Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board my first climb on 7-23

Had tried to get a permit for three people in the lottery. Put down 24 dates and got none. From this website I learned that Whitney has a lot of unused permits, especially during the week. Therefore I decided to get an overnight permit for thursday the 22nd with a climb to the summit on friday the 23rd. I called the permit office and they said that if I wanted a permit for the 22nd, I needed to be there in person on the 21st at 11am.

I made a reservation for the Hostel for the 21st and drove 7 hours to Lone Pine with the hope of a permit. I arrived in Lone Pine at 9am. The Ranger told me that there was 1 permit for the 22nd but I would have to wait til 11 or I could get one of the two unused permits for the 21st. I took the 21st permit and did not have to pay a fee and headed for the Portal.

I was originally going to climb to Lone Pine Lake to acclamate to the altitude, but with the extra day on the permit, I climbed to Mirror Lake instead. After a short stay, I headed back down to the Portal Store were Doug Sr sold me some moleskin. He was very concerned that I was asking about moleskin after such a short hike (8 miles). Hey Doug, I still have not used any of the moleskin.

I headed into town to the Hostel and checked in. Got a pizza at the Pizza Factory kitty-corner from the Hostel and bought a sun hat at the Hostel with the money I saved by not having to pay a permit fee. The room was VERY clean and everything worked great. Met both of my roommates, or at least what I thought was my only roommates, and everything was cool. At 11:30 our third roommate showed up by turning on the lights. He quickly left the room, but returned 2 mins. later with his headlamp on. Next he went into the bathroom and took a shower. When he got out of the shower and dressed, he left the room again only to return with his laptop and started to surf the web until 1am. Lastly he brushed his teeth by turning on the sink lights. Thanks roomy!

Got up early and was at the Portal Store at 7am. Met Doug Jr and had the Stores huge pancake with bacon. Doug Sr ate his hashbrowns and coffee with me and we had great conversations about altitude sickness. The pancake was delicious but could only eat about half before I was full.

Headed up the trail with a 43 pound pack on. By the time I got to Outpost Camp (3.5 miles) my Left should was killing me. I have had four surguries on it including a reconstruction with metal implants so I decided not to go onto Trail Camp. I was bummed that I did not go to Trail Camp, but now I think it was a very smart choice. At Outpost, I had shade so I could sleep. No shade at Trail Camp. Outpost has soft sand gravel while Trail Camp is solid rock. Finally Outpost does not have Marmots.

Summit day is here and I started out at 3am. The trail is so well marked that I did not get lost once in the middle of the night and never been on the trail before. Filled up my 2 liter camelback at Trail Camp and headed for the switchbacks.

Still dark out but was able to manage them. They do seem to go on and on and there is more than 99 of them. Felt good until I got to the switchbacks above 13300 feet. Made it to Trail Crest just before sunrise. Decided to stay there for the sunrise. Awesome sight.

Made my way down to the Muir Trail Jct. and found out that I had only 1 liter of water left. Met a girl named Megan who was on the Muir trail and she gave me a liter of water. Thanks, you saved my ass. The rest of the way to the summit was grueling.

I would go a quarter of a mile and then stop to eat and drink. When I got at 14000 feet I had to take 3 aspirin. Down to 1 liter of water again, I was saved by a climber named Don who gave me another liter of water. Thanks. Determined to make it to the top with the help of friends I summitted at 9:30am.

Signed the book, took two pictures of the summit markers and made a 360 degree video with my camera. Tried to make a call home but failed with only 1 bar. Took off my jacket and put on the sunscreen in the shade of the hut and started down.

Walking down made me feel better, but the uphill parts made me sick. When I got to the Muir Jct I started to feel good, but then came the climb to Trail Crest and more altitude sickness. The Switchbacks solved the altitude sickness and the thought that I had to carry my full pack from Outpost instead of Trail Camp made the decision not to camp at Trail Camp even better.

At Outpost Camp I packed up my pack and helped others setup camp. I figured it was karma from all the help I got earlier and I made more friends. I eventully got to Whitney Portal at 6pm and headed home. I wish I knew how to post my video of the summit but I am computer illiterate. Maybe sometime later. Thanks to all that helped me and to Doug Sr, you rock.

kor, very nice TR - thanks for posting. Congrats summitting your first time out of the chute, and I agree - those breakfasts with Doug at the WPS can be quite enlightening! Next time I do Whitney, I'm just going to take one single WPS pancake up with me, broken up in baggies, for my carbs . . .

One thing jumped out at me in your TR - the 43-pound pack. That seems like a lot for a summer one-nighter. I was up on a one-nighter last week, and weighed in at 32 pounds, which was about 3 more than I had really planned for. Did you have some heavier gear with you, or just too much stuff? After least week's experience, I think I can shave at least 3 pounds off my next trip. Mostly food - I was overly optimistic about my appetite - and a lighter tent. My 5 lb Quarterdome 2UL is gonna get traded in soon!

Thanks again for posting your TR - good job!

Bulldog34, I know I could get a lighter tent. My Kelty is at 5lbs 7ounces. Looking to get a 3lb 10 ounce tent. Took about 2 lbs too much food and 2 lbs too many wipes and one too many wag bags I got when I climbed Shasta. I could loose about 2 lbs of gear. I figure my next trip I should weigh in at 34 lbs. My left shoulder dictates me to lighten up.

Hello Kor,
and congratulations on your summit. I've personally been fighting off a knee injury this year, so I can appreciate what it took for you to hang in there and get to the summit. I'm no lightweight backpacking expert, but I've also been trying to lighten up for the past 15 years. When I started, I was carrying an external frame pack, wearing blue jeans, wearing one sport Moraines, and basically carrying way too much (probably 55 lbs. for a week's trip). It didn't take me long to ditch the external frame, get some nylon clothes, and whittle the pack down to 35 lbs. for a week while still carrying a full tent (Sierra Designs Light Year) and a full length sleeping pad and sleeping bag. Now, I want to get under 30 pounds for a week while still carrying a real pack and a real sleeping bag. A couple of resources have been especially helpful to me in this quest:
www.backpackinglight.com
This website, while designed for the PCT crowd, has a great forum and menu tabs to help anyone get started lightening up. And then there is Andrew Skurka's home page. I'm not sure if you are familiar with him or not, but he has been doing some amazing things in the past five years and his website goes to great lengths to explain how the rest of us mere mortals can do likewise. In fact, here is his gear list for when he did the Sierra High Route back in August of 2008:
http://www.andrewskurka.com/SHR08/gearlist.php
When you read his site, you can see how he makes a real science of studying his environment when planning his equipment. In other words, he tailors a separate array of gear for each trip through interviews of other hikers, study of his terrain, and average climate data for each specific area . The one above is most relevant to Whitney.
I haven't yet brought myself to give up my tent for a bivy or a tarp or use a quilt, but even if you adopt half of his ideas, you are bound to lighten your load by several pounds.
I also noticed in your write up that you described how you became more dehydrated and tired in the higher elevations. I've faced this (and continue to). Lately, I've been reading Mark Twight's book Extreme Alpinism. Ok, so taking the main trail to Whitney isn't extreme alpinism, but Twight has great things to say about training, motivation, clothes, and especially nutrition that can help anyone in a high endurance activity. Basically, he turned me on to gels and electrolyte drinks, which I had sworn off along with bars years ago in favor of water and whole foods, thinking I was saving money. What I discovered was that I had a lot more energy up above 13,000 feet when I followed his advice. It should be common sense, but he explains that when your body is working as hard as we do when we climb Whitney that you can't process food because the muscles take too much blood away from the stomach, so electrolyte replenishment drinks and gels are the only efficient way to maintain the proper percentage of glucose in our blood hour after hour to maintain energy without "bonking". I wish that I had been doing this in two previous climbs earlier this year on Shasta and Whitney; I would have felt a lot better and moved a lot faster. I think that adopting these lightweight and alpine philosophies translates into increased safety based on the dictum that "speed is safety" in regards to traveling efficiently through dangerous terrain. Way back in the 70's Yvon Chouinard said that if you carry bivy gear you will end up bivying, and Mark Houston and Kathy Cosley echo that refrain in their book Alpine Climbing: techniques to take you higher. While we may not be making single push alpine attempts, we can all gain something by seeing what these world class alpinists are able to do and do without. My sincere apologies if I am preaching to the choir to you in regards to any of these things. More importantly, nutrition, training, equipment, and comfort are ultimately subjective items that we must all figure out for ourselves by experience. Good luck in all of your future climbs.
Lee

kor, I believe we were in the same room at the hostel. Even the earplugs didn't help me get the sleep I needed. Guess they didn't work for you either.

Glad you had a good trip!

Thanks Lee for some information. Yes you were one of my cool roommates Homerthejedi!! Did you have a good trip? I hope it was as successful and fulfilling as mine. It was a shame that our third roomy was insensitive to others because the Hostel room was great. Take care Homerthejedi.