Sorry this is so long, but I feel trip reports are a huge help in planning a trip.
I had been following the Mt. Whitney posts for awhile and finally asked my husband about trying to hike it for our 25th anniversary. He said sure, so we marked the date and applied for an overnight permit. Well that didn’t happen. As soon as the window opened for unclaimed permits, we were both on the computer to see what was available. The only permit we were able to obtain happened to be a day permit the day after our anniversary, September 28.
We live in Arizona so did not have a lot of opportunity to train. We figured we would go and get as far as we could and enjoy the experience.
We arrived in Lone Pine on 9/27, picked up our permit, checked into the hotel and headed to the Portal to get a lay of the land. We walked around, found the trail head, checked out the bear lockers and went back to town for pizza, which was awesome, and went to bed early.
The next morning we were at the trail at 3:45 a.m. We headed up and didn’t have to stop too often, which surprised us both. We just kept a slow easy pace where we could talk and breathe deep and evenly.
We reached Trail Camp around 7:15, just as the camp was coming to life. We filled our water at the top of the pond and headed up the switchbacks. These we took a little slower, stopping to rest the thighs every so often. This was probably the longest stretch of the trip. As we passed the lower part, we did not notice any running water so we were glad we had filled up at Trail Camp. There is heavy ice in parts of the cable area, so the nights are very cold. As we neared the top of the switchbacks, we could see the hut off in the distance and finally the peaks of the Sierras to the West. At this point I knew I would get to say I had been in the middle of the Sierras! This was such a huge accomplishment in my mind to get to this point of the trail.
We stopped to put on a layer, since the temperature was cooler and we knew we were going into the shade, and kept on hiking. The views from the west side of the trail are so amazing, it made all the previous hours of hiking worth the effort. The final push to the summit was a lot quicker than we thought. We just kept focusing on the hut! Finally, there it was and we almost felt like running. We made it! We were on top of the world!! We met some awesome people on the way up that kept encouraging us, telling us “You are almost there, only another 5 minutes!” We cannot thank them enough. Once on top we met several more great people along with a SAR group. My husband does SAR, so it was great to swap stories. They were most generous in letting us borrow a phone, since mine wasn’t working, to contact our daughter to let her know we had made it safely. My husband had secretly brought up two 4 oz plastic bottles of wine to celebrate our anniversary and summit! What a great surprise!! We had the opportunity to watch a hang glider go over the summit along with a glider that made several passes. The weather could not have been better, no wind, comfortable temperature and light clouds. However, the clouds did start to build and the temps started to drop when the sun was covered so we started down around 1:30 p.m. Not having to stop to rest our thighs, we made great time. The water was flowing around switchback 27 so filled our bottles, great tasting water! We finally made it back to the Portal around 7:15 p.m. A total of 15 ½ hours on the trail. This included stops.
I did take Diamox. I started Thursday a.m., Thursday p.m., Friday a.m. (before hiking), and Friday p.m. (after the hike). The dosage was 125 mg. The only side effects I had were having to pee a lot! (It is a diuretic), and a slight tingling in the fingertips Friday morning for about 15 minutes. I was very happy with the results and would definitely take it again. I was able to drink constantly and snacked most of the way up the trail. I feel this helped quite a bit. I have been at 12,000 ft. before and haven’t been able to get any water or food down. We did use the step one process of Gatorade twice, once before starting, and again at Trail Camp before the switchbacks. We added step two Gatorade to our water at Trail Camp also. My husband started Diamox Thursday p.m. and Friday a.m. and was not able to eat well along the trail. He did get two cheese sticks down and this helped with his energy.
We went back up to the Portal Saturday morning for breakfast and were fortunate to meet Doug and spend several minutes talking with him and enjoy breakfast. We hated to leave, it was so beautiful.
I know my report is long, but after reading trip reports for over a year, I have learned so much towards reaching my goal, that I hope to help a couple of you that are trying to reach your goals. Keep planning and preparing, it will pay off.
Ed & Mimi
