Arrived in Lone Pine from L.A. at about 1:00 PM and drove straight up to Horseshoe Meadows to acclimate a little bit (2 hours). Then down to the Hostel where the room was very nice. Had some dinner and then went to bed for a few hours sleep. Woke up and drove to the portal at about 11:30PM and sat in my car until 1:30AM. My hiking partner and I hiked up to Lone Pine Lake without headlamps because of the bright moon. We actually didn't use our headlamps all night except for the water crossings. We could see clouds coming over Trail Crest and we were anticipating some weather because the night before it had sleeted and snowed in the upper elevations.
The water crossings at Outpost camp were OK because somebody left branches in the water and we did not get our feet wet. We stopped after Mirror Lake to snack up for the long slog up the rocks to Thor and Trail Camp (my least favorite part). We stopped again at Trail Camp to eat again and I had to put on my heavy jacket and gloves because it got cooold! It was at this point that I hit the wall of sorts, I didn't want to go on I just wanted to go back to my car and sleep! I made myself press on with mighty effort and by the time we reached switchback #20 I got my second wind. Counting the 99 switchbacks really helps keep my mind on the goal and they don't seem to take forever when you know where you are (the cables start on #47 BTW).
As we ascended, the trail became covered in snow. Snow! I wasn't ready for how much snow there was! And it was slippery in the shade! There were also ice patches where puddles had formed from the storm the night before. Switchback #99 was covered in about a half an inch of snow the whole way. After Trail Crest it got really dicey going down the hill to the JMT but slow going worked well.
The trail from JMT to about the 3rd window was covered in slippery snow as well which was very scary on some of those tricky steps right next to the drop offs and it took a long time to negotiate those sections. We considered turning around because we did not want to go back over those spots if it got colder, but we went on anyway. The fog was thick in the valley of Trail Camp and it was rising up between the needles and windows like cauldron smoke, but it was only fog not angry clouds so we pressed on. We reached the small snowfield near the summit and it was narrow and slippery but pretty easy (30 feet maybe).
Finally, the summit! I celebrated my 5th Whitney ascent and ate lunch. The fog was thick on the east side so we could not see Lone Pine or Trail Camp, but the western views were open and beautiful with white puffy clouds. It was not cold or windy at 14,508 feet.
I was anticipating the dangerous trail conditions on the way back but the sun had melted all of the snow and it was fine! The light snow drizzle started as we were coming down the 99's and lasted until Trailside Meadow. We were in the dark by the time we reached the North Fork crossing coming down and my partner was so tired he did not want to cross the swollen creek so we took the "shortcut" down instead. It was very rocky and brambly and rough but we made it (thanks to the instructions I read on the boards)! 5 summits out of 8 attempts, no altitude sickness of any kind once again.. I will be back next year I think!
