We decided to stash our sleeping bags, tarp and a few other unnecessary items so that our packs would be lighter for the climb. We also took only enough food for the day and stashed our heavy bear canisters as well.
We hiked up passed Timberline Lake and up to Guitar Lake (yes, it is shaped like a guitar!), where we took a break to gear up for the 3000 ft climb ahead.
There was a little snow to navigate through in order to get up to where the switchbacks took us up to the ridge where we would head up to the summit. As we climbed, we crossed several hikers coming down who had gotten an earlier start than we did. We also came across a few who had climbed up from Whitney Portal on the other side of the mountain. If we thought we had it bad having to climb 4000 ft to get to the summit, they had it far worse. The climb up from Whitney Portal is a grueling 9000 ft and something like 93 switchbacks. Many of those people looked very tired and thankful to be on their way down.
When we finally reached the summit we were very surprised that there were very few people up there. Later in the season the summit will be crawling with people, but there were never more than 10 people (including us) up there. For the last 10 minutes we were up there, it was only Mark and I! We took some pictures and enjoyed the beautiful views and weather. There was only a slight breeze, and we took a long break next to the hut that's up there with a couple other hikers who arrived just after us.
As we descended, we crossed a few more ragged climbers coming up from the Portal Side; at Guitar Lake and beyond we ran into TONS of hikers who were coming up to camp at the lake for their ascent the following day. There probably would have been 30 tents up there that night!
By the time we returned to our stuff, the day was coming to an end and we were tired. We knew we didn't have time to get far, but we wanted to walk a little farther in order to get closer to Forester Pass, which we would be doing the following day. We ended up sleeping in a sandy saddle, tired, but excited about what we had accomplished.
Total Miles:768.8
Miles Today:1.7 (+17 Mt Whitney Miles)
Camp 43:Sandy Saddle
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2 comments:
sometime ask Paul & Marcelo what WE saw on the summit (heh heh heh)
coach d
HAH! I know that story.
Hey-congrats on making the Whitney summit. When John, Dad and I tried it we couldn't find those switchbacks up to the ridge--had as we tried for hours they just couldn't be found in the very deep snow.
So we didn't bag the summit that time.
-dd
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