Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Three Angels and One Angel In Training

The Three Angels, Tammy, Sandy and Lynn and the new Angel in Training, Virginia, are all at Virginia's house today with our backpacking gear going over our checklist to make sure everyone has what they need for our Mt. Whitney hike beginning 9/18/10 and to especially make sure we don't pack duplicate items in order to make certain our packs stay as light as possible.

Our hike will take 4 days and three nights. We will journal daily on paper and post our trip report upon our return to civilization.

We have a question at this time in our preparation. Our question is, "Do we need to pack insect repellant?"

Why we call ourselves Angels: If you are wondering why we call ourselves Angels it is because the name was given to us by Simon in 2005. Simon is the guy we found ourselves lost with in the middle of the night when we couldn't make it back to our campsite because of nightfall and because it was so dangerous trying to travese over the hard crusted, iced over snow in the dark. The heat of the day had melted cravasses into the snow so much so that in the dark it would be very easy to twist an ankle or even break a leg in the massive craters in the snow. Tammy, Sandy and I found the only dry piece of ground near us when we realized we were very lost. We decided that this piece of dry ground would become our bed for the night. We took our our emergency blankets out and laid on the ground huddled together to stay warm. In the middle of the night we heard someone yelling for help. We held our headlamps high over our heads and flashed them in the direction of the voice we heard until we saw the man who owned the voice, Simon. Simon was exhuasted. His breaths sounded like he was drowing in his own fluids. We helped him up the rocks to where we were, gave him some water, told him to lie between us so we could get him warm. We rubbed his arms and legs vigorously trying to put some warmth back into his body. I was wishing at this time that we had our stove with us to warm water, as Doug suggests in his book he sells at the Whitney Portal store. We had no idea what condition Simon was in, all we could do was help him the best we could. Luckily, everyone was fine in the morning when the sun came up. Ever since then, Simon has called us his Angels. We stay in touch with Simon and his friend Perry to this day. I would attach pictures here of our Mt. Whitney trek in 2005, but I don't know how to post pictures. Maybe Steve C. can help me with this task. So, this is why we call ourselves the Three Angels.