and stayed around 40 minutes on the top before returning back. The accident must have happened about 10 to 15 minutes before we were back at the accident area. Everyone tried to get a cell phone signal, people were crying, it was a very emotional situation.
My point is, the group was probably 1½ hours ahead of us and it was probably less than 2 miles along the ridge to where he fell. So someone in the group might have been in bad shape by then. We didn’t walk that fast, but the group had almost 1½ hour longer than us for these 2 miles (or less). Also, we left the summit because the weather turned bad and it started suddenly to hail. Lasted probably 20 minutes. Ground was covered with hail. It stopped probably 30 minutes or more before the accident happened so the weather was probably not an issue, but I don’t think anyone was sitting around and having a lunch break during that time, hence the speculation what took them so long on that stretch of the trail. One of the more likely explanations is that someone in the group was very exhausted and had a very hard time walking back.
The warning is probably that there is no quick way down if you get altitude sickness close to the top. For the less experienced (like us), it was quite a stretch from the top of Mount Whitney back to Trail Crest. From there, you can make easier headway. But from Mount Whitney to Trail Crest it is only 700 feet in altitude difference and it can take you hours, especially when you are weak, exhausted, and suffer from altitude sickness. And from my personal experience, it is the most difficult and dangerous part to walk (rocky, uneven trail, high altitude, already exhausted, exposed cliffs..). So if you don’t feel good at Trail Crest on your way up, be very careful if you continue. There is not an easy way to go lower fast once you are on top of Mount Whitney, especially if you already suffer altitude related symptoms on your way up or if you are already completely exhausted, but continue going up past Trail Crest. Don’t get carried away with your ambition to make it to the top no matter what.
I obviously don’t know if that is what happened. All this speculation might be wrong and he just had really bad luck and tripped. We saw the group later walking down, still trying frantically to find a cell phone signal (like many others that tried to help), so it was really not the time to ask what actually happened. But just in case, I wanted to add it as a warning for others that go up for the first time.
