Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports My 911 Summit

First I need to thank the folks on this board for providing great tips for a first timer. I used the information, posts and tips from 3-4 years ago to have a successful first time visit. I made the summit on 9/11/10. Here's what I did.

Only 10 days prior I drove through Lone Pine and saw Mt Whitney for the first time. I live in Orange County CA and decided that I wanted to go to the top. My research online took me to this web site where I learned the following important pieces of information:

1. It's possible to get a permit at the last minute
2. Staying at Lone Pine Lake is a nice option
3. If you are flexible about overnight or day permit you have a great chance of hiking Whitney.

I arrived from Orange County at the visitors center just before 10a on Friday the 10th of Sept. The first round of available permits get released at 11a. There is no first come first serve for the process.

Everyone looking for any type of permit to any wilderness area on that day gives the ranger their license. They then put numbers in a hat and each person draws from the hat (one person per group). That is the order you will now attempt to get a permit.

It's possible and likely that some people who drew a lower number than you are not interested in Whitney so your chances increase. I drew 5 and was able to get an overnight permit (I was by myself). Another guy I met drew number 9 and was able to get 2 overnight permits. I didn't find this out until we ran into each other on the summit. Overall I would say there were 15 people who drew numbers but 25ish looking to get permits. Remember only one person per group puts their name in the hat. One large group was looking at another peak so they didn't affect my chances at Whitney.

I was stoked and went to town to finish gathering supplies and food. Left the Portal at 4:00p on my way to overnight at Lone Pine Lake. This was all based on earlier reports from others on this board who had done the same thing. THANKS for the tips! Anyhow...I made Lone Pine Lake at 5:30p with plenty of time to setup camp and eat. Stayed the night with a group of 6 and another group of 4. Lone Pine Lake appears to be very underrated...I thought it was fantastic and not nearly as crowded as the other camps.

Left for the summit at 5:10a on a nearly perfect day Saturday the 11th. Made the summit at 11a and stayed on top for 50 minutes. Almost no wind, wore a long sleeve shirt and was very comfortable. Didn't want to leave and not a cloud in the sky. Started back down at 11:50a and arrived back in camp at just after 5p. Took a 30 min lunch and took my time on the way back. The return trip was long and I can see how a day hike from the Portal to the summit and back in a single day is a tough day. I stayed another night at Lone Pine Lake again with the group of 4 and a new group of 6. Lone Pine lake never felt crowded.

As an aside I have to say I was grossed out by Trail camp. It was extremely crowded. I can't imagine staying there....the Sh&*T bags just lying around were disgusting and there was a lot of trash. Nasty. I was really blown away by the treatment of this area by campers and hikers. The ranger had layed out all the trash and wag bags he found in a 'lost and found' area. Wow. The pile was from what he picked up that day only and was quite a sight.

Anyhow, the experience was much better than I anticipated. I was thinking it would be cool but it was fantastic. Although there were quite a few people on the trail most were extremely friendly and everyone in good spirits. For some reason I loved hanging out at Trail Crest. I thought that section was as cool as Whitney itself.

For the record...I went with very little water. I had read from someone on this board that water from various falls was drinkable and safe. I had no choice as I had not brought along a filter or iodine. I drank water from the falls just below trail camp and as of Tuesday night I have not gotten sick. However, in hind sight....knowing the state of the small lake at Trail Camp I don't think I would do that again. I still think it was better than drinking filtered water from that nasty lake but I probably got away with one

For those of you relatively close to Whitney I wouldn't hesitate to attempt to get a last minute permit. You need a little luck but chances are very good that you will succeed. There were plenty of day passes for Saturday and that was my fallback had Friday not gone as planned.

Hope this helps others.

Congratulation and thanks for the trip report. Great job.I agree that the water is drinkable unfiltered everywhere except Trail Camp Lake.It just looks nasty. The inlet to it is really clean.I agree about Trail Camp being nasty. If you stay there you might be closer to the summit but it smells like urine everywhere and the wag bags left behind just fries my ass.Thanks for sharing your story with us.You must be in good shape because your climbing times are faster than average.RT s normaly averaged in the 15 hour range. 9 hours up and 6 hours down.6 hours from LPL to summit is a very good time.
I did the RT in 22 hours and I was in excellent shape.Switchbacks kicked my ass.Did get lost in the dark above mirror lake a couple of times.

Agree Rod....the wag bag and trash thing really fried my britches. I was surprised that when I was getting my permit the Ranger had to explain to me about not leaving the wag bag on the trail. Apparently quite a few people need to hear that request more than once. Personally I think they should charge a reasonable fee for the permit and use that money to find a solution to that problem. No flames for that comment please....just my personal opinion.

For the past 5-6 years I have been running marathons and ultra's and doing long course triathlons. I was hopeful that my run fitness would translate into hiking at altitude and thankfully it did. Only a few times on the switchbacks did I feel a bit winded. Not to say it was easy because it was not easy. I was very sore the next 2 days though as I don't use the same muscles when running and the newly used muscles were not happy! I'm better today though.

Met so many cool people!

Marathoner,ultra marathoner no wonder less than 6 hours LPL to summit.Amazing to drive by MW and say "Hey I want to climb that bad boy and less than 2 weeks later you are standing on the highest point in the continetal USA. Great story. You made it seem easy. Glad you had no issues with AMS. How old are you BTW?
I agree LPL is underated. Trouble it just isn't far enough up the trail for most to be a good base camp.

Thanks for the trip report. Yes, it would have been better if you had acclimated another day up at elevation, but it is good that you listened to your body. On my first day hike, we supposedly had a runner come up the day of the hike but we never saw him on the trail because he developed altitude sickness around Trail Camp. Almost half of the trail is above 12,000 feet, and that is what makes the hike interesting for first timers.

Way to go, Zeta4. Congratulations. It's pretty obvious that the marathon conditioning helped you on this hike.

You should be ok with drinking the water. Lots of people do the same as you.

You're one of the lucky 25% who is not affected by the altitude on Mt Whitney.

And it is great to hear that information from this site was what you needed.

Zeta,
great job!

I stayed at LPL last year with my son. We were the only ones at the lake (it was July 2009). It was pretty cool having it all to ourselves, chilling and fishing.

You are definitely the hare to my tortoise.
Best,
Tom

I'm 40 Rod. I don't want to give the impression it was easy. Even being in very good condition it's a tough hike. I was well aware that altitude sickness could hit me at any time. I remember thinking all was going well and I felt great during the switchbacks but in the back of my head I was concerned that eventually altitude sickness was going to become a factor.

Years ago in college I hiked a 14'er in Colorado and got hammered by the fatigue, loss of appetite and splitting headache associated with altitude. Even Friday night I felt just a tinge of it but by morning i was fine.

Guess I should note that I live less than 2 miles from the beach so I really wanted that night at LPL to acclimate. Agree VFred it would have been better to have another night but work and family made that tough. I was happy to have the one night. Very possible I could have gotten sick had I tried to do it all in one day.

Yes Steve...this site and especially these forums were instrumental in my success. Can't thank everyone enough for the information necessary to have a special experience. That was the main reason for me posting...wanted to give back and help others who may be looking to do the same thing.

Hare, tortoise....no matter Tom I had no idea what a fast or slow time up the mountain was until Rod commented. I spent quite a bit of time talking to others and just taking it all in. Everyone goes at their own pace and it's all good.