After nine months of planning, my wife Kristin and I made it to the top of Whitney on Sunday.
We had successfully secured a day permit in the lottery for Sept. 27th, having read that the chances of success for a day hike are higher than an overnight, since you spend less time at altitude. It also meant less purchases for us since we’re not really camping people.
We planned out a comprehensive training schedule that included many of the highest points in SF Bay Area, as well as general physical conditioning. We also planned for good acclimation time, with plans to arrive in Lone Pine on the Thursday to get in three practice hikes prior to the big day. We also were well-equipped, having friends who work for both Marmot and Camelbak.
In the end, thanks to some great input from other folks on this forum, we drove to Mammoth on Thursday, climbed Mammoth Mountain that afternoon, spent the night in the Inn at 9000 feet before heading to Lone Pine on Friday. We drove straight to the Portal, and after sampling Doug’s burgers, went up to Lone Pine Lake to scout the start of the MWMT.
On Friday night our friend JL arrived, having been unable to join us earlier for acclimation. He also hadn’t been able to do any training hikes, but was in very good shape as a regular Crossfit participant.
On Saturday we all drove up to Cottonwood Lakes for a short 4-mile hike at altitude.
Sunday morning we were up at 3am and on the trail at 4am. We were able to eventually turn off our headlights above Outpost Camp, as a beautiful day dawned. It was in the section between Mirror Lake and Trailside Meadow that JL started to drop behind a little, but we didn’t think much of it and all landed at Trail Camp for breakfast and water filtering at 8:30, in warm weather and bright sunshine. Going up the switchbacks JL continued to fall behind, and slowed our pace significantly. It was clear that his lack of acclimation was biting hard. By the time we were past the JMT junction we had to have a candid conversation about whether JL could make it, and whether his pace was jeopardizing the summit for Kristin and I. He told us to go on ahead since we were making solid steady progress. Despite Kristin feeling anxious on the more exposed sections of the back side, we successfully summited at 2pm.
Just as we were about to leave at 2:30, to our surprise we saw JL slowly coming into sight! He had dug really really deep, and had made it. Impressive, but we were now a long way behind schedule and would clearly be hiking in the dark for the second time. My major concern was getting past the tough stuff above Mirror Lake before it was dark, and we just about succeeded in that goal. It still left us with three hours of night-time descending, and the switchback section between Bighorn Park and Lone Pine Lake seemed to drag on forever, as did the switchbacks between Lone Pine Lake and the North Fork. We finally made it back to the car at 9:30pm. It meant that our celebratory beer and burger in Lone Pine was not to be, since everywhere was closed. Kristin was able to only get some white rice and uncooked broccoli from the Chinese restaurant next to the Dow Villa where we were staying, not exactly an enjoyable post-summit meal
We were delighted to make the summit, but felt that the experience would have been much more enjoyable had we made it back in daylight. The lesson here is that no matter how good friends you might be, everyone should agree on the minimum levels of training and acclimation required to be included in a Whitney hiking group. It is a perfect example of the old adage that you are only as strong as your weakest member.
