Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Horseshoe Meadow & Mt. Whitney Overnight June 17-19, 2012

This year, on February 1st, I entered a lottery application for a permit to hike Mt. Whitney. I was successful with my first choice, and four months later on June 19th, me and my brother reached Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 ft.

I wanted to share some of my favorite photos with from this trip. It is tough to describe how insane it is to have experienced all of this (coming from the East Coast and having not hiked outside of New England). On the way back to Vegas the day after we descended, we toured several of the spots in Death valley, including Badwater Basin, going from the highest spot in the lower US to the lowest (in North America).

When we arrived in Lone and as we walked out of the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center, I came upon an amazing sight, and with 4th of July this week, I want to say that I'm thankful to live in a country where we are all free and have the liberty to take on things like this...Happy 4th of July everyone.


On Sunday night the 17th, we camped at Horseshoe Meadow which is just above 10,000 feet. This was planned so to minimize (as much as possible) AMS. We got here in the afternoon and kept moving around, and we immediately we noticed some symptoms such as dizziness after crouching or leaning over, and some shortness of breath. It was interesting to experience, and it was such a beautiful place to relax and prepare for our trip which started the following day.


Along the Main Mt. Whitney Trail, 5 miles in is Trailside Meadow. From the start, we could feel the altitude affecting our pace. It was much more laborious than our White Mountain pursuits in NH. Trailside Meadow was a beautiful place for a rest, and the remaining snow and ice was a sight to see. Purple flowers were spread all about this area.


We started our ascent from Trail Camp on Tuesday morning at 3:30am. We were the first to leave Trail Camp that morning, and as we approached Trail Crest at 13,700ft, we experienced an incredible sunrise.


One of many of our summit pictures, reaching the top was something out of this world.


To check out the full report, including a couple of videos, click here here to read it on my blog.
To go right to the photos, click here. If you have the time, I recommend playing it as a slide show.

Thanks for the report DMO. I am sure all your text and pictures will be enjoyed by many. The preparation and all the details you have described are a good example.

For others' reference:

• Chapter 1: Lottery Application
   
• Chapter 2: More Planning
   
• Chapter 3: Itinerary
   
• Chapter 4: Pack List
   
• Practice Hike to Mt. Washington
   
• Chapter 5: Final Preparations and Spot Tracking
   
• Chapter 6: The Adventure

Steve - thank you for checking it all out, and for sharing the pages here. It was an awesome trip, and I appreciate the information and advice that is shared here.

I was up there on that morning as well. I think I might have passed you guys. I left Trail Camp at 0500....reached the summit at 0730. Beautiful morning....although a bit chilly.

Good trip report; read your whole blog post. I always like reading these from people who've never been to Whitney, or not from CA. It brings back memories of my first trek up there. Congrats.

Sorry about the photos in the post. I had a mishap with my Picasa album, but I fixed them all on my blog post.

-Dan

Hi there, well its been over a year since this trip of mine out to Whitney for the first time.

I thought I would check back in and also post a link to a video I made from this trip. The video is really long, over an hour, and its done in a way that its mostly a personal account of our trip (includes more than just Whitney), but I'm sure it could be helpful for those planning to visit Whitney. Also, it closely follows the itinerary I made up, and is essentially the movie of our trip.

DMOutdoors: Mt. Whitney 2012, the Movie

Also, all of the photos from my trip report on the blog have been fixed.

Really looking forward to getting back out there again soon, and potentially in Winter!

Nice work, Dan. With that video, you will be able to watch it ten years from now and remember the trip.

What sort of gear do you take, to weather 4 inches of rain on a hike?

Thanks Steve, as long as the video is, for me, it never gets boring.

On that hike, I had a set of REI Ultra Light Jacket and Pants, pack cover, and hat, all of which we were planning to bring anyways to Mt. Whitney. I've since upgraded my jacket, but the pants still work well in heavy rain (pants dont get as much use as jacket). Multiple pairs of gloves too.