Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports MMWT July 13th 2012

To me, all it means is that he's doing an overnight trip, likely spending the night in one of the more hospitable places -- Outpost Camp or Trail Camp.

Except for the hardiest of animal-hikers, hauling overnight gear all the way to the summit is pretty tough. And then, unless he's well acclimated or is not as susceptible to the altitude, it would be a pretty miserable night anyway.

Glad to see you're back in the saddle Tom! How's the knee?

hello gon2srf,
nah, I was only going up to lone pine lake to see if I could get some fishing in. I'm nursing a knee injury right now so I am keeping my hikes pretty simple.

And since I am definitely susceptible to altitude sickness and did no acclimatizing, I had no intention of going to the top this trip. Hell, I didn't start up the trail until 3:30pm.

Knee held up pretty good. But I had a mondo brace on it. I still had to step down gingerly.

I set a new record for myself going to LPL. I know it's nothing for most people, but I made it there in 2 hours with a 24lb pack.

I'll tell you what though...it was cold as hell up there once the sun went down. From 8pm to midnight I could not get my toes or the backs of my legs warm. And this was with two pairs of socks, thermal underwear (or whatever they call them now, just bought them for this trip) and my down-like sweater. My torso was fine and my head was find (I love my balaclava). Oh, and I was in my +15 bag....but the three season tent sucked for temps in the teens.

LPL isn't frozen and won't be frozen for a couple of weeks. But....the fish were not biting. I had one grab and spit my fly. And another who checked out my fly three times and swam away. I think part of it is that the sun doesn't hit the lake until 9:45am (pdt).

It was definitely quiet up there. I ran into a few people hiking down yesterday afternoon. But nobody hiking up yesterday and none today.

I stopped in the WPS and had a nice talk with Doug. I may not have been the last customer of the year, but I was pretty close.

Except for the fact that I didn't catch any fish and I was cold for four hours, it was an uneventful but very pleasant trip. The only wildlife I saw were the giant ravens that hang out on the rocks at the south side of LPL. Those buggers make a hell of a racket.

Thank you Steve, you answered my question and another I was too embarrassed to ask earlier. So lots of people leave their overnight gear at "basecamp" and summit with day packs. I should probably know this by now but is a bear canister necessary for Trail Camp? I keep all my food in a sealable Nylofume bag and then inside a Cuben Fiber dry bag.

Great trip report...sorry you got no fish but I bet it was peaceful fishing none the less and some good rehab for your knee. You mentioned your bag was 15' and you had a 3 season tent but you did not mention what kind of pad/mattress you had? Once it gets down below freezing I am using a combination of a (R) Exped Synmat UL7 and a (S)Ridgerest CCF pad, Marmot 15' down bag and an Integral Designs bivy. Even if I go to bed somewhat cold I feel like this setup especially the bivy will keep me toasty down to the low low teens. You did say your upper body was fine however so maybe your pad had nothing to do with it, just had cold feet goin' to bed? The only thing I could think of would be heating some water and putting a nice hot water bottle down between your feet.

Thanks again for the reply and the report.

Scott

Good Morning G2S,
I too have an Exped Synmat. But I was using it alone. I was warm enough on the bottom though.

I did run into someone who had a +20 bag with a bivy sack and he said he was plenty warm at trail camp.

the part that I left out was that there was a part of my lower back that wasn't covered by the sweater jacket that I was wearing.....that was the coldest part of my body, even colder than my toes. And the inside of my bag felt cold to the touch wear the bag was closest to the sidewall of the tent.