Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Almost...

So, here's a write-up of the adventure this past weekend...
I titled it Almost, because it fits:
- Almost didn't make it to 52 weekends in-a-row. (And if you don't understand why it mattered so much, just think about putting that kind of commitment into something and then failing at the last moment.)
- Almost died. Would it have been worth it if I didn't return? Obviously, Hell No.

===============================================================

The forecast called for 1-3 inches of new snow accumulation over the serveral days of stroms leading up to the weekend. "OK, so this isn't going to be an easy one," but I wasn't about to give up on the last weekend of Project Whitney 52 Weekends (W52W). (Shin came up with the name Project 52. I modified it slightly.)

I've climbed thru storms before. In fact, the day I met Tracie B, I was walking down the Main Trail in my underwear. (That's the joke. Actually, I climbed the MR in a pair of shorts because I left home without a pair of long pants in my vehicle.)

I looked at the web-cam on Friday afternoon and Thor appeared to have only a light coating of new snow. I checked the NWS Forecast and they were still calling for strong wind and only light flurries. I called Shin to tell him that I would be heading up to Lone Pine after a few hours of sleep and would be down from the climb in the afternoon.

I knew I would be cold and wet, so here's what I put in my day pack:
- 3 down jackets (2 of them parkas)
- 2 wind/water proof shells
- 4 pairs of gloves
- 1 balaclava
- 6 heat packs
- 1 clear lens goggles
- 1 pair of sunglasses
- Axe and crampons
- 2 headlamps
- snacks and a couple of 5-hour energy bottles
- misc crap, making my pack heavy.

I woke up 10 mintes before my alarm went off at 2:00am, jumped into my clothes and headed out the door. A last minute decision, which probabaly saved some toes, was to go with my lightly insulated, waterproof Hi-Tecs, with a light silk liner, VBLs, and a heavy fleece outer sock. I still threw the Gore-tex high-top trail runners in the truck. Yeah, sometimes I like to push way too close to the edge.

"Why am I seeing stars?" as I was driving up 395. I stopped outside McD's to post a quick note, noticed that Inyo County Roads had plowed WPR and headed up the Old Trail at around 4:00am.

Cool...tracks.

By about Lone Pine Lake, I knew I was in for more than I expected. The wind must have blown most of the snow off of Thor because the holes were beginning to be boot-top deep already.

I had the track until about mid-way between Mirror Lake and Trailside Meadow. A group of 4 were cooking breakfast at the side of the trail and expressed surprise that I was heading up solo.

At Trail Camp, I spent all of about 5 seconds on the decision for Switchbacks/Bowl Direct to Trail Crest. Switchbacks.

The Cables were in Mountaineering Classic shape...radical steep traverse, with that hair-raising view thru your legs, and you're not finished yet...there's still the "walk" to the next two switchbacks. The wind hadn't done it's job yet, so it was a rather pleasant encounter with fairly soft snow.

Monotony...fresh knee deep snow in spots to get to Trail Crest. 1-3 inches???

I was late and slow. I don't know how late because my niece and nephew implied that I was an Old Foggey for wearing a wrist watch and stopped wearing one when the rubber band on my Seiko rotted out.

Constant pelting...I felt pretty good (psychologically, I was already tired) when I saw the Rockwell Traverse (it is one of the coolest Whitney photos) was still a baby and wouldn't present any difficulty. A lot of the descent to the JMT Junction was blown bare. It was impossible to keep from having a bazzilion (spindrift) darts thrown in my face. The wind was shifting from SW to NW constantly, so although the wind should have been at my back, it wasn't.

The real work of the climb started beyond Mt. Muir. By this time, I was thinking that it's a pretty rare occurance when the weather forecasters are wrong on the low side. 1-3 feet would have been a more accurate forecast.

Constant post-holing...if you missed the trail, it wasn't unusual to sink past the waist. Think about it...14K' plus and you've got to get yourself out of a chest deep hole...

I've learned that if you're going down, you don't fight it...I did a few front flips (probably lost my phone during one of these) and banged my right knee pretty hard.

Needless to say, by the time I reached the summit, I was wasted. I looked at the time stamp of my summit self-portrait (my boot on the benchmark) and it showed around 2:00pm. (Turns out that the automatic time set by GPS was off by an hour - it was about 3:00pm.)

11 hours...approximately 99.999% of my climbs of Whitney are completed in less time than it took me to get to the summit.

The first thought that entered my head was "bivy in the Smithsonian Hut, you're going to run out of daylight" but Shin had driven up to Lone Pine to celebrate and cockiness prevailed..."I CAN make the return trip to Trail Crest in less than 3 hours." (BTW: I tell anyone who asks that it was Shin's fault. He understands my humor/sarcasm.)

Turns out that I really only had about 2 hours because of inaccurate time...

The power of the wind...my tracks were gone by the time I got down to the trail. As dusk approached, it became more and more difficult to stay on track. More post-holing on the return was beating me down. At night-fall, I couldn't tell where I was anymore and spent a while looking for an adequate bivy site. I didn't find it...

"I need to get back to the Smithsonian Hut..." I spent hours wandering around trying to get back to the summit. I moved at a pace just hard enough to generate heat. I figured if I could keep moving all night...I couldn't. I slippped/fell so many times because of fatigue, I knew I would probably kill myself.

The mind plays tricks on you...I knew I wasn't anywhere near Whitney, but my brain just kept telling me to "go up and check if the Hut is up there." I'm pretty sure I climbed Day Needle twice and Keeler once. "This isn't Whitney!" I recoginzed that the terrain wasn't Whitney, but I went up anyway.

Finally I decided on one more try. As I passed a "nice" alcove of rock, I decided that this is where I would return to to spend the night if One last probe north did get me to the Hut.

I didn't find the Hut...


What went wrong? Random thoughts/comments during the night and into the next day:

- How can someone with so much time on Whitney not find where they are going?
- What are people going to think? If the SPOT track had been accurate and timely, it would have seemed bizarre at the very least.
- The minute I sat down at the alcove, I started shaking uncontrollably.
- I got up to dance to generate heat at various times during the night. (I often joke about staying warm by doing Jumping Jacks all night long. I now know it's tougher than it sounds.)
- I'm going to rattle apart (during some of the shaking).
- I placed a couple of my heavier items up on top of the rock so that SAR would be able to find me...
- Because I didn't know if I could survive the night if I fell asleep. And I did sleep for at least a couple of hours because I opened my eyes (I had wrapped one of the jackets around my head so that I was re-breathing warm air. My balaclava was frozen.) and saw light thru the jacket.
- I haven't ever felt so cold.
- I gave myself 5 seconds to get anything requiring gloves off done. I couldn't figure SPOT out that quickly. I couldn't get the heat packs activated that quickly. Thank goodness, my down mittens were still dry.
- My guess as to wind speed was about 30mph constant. Doug says he thinks 50mph more likely.
- I knew I was too low, but I was on a trail. Doug thinks that I was on an old section of the Main Trail. He pulled it up for me on Google Earth.


Getting Down...

I really wasn't warming up in the morning sun, so I finally got myself going. When I stood up, I immediately thought Human Sugar Donut. I was pure white. As I started to pack up, I knew this was not going to be easy. Both Iliopsoas strained from all the leg lifting the day before, a very sore left quad and a banged up right knee. If it weren't so windy, and I could figure out what went wrong with SPOT (I still think it was just too much rime ice caked up on it.), I'd have activated 911.

I could take about 3 steps before I would have to give my left leg a break. On the steep traverses, I'd have to reach down and pick up my leg to move it to its next plant. I had popped some more pain relievers and took a nap (finally, actually, feeling warm for the first time) at the JMT junction. Needless to say, it was very late in the afternoon before I was heading down the east side.

I knew my guess about people being concerned was accurate when I saw the couple from Alaska wave with big smiles on their faces. They told me that Doug had activated SAR. They stayed with me all the way down to the Portal even though I told them we would not make it out without some serious headlamp time. They we OK with that. Good people.


Some more random comments:

- It took in excess of 12 hours to get down.
- I could have gotten some spectacular photos on Sunday, but my camera was frozen into its case.
- Why Saturday and not Sunday, which was better on the forecast? Because I was worried about what an additional day would do the the snow accumulation and especially what the spindrift would be like by Sunday.
- Earlene says I'm grounded.
- What's the result: only a bit of frostnip on several fingers on my left hand (Interesting typing when you can't feel you finger tips.) I had moderate frostbite on my left hand about 15 years ago, so my left hand is very sensitive to cold.

================================================================

Now that it's done:

- Thanks to the Thompsons. Doug allowed me to pretend that I was the Night Watchman at the WPS. I know the operation so well that if Doug and Earlene want to train me on the cash register and grill, I can lighten their weekend load next season. Seriously.
- Thanks to Shin/Jeff/Rosie and the others that wished me well and good luck during this crazy endeavour.

A lot of us have our dance with the weather, and some of us are lucky enough to walk, crawl or ski through it.

A heck of a lot to go through for a good story


(I got $150 for mine!)

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201101/survive.aspx

Earlene's right, you're grounded.

Richard, I'm happy to hear you made it back okay. That's a scary story. I've always thought you were half crazy. Deciding to head out into Friday's weather makes you completely crazy. Thank goodness you decided to pack all of the extra gear.

The Whitney webcam was really impressive last Friday. I've never seen the weather so active. Successive swarms of angry clouds moved down from the divide and danced around the valley like they they were riding on waves. It was downright artistic - at least from the comfort of my warm office. Doug should post the timelapse video on the Winter Forum so people can see what they need to prepare for.

Is 51 out of 52 close enough for government work?






tched the time lapse

Wow, that is a graphic and compelling account, and a potentially life-saving reminder that it is not only newbies who can get into trouble.

I was among those checking the board for your return, and wondering if something was up when you didn't post. But I figured (hoped) you must be in touch with others who actually know you personally, or someone would say something. Although I do not know you personally, I am very very happy to hear you are safe.

I thank you for sharing not only the 51 weeks of unmitigated triumph, but also this very honest and human recounting of the 52nd week. While the ending may be a bit bittersweet for you, there are important life lessons in all 52 weeks of posts, with last not being least. And a heck of a lot of very stunning photographs.

Welcome back, and look forward to meeting you someday.

Oops, I had the wrong day. Saturday's weather didn't look wonderful either.

You're still nuts.

Amazing and chilling report... it shows no one can rule the Mountain... a night to remember forever and lessons for all to heed!
Glad you are around to celebrate a real Thanksgiving! GBY!

Richard, my friend, I am glad you are alive.

You know I love mountain quotes. Here are some from my Words From On High , chapter "Mountain in Control"


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


There was no confusion as to who ruled this lofty realm.
Joe Wilcox, White Winds, page 111


When the battle ends, the mountain remains unvanquished. There are no true victors, only survivors.
Barry Bishop
James Ramsey Ullman, Americans on Everest, page 281


AND, EVEN ON WHITNEY:

You can climb that mountain a thousand times, and it will never know your name.
David Breashears, High Exposure, page 259

odd choice of gear.

Great story, I still think you were down at 4pm Saturday at Seasons with everyone but interesting novel anyway..I know there's a good picture in there for your 2013 calender.

Glad your OK, but you missed a good NASCAR race on Sunday..

mark

Richard, this was really hard for me to read…

I’ve known you for several years (we met in 2007) but over the last couple years or so I’ve come to know you more and I am proud to call you my friend. I knew that conditions weren’t the best when you set out for #52 but I could never have pictured this kind of an ordeal. As I read your post, I was hit by a lot of emotions. The horror in realizing that it was much worse than I had ever imagined and immense relief that this ended the way it did and that you made it down.

Because I also couldn’t help but think of Larry Conn (Quintinc), the hiker who went missing last month. As you were describing what you had gone thru, it gave me a picture of what Larry had probably also gone thru when the snow storm that was predicted for a few days later hit early. I’d only met Larry once (also in 2007) and he, like you, was a very experienced, capable mountaineer.

Karin’s comment that your report is a “potentially life-saving reminder that it is not only newbies who can get into trouble” is so true.

Thank you for your very honest report, Richard. I am so very, very glad that you returned safely… that you are still here. Yes, I would say this would qualify as a “last but not least” of the project W52W!

Rosie

Richard, one helluva story! It makes a great cautionary tale for anyone who might take this mountain or it's weather lightly. I'm trying to imagine conditions that would result in you being whipped and beat up the way you describe, and it's just beyond me. Really, dude, you lived out the old adage, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". Glad you're back safe and reasonably sound, and that you achieved your goal.

Richard-
Congratulations on reaching your goal! Lots of determination and on that last one "having to dig deep" to get it done. Along with that is the sobering realization of just how close that came to ending in a bad way. Thankfully it did not turn into a SAR rescue or recovery operation.

I like the quote above about climbing the mountain a thousand times and the mountain not knowing your name. We are all, afterall, just guests that the mountain tolerates. Nature has an unmerciful unforgiveness about her as the mountain does not care one way or the other if we make it out or not.

Well done Richard. Epic finish, to an Epic achievement. So glad it did not finish differently.
Your choice of pack contents is interesting:
-Why three jackets and two shells? Seems as though your choices did serve you well, but also seems unusual.
-Would snow shoes have helped?
-Will you post pictures?
Again, Congratulations!

Great job, Richard! And what a great, well-told and informative story. I hope you're keeping a journal as well.

I've got lots more of those quotes , but not now. I don't want to detract from the story - no - the result that Richard got back alive

Harvey

I'll read and reply to the posts this evening, but this one caught my attention...

I like down for regulating my temperature... I seem to feel comfortable in down thru a really wide range of temps. I didn't think any one of the down jackets would have kept me warm and dry thru the expected precip, so I carried multiple. Same with the shells. On another note, it was cold enough that nothing, except my collar freezing up with condesation, got wet. (Well, I did sweat into a couple of pairs of gloves.)

My hands are very sensitive to cold, my feet aren't. I probably have 30+ pairs of boots in my garage by all of the leading manufacturers, but I just love these Hi-Tecs. They are light, very comfotable on my feet and keep them warm and dry thru some pretty nasty conditions. (I've been up Orizaba 4 times with them and the VBLs.)

Yes, snowshoes were one thing that I missed. Using them on the West Side is a PITA though because of the changing angle of the terrain.

I did take some photos on Saturday. I've had the camera sitting in the den drying out. I'll probabaly pull the SD card this evening and upload them. I do remember looking at the camera while I was on the summit and thinking that the photos wouldn't be very good because it was frozen and covered with ice.

Thanks, and again, I'm sorry for putting people thru this.

Hi Richard - This is a vivid account of how the mountains can kick your butt no matter how much you've trained or how many times you've been on the trail.

Like Rosie, I find it disturbing to read for the same reasons, and also because I consider you to be a close friend.

I will never forget that vision of you emerging from the snowfall in those white (boxer looking) shorts.

Again, congratulations on W52W. Take the rest of the year off and go look for that house on the coast of Thailand.

Richard - Glad you are home safe all I can saw is "wow" the thoughts that go through our minds when we are faced with staying put versus moving on are as painful as the bitter cold. Super glad you had the gear to hunker down and get yourself out and thanks to the folks from Alaska that helped, hope to see you soon for a casaul hike that doesn't require the thought of pushing the "Help Button", congratulations on 52 summits in 52 weeks that's amazing, sorry that the last one was so challenging.

Congratulations and I am glad that you realized the challenge you faced and stayed put overnight. More importantly, thank you for posting this account. One thing that concerns me in today's environment of doing extreme activities and posting of exploits is how people with little or no experience can think that they can do these activities and place themselves and others in extreme danger.

I'm not being critical of you Richard, I am actually quite complimentary. You continue to amaze me with your trips and your humble attitude. People like you, Laura (am I really using both of you in the same sentence?) Davey, Giga Mike, Rick Kent and numerous others are at the top of the game. Few people have the stamina and experience to do the trips, often alone that you folks do.

The key to survival is the sheer number of days spent in the effort. I also think all the people I mentioned are humble enough to report close calls and teach about lessons learned. Recall Lauras report last year of the person in her party getting hurt and rescued in the North Fork. When one ventures out solo at any time of year, but especially winter, one takes the risk that one mistake can easily be fatal.

To a certain extent you had blinders on due to the goal of 52. That could have easily be fatal blinders.

If someone other than yourself or someone of your caliber had posted this I would have been highly critical, but on the contrary I am complimentary for your being prepared to survive this.

I did a similar but not so dangerous thing in June 1986 of getting to the summit of the Grand Teton at sunset. My partner and I spent a chilly night on the summit rather than search out the Owen-Spaulding rappel point in the dark.

Experience is a teacher, it prepares us for the times (hopefully few) when we need to utilize it.