Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Barefoot Ted's Cousin?

It's easy to tell we're in the high, summer season on Mt. Whitney. I made sure to tell him to look up Barefoot Ted. I also ran him into the ground because he jumped up from a break at Trail Crest as I was about to pass by. (I may be old and gray, but I'm not slow... and not many things bother me anymore, but that does.)


Matt on the Whitney Main Trail with flip-flops and a sombrero.

It looks like this most critical factor involved in a summer hike of Whitney is conditioning, not equipment. All the equipment in the world can't make up for a lack of conditioning.

One of the guys in our group in 2007 wore a pair of lightweight Crocs from Tyndall Creek/JMT junction to Lake South America, over
Harrison Pass down to East Lake and to Junction meadow where the group spent the night. The next day he wore the Crocs
out to Cedar Grove to the cars at the trailhead.

This was not by choice as he had severe blisters on his heels and feet and the Crocs were much better to use than boots.
Another good reason to have extra footgear on a long trip.

If you are familiar with Harrison Pass, this was quite an amazing effort on his part.

Well, I don't know about the flip-flops, but I really like the sombrero... it's got character! It's fun to see interesting things on the trail!

I've not done Whitney:
- barefoot (I did watch a barefoot guy get turned around by snow at the Zone entry.)
- in flip-flops
- on a unicycle (have seen that happen on White, but I guess Wilderness regs will keep me from ever doing it)
- to get married
- on my hands (although hands were a major part of the East Face and Buttress climbs)
- in a sombrero
- in a dress
- naked (never going to happen) (met a young, pretty woman who just finished the JMT who had guys telling her it was "hike naked day.")

What else?

We saw Bon-re sect Buddhists going around Mt. kailash in Tibet in anti-CW direction around the mountain in barefoot and going from one complete head to toe laying on the ground with hands stretched in front in prayer, get up and do the same from the point where their hands were. Its amazing as it was around 18600 ft (highest point - Dolma la pass) and they dont have any issue either in breathing or going barefoot! I was breathless & had to gasp for 5 minutes after taking 10 steps at that height. The min height is at the start & was around 15000 ft (a small village on the south of the mountain called Darchen). Its a strange beautiful mountain to go around (about 35 miles - took us 3 days). On the east side we did cross the lip of a glacier and wondered how these Buddhists crossed that part of the trek.