Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Lost Whitney hiker

Quillansculpture, same for me on how it happens so often. I suppose mostly it's unprepared people, who haven't read that much about the mountain before they attempt it. I'm the type that researches a hike or destination to the nth degree before I ever get on a plane. You probably are too. Before I ever set foot on the MMWT the first time, I felt that I knew virtually every step. Three books, several You Tube videos (Hike-Along Pete!), a bunch of map-study, and about a year on the WPSMB beforehand (particularly Steve, the resources that are now HERE).

Unfortunately, a lot of folks wing it. They think it's just a little tougher version of Baldy, or San Jacinto, or some other big local mountain they're familiar with. You go up, you come down, you drink beer. Some are exhausted and rattled, some are disoriented from hypoxia or AMS, and some are flapping their gums too much to notice the wrong turn they just made. I've been guilty of a number of missed junctions on trails over the years, especially in the west where blazes don't really exist, so I really do get the "oops" factor. What I don't get is continuing down the JMT for miles when the landscape is 180 degrees different than what you saw coming up. "Gee, I don't remember those big lakes. Or all those mountains that go on forever. Where's the Owens Valley? Funny - this looks like what I saw when I crested the ridge coming up." Night descents excepted, but no novice has any business trying to negotiate the upper reaches of Whitney after dark. For God's sake, Bob R, of all people, turned around just short of the summit last weekend due to impending darkness! Strict turnaround-time discipline has saved more lives than we can count. Conversely, summit fever has cost way too many. Also, I suppose for some the prospect of going back UP the JMT when you discover your mistake and are bone-weary is just too daunting. I think Wade Brunette's pack and ice axe on the west side illustrate some of that mindset.

Hi Kevin, I agree with you and hope I didn't sound insensitive. I saw several hikers on my September hike on the main trail that just didn't look like they should have been on the trail. I decided on the switchbacks to stop when I felt exhausted, that the mountain wasn't going anywhere and I could come back. When I summited in October, we told a couple of people coming up at Trail Crest that in "our opinion", they were heading up to the summit a bit too late in the afternoon. I think a lot of people don't understand that Mt Whitney can be a very dangerous place to be, especially if you are unprepared for the altitude and the amount of energy it takes to summit. As the sign at the weigh stations says, the summit is only half way. I'm just a lot more like Bulldog as I did exactly the same things he did before I hiked the main trail. I read Doug's book as well as Richin's book, checked maps and also sat and watched the videos. I asked anybody I knew for info on the hike. I never took hiking Mt Whitney as a stroll in the park and since I have had some experience in the Sierras from my first visit to Bishop when I was 6, I have a built in respect for large granite mountains.

I guess my point was that if it would help, then I think a sign would be appropriate, especially if it can help keep SARS ready for real emergencies.

part of the confusion in your question relates to a misunderstanding, I think. It is NOT the hiker descending from Trail Crest to the intersection that chooses the wrong trail. It is the hiker descending from WHITNEY, that chooses the wrong trail.

The issue, I think explained some time ago by Bob, is that a person has spent a day or two climbing up, up, up, up, up, except for a very short segment that drops from Trail Crest to the intersection, and then they go up, up, up, up.

By the time that a person heads back down, they now have in their heads: down, down, down, down. They have forgotten the small segment of change. They know down. They come to the intersection, and the reptilian part of their brain that is probably most active at this point, when confronted with the question "up or down?", responds down, down, down.

Add into the equation that most people have a degree of exhaustion, and a degree of dehydration, and a degree of hypoxia.....and you understand that their brain is not working correctly, clearly, optimally. And they want to get DOWN.

It takes a pretty assertive cue at this point to break through the fog and haze of blanked out thinking, to get them to UP. (Isn't that part of the hike already over??)

There is no doubt that people should not have this difficulty. They do.
There is no doubt that SAR resources should not be wasted on this. They are.
There is a sign there: it doesn't work some of the time.
The sign is easily subject to misinterpretation: happens commonly.

I agree that a VERY simple fix, is to improve the existing sign. Doesn't require a NEPA finding, Doesn't require space science. Probably takes less than an hour. No additional evil signs.

On Tuesday afternoon we had a meeting at the Hostel to discuss the "Senior Hike" and struck up a conversation with a fellow who had done a Whitney dayhike the day before. He relayed a conversation he'd had with another hiker - who had also stayed at the Hostel - apparently this hiker and a friend had done a similar dayhike, and one of them had "missed" that junction on his return from the summit. If I understood him correctly, this hiker had gone all the way to Crabtree before realizing his error.

Another anecdote for either another sign or better placement of the existing one.

As noted before - as you're approaching this trail jct from the summit, you're already pitching downhill, and the trail down to Crabtree is visible whereas the one to Portal is obscured - you need to go around a corner in order to continue your descent.

Which is exactly why I titled this picture, taken yesterday, as I did. (Hover your cursor over the picture.)

Couldn't agree more, Bob. When I went by yesterday the story from the previous day was fresh in my mind, so I took a hard look at the sign. As you say - it's 90 degrees in the wrong direction, and you'd have (or at least I did) make a conscious effort to read the sign as you pass it headed downhill towards Crabtree.