Day hiked the Main Trail with my son (Mike) and the family friend (Zack) who summited with me last year after an overnight in Outpost. Also along was the sister of the family friend (Makena) and a new scout leader (Matt) replacing our last team member who got sick after the practice hike.
Put the camper on the back of my truck, picked up Makena, Zack and Mike and headed north at 0600 on the 1st. Had a scare at the ranger station when they couldn't find me in the computer. She had to reset something and then my name popped up. I initally was going to cancel my extra permit because one of our team was sick, but there was a chance that Matt might try to make the trip so I didn't. Worked out well because just as I turned on to the Portal road and would lose my cell signal Matt called and said he was in.
Stopped by the store for pre hike burgers since I wasn't sure we could make it off the trail in time. I had the Moose burger, Zack and Mak split one and Mike had a regular burger. The store was full of SAR folks who had recently taken someone off the mountain.
Grabbed a site in the family campground and was lucky it was nearly level. Relaxed and played some cards before taking a 2 hour nap. After dinner Matt showed up and parked his car in the Meysan Trail parking area where he slept for the night.
Woke up at 0100 and got dressed and ready. Got front row trail head parking and exactly at 0200 we headed up. Everyone but me used trekking poles. Water crossings were no problem and at 0315 we stopped for a break just before passing the permit required sign. I took the lead and slowed things down to make sure we had no issues summiting. Breezed through Bighorn Park and Outpost and then took a break just above Mirror Lake. Saw a few headlamps ahead of us but they were coming down. Wondered where they were coming from?
Made our way up to Trail Side Meadow and had to stop to make repairs to Mike's pants. The liner was rubbing him the wrong way so he spent 5 minutes in the meadow in his underware and his shell wrapped around his legs while I cut it out. I guess he's grown some and is ready for new pants.
Moving on we put the headlamps away and headed towards Trail Camp and my favorite rest spot rock. Arrived at 0645 with my new, slower pace. Everyone was feeling good. They felt even better when I broke out the "frosting shots" - small condiment sized cup lined with crushed double stuff Oreo, then apple cinnimon ice cream topping and then packed with butter cream frosting. Great stuff - trust me.
With everyone on a suger high we headed up the switchbacks at 0715. About six others were leaving at the same time with no one headed for the chute. A Japanese couple quickly went the wrong way on the switchbacks and the wife asked me if I had been on the route before. Before I could answer Mike told her I had been on the switchbacks 20 times. (Actually only 18). They would stay with us nearly all the way to the summit.
The early switchbacks have some snow to avoid but it isn't a big deal. The switchbacks just before the cables are still covered, but you can rock climb up to them easily. We put on our Yak Trax for the first time here.
(Side note - some people think it should be crampons/ax or nothing in the mountains. For the most part I agree. Since we had no training with crampons/ax I refused to buy, rent or try to use them. Instead I bought the Yak Trax for the team ONLY to give them some extra confidence. In reality ALL of the snow crossings can be done in just boots. If I had found a situation where I thought crampons/ax were required I would have turned everyone around)
At the cables the Japanese husband decided he didn't want to wait for us and they crossed through with just one pole between them. Five minutes later we ran into them again and they followed us up. The upper end of the cables was pretty icey and you actually get rained on from the snow melt above.
At the next snow field I crossed easily without the Yaks so everyone follwed suit. For the last two snow fields going up we used them. We actually kept them on between snow fields which caused one of Mak's to break later.
We hit Trail Crest at 0930 and took a break. Watched a couple people arrive headed up and depart heading down and those without poles had problems exiting and entering the last snow chute. It really isn't that hard and will be getting better every day. The Japanese couple had started falling behind and arrived just as we were leaving. I took a minute to explain the junction with the John Muir Trail so they wouldn't have problems. They took a very short break and caught up to us before we got there.
The team was getting tired but perked up once I pointed the hut out to them. I showed them the two snowfields with a line through them and they could see we were close. The five of us and the Japanese couple were the only ones I saw headed up at this point. There were 10 or so people who came down while we were on our final push.
Before the snowfield Mike pointed out two more wag bags and said he had counted 11 so far! Amazing. All the crap I hear about people dropping them for later is bull. I doubt anyone but the rangers and good samaratins pick them up. We used one on our team and it went into a name brand freezer bag and into a pack where it rode with no problems back to the Portal.
We hit the summit as a team at 1145. My prefered turn around time was 1200 but the weather was flawless so we stayed until 1215. There were very few people at the summit while we were there. Matt and Zack complained of headaches so after the pics we headed downhill. Saw what seemed to be an endless line of folks coming up. Wondered what their turn around times were. I finally asked one young Marine (being Navy I can pick them out) near Trail Crest if he was camping or dayhiking. When he said dayhiking I asked what his turn around time was and he said 3:30. He started with a group of five and he was the last man standing as they dropped out along the way. They had left the portal at 0330. Along switchbacks people just kept coming up making a bid for the top. It was 4 pm when we got into Trail Camp since we had to stop for water. I wondered how fast the last ones in that herd could make the top and get back before the snow froze over?
I leaned up against my favorite rest stop rock which is close to the lake and suddenly realized that it had become a urinal at some point. Since we had water from the switchers we changed socks and left ten minutes later. We weren't in a huge hurry to get down since we had all had our burgers the day before. Everyone wanted the "I Climbed In A Day" t shirt, but I didn't think we would have a problem getting down before Doug closed the store.
My son Mike who is a very strong hiker for the age of 13 has historicly struggled with downhill. This was our fourth weekend in a row hiking and I could tell that it had helped. He broke out in front of the group several times and waited for us to catch up. At 7:15 we came off the trail after 17 hours 15 minutes of hiking. No injuries, no problems at all. Just a slow hike up and down.
After I got the truck open everyone grabbed their wallets to go get their shirts. I sat in the store drinking a few bottles of water while they shopped. After about 5 minutes I wondered why Doug even bothers with the store. At least 5 people were in there complaining about something. One lady was making a huge scene because the grill closed a few minutes before. She demanded to know where her party would be getting food for the night. Doug just ignored her and continued his nightly clean up chores. The poor girl running the register tried to help, but you can't fix stupid and there are certainly a lot of stupid people in the Whitney area these days.
My team had a fantastic day and loved every second of it, but I was bothered at the wag bags, at the people trying to summit late and will be pushing the mommy button in the cold dark and the losers in the store who think Doug and Company owe them something.
After a ton of food at Carl's Jr and another tank of diesal we drove home slowly.................................DUG
pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30467211@N04/sets/72157624413052340/
