Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports 7/1/2014 Day Hike - First Timer Trip Report

Hey Folks -
I learned so much from this forum in prep for my recent successful day hike to the summit, that I thought it fitting to post my "first-timer's" trip report.

The weather was fantastic - light breeze, cool (not cold) morning, developing into a warm (not hot) day as I progressed up the trail.
I was in shorts, technical base layer shirt and long sleeve cotton t-shirt all day. There was no need to add or remove layers.
I did use poles, which I had taken the time to learn how to use during my training hikes.

I was on the trail at 2:45am on Tuesday, 7/1/2014. I hiked solo.
Turned off my headlamp just before Lone Pine Lake - beautiful pre-dawn.
Hit Lone Pine Lake at 4:25am - stopped for a "mom-made" muffin and water break at the Whitney Zone sign.
Arrived at Outpost Camp at 5:00am - no stop here. Lot's of folks still sleeping. Plenty of water filtering opportunities from here all the way to Trail Camp. Even up about 1/2 way through the 99 switchbacks there was flowing water that could be filtered.
Got to Trail Camp at 7:15am - filtered water in the nasty lake and loaded up on electrolytes and Cliff Bars. In retrospect, I would have filtered from one of the abundant fast flowing streams prior to Trail Camp. It made me sad to to see the amount of trash in the lake at Trail Camp.

Word to the wise. Watch your pack and food very closely at Trail Camp. The Marmots are not afraid of you and will take your stuff while you're filtering. They are brazen thieves.

Did the switchbacks (uggghh!!!) and got to Trail Crest at about 10:15am. I planned to count them but got distracted so I just enjoyed the view, and the abundant wild flowers and beautiful weather.
There were two small areas of snow that required negotiation, but there was a clear path through The Cables.
Followed the rocky, narrow, and surprisingly poorly maintained trail to the summit, which I attained at 12:30pm. One snow patch covering the trail, otherwise open.

Absolutely spectacular weather at the summit - cool, a few high clouds, a strong breeze. I hung out for about a 1/2 hour, ate and drank, then turned around and headed back. That is a LOOOOOONNNGGGG walk back.
I saw 5 WAG Bags, one of them stuck on the ledge of one of the "windows" along the final section to the summit.

Got back to the trailhead at 8pm, making for a 16.75 hour day.

That's the "factual" skinny on the walk. If you're interested, the rest of the report is my prep/training and observations of my experience.

I'm a 48 year old man, moderately overweight, long on moxie and "mental toughness." I trained for about 2 months by doing regular gym work, combined with 1 to 2 hikes per week of increasing length and difficulty at elevations of 7000 to 9000 ft in elevation in the Sierra, northeast of Sacramento. My longest hike was a 17 mile round trip on the PCT out of Sierra City to the Sierra Buttes Fire Lookout.
If this is in your "local" hiking area, it's a good training walk for the Whitney trail because it's long, it's mostly "rip-rap" rock surface, it gains elevation consistently throughout it's length, and the last 1.5 miles really sucks :-)

I drank a TON of water on the walk - about 2 gallons from trailhead to trailhead, about 2 quarts of which had the addition of electrolyte tabs. Highly recommended for both on trail health and to avoid cramping in your tent later.
I lost my appetite at about Trail Camp, and it was a chore to eat from then until after I got back to my campsite. I made it a rule to eat a Cliff Bar at least once an hour.

This is a challenging walk. The section from the trailhead to Trail Camp is moderate, but it really becomes a grind from the switchbacks to the summit. The section from Trail Crest to the summit becomes increasingly less maintained and requires a good deal of attention in order to stay safe, especially on the descent.

I definitely felt the effects of elevation by Trail Camp and battled a bit of dizziness, appetite loss and mild headache from there through my return to the trailhead. Not severe, and well managed with ibuprofen and water and calories.
I really took my time on the way down and suffered no injuries.

It was hard work, but worth every step. I have great memories, and will do this again. Maybe in two days next time :-)

Congrats! Very satisfying to work toward a goal and then to meet it.

(I hope Steve is able to fix your photo links....)

How did you feel the night you got back? I felt like I would never do it again. A few days later I started planning for my next summit and what I would do differently. Quite tge experience and gorgeous views.

I was wrecked, 2Old4This. The soles of my feet felt like they had been beaten with a bat and I was cursing every one of those darned granite "steps" built into the trail. I slept great and felt amazingly well the following morning, especially my feet. My boots were fitted correctly and broken in well in advance of the walk. Now that I'm a couple weeks out, I have only great memories and look forward to next year.
I think I will do it in 2 days next time.
What was your experience? What will you do different next time?

Thank, Akichow! It was a worthwhile endeavor. I tried to get the pics to work, but to no avail.

Shane, I fixed the picture links. I used <src="... html links instead of the [img]... UBB code.

Apparently the software doesn't like those image URLs that don't end in .jpg.

I too cursed those granite steps on the way back down. I did not feel amazingly well the next morning. I did stop in Yosemite the next day and walked up to Nevada Falls, but that was my limit. That night, my legs hurt so bad after I got to bed that getting out of bed the next morning was quite the experience. A short list of things I would do differently now (I may think of some others by next year):
1) Get in better shape. I plan to go later in the year in 2015 and that should give me a chance to do some more strenuous hikes around my home turf up at the north end of the state.
2) Pack less water. I've decided to start backpacking and as part of my gear, I now have a water filter, which is much lighter than 1 1/2 gallons of water (I took 2 gallons of water with me for the hike).
3) Better camera. The pics I took with my cell phone are far from satisfactory.
4) Take a longer break at the top and change my socks. I had planned to do this but was running 30 minutes behind schedule and wanted to get headed back down. I'll take more time to enjoy the top next time and to change my socks to help avoid or at least limit blisters.

I still can look at the pics from the top and on the way up and marvel at the beauty that I remember. Makes me really want to do it again and actually I would also like to do an early season one-day hike where I could climb up the chute using crampons and an ice axe. So, I guess I want to do it two more times.

Very nice; I always appreciate people taking the time to share (I am terribly lazy about write-ups)

Do you remember any fragrance of the wildflowers? (I believe that the blue flowers are the legendary Sky Pilots known for only growing at high altitude)

I would definitely give it another shot over two days, because the onus will be off of the start times/tramping in the dark. I really enjoyed passing on the pre-dawn shlep with the headlight + I only felt irritated on the way down, rather than exhausted (I worried about some of the faces on the day hikers)

Tonight is "Super" Moon (30% extra big and bright) so I guess that a night tramp would be pretty fun under those circumstances.

Another local hike for you would be to do Warren Lake (from the Castle Peak PCT trailhead) It is a brutal 15 mi round trip that has hideous amounts of altitude loss and gain (I accidentally found out about it when I ran into a guy training for Whitney, and he suggested it)

I am fortunate to not suffer the appetite problems that some have at altitude, but I do forget to eat and start to fade before I realize it, so the eating once an hour is a great idea.

I am shocked reading about the lake and Trail Camp. Really? I guess people really do $hi+ where the eat (or drink in this case) Unbelievable to think that people would trash their water supply.