Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Humbled on Whitney - 8/22/12

I've climbed Whitney nearly 30 times over the last decade and today was by far the most difficult experience I've ever had (it even beat the time I was up there with 60MPH gusts!)

Started at 1:30AM with my flight instructor, temperature at portal was 68 degrees. We saw a couple of lightning strikes in the distance but figured they wouldn't make it over our way (silly me). Pretty easygoing hike up to Trail Camp in about 2.5 hours. Ate my breakfast in the dark, took note that it was one of the first times I wasn't freezing my buns off, and then started up the switchbacks. I'd felt a couple of light rain drops here and there up the trail but didn't make anything of it. By 4:30AM, the lightning was coming really fast, as was the thunder. On my way up the switchbacks, the hailstones started. Lightly at first, and then harder as the lightning and thunder came on top of each other. I caught up to another couple up the switchbacks and they asked if I planned to proceed given the weather. I said yes because I really didn't think it would get that bad (silly me). I only walked about another 5-10 minutes and BOOM! FLASH! the loudest thunder and lightning I've ever heard or seen. It literally scared me off the mountain.

I saw the couple below me start to head down the mountain and I called after them to wait for me. I was pretty scared because the hailstones were now pelting me. I was also worried about the slickness of the rocks given the moisture from the hailstones. Since I was no longer exerting much effort in the climb (going downhill) and because I was wet from the precipitation, I could feel my core body temperature dropping fast. I couldn't feel my hands (even with gloves) and I was becoming very disoriented. If there was ever a time that I did not regret turning back, it was then. The risk of a lightning strike, a slip and fall, or hypothermia were enough to turn me around.

Eventually, I caught up to my instructor below Trail Camp and we immediately made our way down. There's an area just above Trailside Meadow with a steep drop-off (the best way I can describe it is it's one of the last places where the snow melts at the beginning of the season). Anyway, my instructor took a wrong step and went off the side of the mountain. I thought he was gone. Somehow, miraculously, he was able to stop his decline and inch his way back to the trail. I honestly thought he was gone. I'm still in shock that he didn't keep sliding.

I've almost always had fantastic weather, no missteps, guided many friends to the top, and thought it was an "easy" hike. In fact, I've only turned around twice--the time there were 60MPH gusts and this time. It's a nice reminder that this mountain is not to be taken for granted. It's dangerous and while you can control your water intake, how fast you ascend, your food consumption, and AMS (by following the signs), there are always going to be many things out of your control like weather, missteps, fatigue, disorientation, etc. (all of this is arguable, of course)

I thought I was a badass but this mountain has taught me otherwise today.

Thank goodness you made it ok! I also went up this morning at 2am with my cousin and her fiance. I was very concerned about all the lightning and thunder and bits of rain. Although we all really wanted to continue we decided to turn around just before Lone Pine Lake. After reading your post I am so glad we made that decision. I have been thinking about all the people we passed on the way down who were also just getting started. I hope all are ok. I suspect we will see many more posts about today.

There's always next time!

I thought the rule was that it “did not rain in the Sierras at night”?

Here are some quotes from my collection Words From On High, the “Mountain in Control “ section. The first is short and pithy, the second is a longer and poetic favorite of mine:


But we were only guests and the mountain proceeded to remind us of it.
.........Tom Hornbein, Everest. The West Ridge, page 132


Only a contact with reality, realities of endurance, of uncertainty and of service, can train character…There is no such reality in the competition of games, or of examination. It can only be found in contests of uncertain issue, and progressive severity, with opposing natural forces: either with other human beings in destructive warfare, or with the elements, waves and winds and height and space.
........Geoffrey Winthrop Young in foreward to
........Eric Shipton, Upon That Mountain, page 311

wow, what a terrifying experience, so glad it was a lesson and not a tragedy!

I was watching the web cam off and on all day, marveling at the beauty of the mountains in the storm (the archive has some stunning shots), and also reflecting on what those clouds really meant for the folks up there. I would guess a lot of people don't get it till they GET it; description just can't make it real. I certainly didn't get it until I got my lesson, and it learned me good. A few years ago I cluelessly watched a storm come in after day hiking up to Trail Camp; it was so beautiful and peaceful as I watched the peaks appearing and reappearing, wreathed in rolling, tumbling fog and clouds. And then the storm hit, faster and harder than I could ever have imagined, thunder rolling overhead like you could reach up and touch it, horizontal graupel blasting in my face, the trail disappearing under snow. I remember navigating that exact area you describe above Trailside Meadow as I fled, bent over double to stay on my feet, deeply alarmed by the lack of visibility and the snow cover on that rocky terrain. Once I got below tree line it was magically beautiful and I felt sort of ecstatic the rest of the way down. Lesson learned, a story to tell, a beautiful day, instead of my last. Now, whenever I see storms on the web cam, I always reflect on that experience, and wonder how everyone is doing up there.

Be safe everyone!

Hey Jax...

The true sign of a badass is knowing when to turn his/her badass around...glad you made it back...

D...