Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Whitney 2007

I have never posted my pics from my 2007 summit one month before my prostate cancer surgery.I am experementing with posting the pics from that 2007 trip.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/docrodneydog/

These pictures are in reverse order.Oh well at least I finally got them posted after 2 years.

Congrats on getting the pics uploaded.

But... Dude! How heavy was your pack?!!!

A crazy 53 pounds. It was the huge mistake we made. Learned a lot about going lite the next year.I didn't read the going light threads until after we already went.

How many WEEKS were you up there, Rod??!?!?

B

Laborday 2008 I went up solo with a 26 lb pack and i had lost 40 lbs.I went up 73 lbs lighter in one years time.2nd time I smoked it up the trail. duh !!!

2 and 1/2 days. I was a little over pre-pared. I had read 2 books Paul Richens was one of them and so i was over-pre-pared for every possible blizzard and or monsoon.I didn't find the WPS soon enough to learn what was essential and that June 07 turned out to be very dry and warm. We paid a huge price going up. But i learned.

Sounds a lot like my first BP also. It was comical when I look back on it, but good lessons were learned.

CaT

Is your partner IN your pack? I day hiked it last year with 10 pounds loaded. My overnight trip this year was 33 pounds, but only because I had ALL the gear for me and my son. It would have been much less if he could have hauled some of his stuff.

LOL I deserve all the ribbing. It is funny now but back then it was..."Why did I carry all this crap?"
My poor buddy packed everything I told him to.He had never backpacked before and it had been 30 years since my last BP trip into the eastern Sierras.I read 2 books on climbing Whitney. I read wbtravis site daily. Found the WPS board and everything was about what could go wrong,what equipment was necessary in the event of a blizzard so I packed everything.I also thought that 53 pounds was not that bad. It was easy in my 20's. BIG MISTAKE!!! Fortunately we only carried it all to Outpost and set up base camp there.I wasted a lot of precious energy though because it took 5 hours to lug all that stuff just to Outpost. No wonder the next day I was struggling right out of the gate.I trained seriously hard for 3 years prior and was in the best cardio shape of my life.Good news is that I overcame my poor planning and summited anyways.

My first overnight pack weighed 45 lbs -- over 1/3 of my body weight. The worst part of it was that during the hike, there were about 5 crossings on logs with frothy rapids below....!

B

Last funny thing about those crazy heavy packs was the morning that we broke up camp at Outpost and put everything back into those packs. My buddy and I put them back on, we moaned..."There is no way I can carry this monster back down"
We were seriously thinking of proper ways to abandon our gear.We thought of everything from selling or giving our stuff away.
I manned up and said we packed it in we are packing it out.It was definately the most painful thing I have ever done was to put on that pack and carry it back to the Portal after have spent every ounce of energy and strength the 2 days prior.We weighed the packs at the Portal on the way up and on the way down.They weighed exactly the same thanks to wag bags not allowing the food weight to change.

Rod, this is a great thread. It is turning into a cautionary tale for first-timers. Maybe we should add it to Fred's Orientation Notes, in a section titled "Don't carry too much!"

I know it has been a couple of years, but can you recall what stuff you took that you would never carry again on a similar summertime trip?

Didn't Laura set the record with 55 pounds??? (Of course, she is not a WHA member).

Yes I remember well what I brought that I shouldn't.
Let me preface what I say about bringing too much is dictated by the weather conditions at the time of my Whitney trip.
First of all I had way too much food. I brought up a full garcia bear conatainer with about 8 pounds of food.I consumed only 2 pounds.
I had perfect warm weather yet I brought too much clothing including unnecessary gortex pants and jacket,fleece jacket and a down jacket,extra pair of pants and shirt.I had 2 pairs of gloves which I never used either and 2 beanies. I brought a water filter,water purifying tablets, and a steri-pen,talk about redundancy. I had a small pocket knife yet I threw in a folding buck knife and a weatherman all purpose tool, none of which I ever used.I had a headlamp,2 small led lights and for good measure threw in a small penlight mag flashlight and a never need to recharge flashlight.I brought a stove just to make hot coffee and boil water for soup.I have since abandoned a stove for a quick overnight trip up to Whitney. I had a light weight one person tent that I really didn't need since the weather was so warm and dry. I also had a thicker and heavier tarp than necessary.
The main lesson I learned was to bring everything you might need clothing wise and to constantly moniter the weather and adjust according to the current conditions once there. I also learned plan food consumption needs much more realisticaly to energy requirements.It really sucks to carry something up the mountain and have to carry it back down un-used.
As I stated I got my 53 lbs pack down to 26 lbs without sacrificing safety or too much comfort.
The things I purchased that were diffence makers were a smaller and lighter back pack. I replaced the tent with a 11 oz.Tarp Tent that doubles as a poncho.I bought a lighter carbon composite bear cannister that saved several pounds.No stove, very thin plastic sheet for a tarp and no filter only the steri-pen to use "if" required.No fleece or gore-tex,no extra pants or shirts.Only enough food for the trip with a few extra meals just in case.

I am sure others have carried heavier loads up the Main Mount Whitney Trail. It would be fun to post a question asking people.

Moosie had over 70 pounds when she took her dad up the mountain. My scout troop was at the Portal Store eating when they came out and most of my scouts couldn't lift her pack on to their backs.................DUG

When I hiked with Laura and some friends, they all thought that I was being "efficient" by having a light pack. The truth of it is that I am just a weakling!

I just tested a new pack -- the Ospray Talon 44 -- it is a whopping 5lbs lighter than my Gregory Realty right out of the package. I never felt so good; the pack is awesome!!!

B

My pack is .... 7 ounces!



I got it from www.zpacks.com. Just after I bought mine, the guy closed his site to take an extended 5-month Continental Divide trip.

That pic is from a 5-day hike. The pack weighed 24 pounds fully loaded. Light weight makes it possible for old guys to keep going.

The fabric is not as durable as nylon. I have used seam sealer to patch tiny holes where a hard object inside the pack dragged against a rock. I'll be bringing it over on the wpsmb group hike trip so people can check it out.

Wow -- it looks like a garbage bag with straps!

B

No, garbage bags are heavier!