Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board East Buttress – Shin’s Carpe Diem

This past Sat (Aug 16), Shin and I seized the day by climbing the East Buttress route on Mt Whitney car-2-car. Shin has been working-out really hard all Spring and early Summer to get ready for this significant summertime challenge and he certainly got his monies worth during this tough 16-hour day. Not a bad day for a couple of ol' dudes with combined age of 123+ years
Congrats Shin……now what’s next?

~4am start


We’ll be up there soon enough


Shin getting a ‘power-nap’ while we waited for the other parties to get started on the 1st pitch


Shin ‘getting high’ on the East Buttress


Rick & Shin on the summit


Spring-like conditions on the ‘final 400’


Almost home


More photo at either Shin's or my (graham2) photoalbums

Great job, guys! Always a fun route. (Methinks it's Fishhook time?)

I'm so happy for you! A day to remember! Congratulations!
Blessings from Wildflower Betsy & Crazy Jack

Rick and Shin,

Congratulations to "a couple of ol' dudes with a combined age of 123+ years."

Just like Betsy, Jack, and others, you have represented the Mountain's "Old Guard" admirably.

Nice to see your outing done the old-fashioned way: the one day North Fork "epic", which at one time was motivated by the fact that a wilderness permit was not needed.

With admiration,

Jim F (myself closer to 70 years old than 60)

Nice job guys. Graham, I see you have been a great teacher.

Yea Shin what's next..

mark

Hi Jim,
This crazy project got started by Rick's casual comment made at local indoor rock climbing gym in March or April.
"Do you have any plan for this year? If you can climb some of the routes without problems, you can climb Whitney's East Buttress." I thought that it was a joke. But, I didn't care either joke or not.

I went along with his casual comment and well planed training programs which simulate the real rock climb under the fatigue. We did several hikes together, Ski hut and Bear canyon in Mt. Baldy, with extra weight in the pack and climb 1250 feet of climbing, 25 laps on 50 feet wall, at the gym after the hike or hike 10-12 miles and real rock climbing after the hike in Mt. San Jacinto area.
I messed up my right knee in July and slowed down the training for following few weeks. Rick let me take care of my knee and chose a better mountain trail for continuous training. Since he never set the time or date for this project so only thing I could do was just keep on trying till he say something.
Finally, he set the time and date last week without the permit.
He picked #1 card at the lottery and we got the permit for Saturday.

The best thing I learned from Rick's crazy project was that the
importance of training or preparation for the hike or climb before setting your feet in the mountain.

I was able to maintain good time to Iceberg Lake. Thank you for many miles of hiking before.
I was able to deal with completely new environment, height and exposure without any fear or hesitation on the Buttress because Rick reduced all burdens of climbing off from my shoulder physically and mentally. He climbed like a free-climbing climber. Many laps at indoor climbing gym helped me on the actual rock. All long and hard training paid off very well.

I got a mountain sickness from below the Notch to Portal on the way down MR. I usually use trekking poles all the time but not this time so my pace was slowed significantly on very poor trail condition. Rick stopped many times with keeping visual contacts with me and waited for me many times. He even carried my pack a half mile from Portal. Pictures didn't tell whole story about what I went through. I was soooooo tired. I sat down on the floor of Portal store with a can of soda in my hand listening to a big laugh and casual conversation between Doug Sr. and Rick.
I knew that Doug was enjoying it very much ( joking...).

We celebrated Doug Sr.'s birthday two days earlier with Doug's family and Betsy and Jack. Karen just finished Onion valley to Portal hike on Thursday joined us later. Betsy finished her East face in the rain last week. Jack finished his Lone Pine- Mt. Whitney - Lone Pine on Thursday. Senior citizen were very active like bears in the park last week.

Rick and I stayed at Hostel rather than driving home. Davey and Tracy welcomed us nicely. I loved the accommodation very much.
We made a very good choice.

We explored Alabama hills area in the morning before we had a nice breakfast at Alabama hill café.

Rick, thank you very much for this challenge.

Thank you Doug Sr. and his Mt. Whitney family.

Shin

P.S. My next project will be ridding Matterhorn in Disneyland in Anaheim.

Big CONGRATULATIONS Shin!!!!!
Never a doubt that you would accomplish this goal!!!

You deserved this one my friend!!!!!!!!

Stacy
ps get some ice on that knee!

Congratulations Rick and Shin!

Happy Birthday Doug!

Congratulations Rick and Shin!!! I loved your report, Shin thank you for sharing

... looking forward to hearing the details on the big 400!!

This is a great story. I love seeing people expanding their comfort zones and trying new new things. Learning multiple-pitch technical climbing is a big deal. Congrats Shin on a successful climb and hopefully many more in the future.

Rick, thanks for sharing your climbing skills and experience. Having a good coach is so important for opening the doors to a new activity - especially trad climbing. It sounds like you've successfully converted Shin. Looking forward to hearing about your future adventures.

Hopefully I'll run into you sometime. Do you ever make it down to Tahquitz?

Congratulations to you both. Amazing. It's always fun to watch you two work together.

Thanks all for the kind comments and encourage everyone to 'seize the day'
We'll have to put Shin on an 'all-Baldy diet' if he's going to hit the quad-century goal this year.
Yep, I’ve climbed at TahQ and Suicide Rock, but not as much as I'd like to.

Rick and Shin,

Amazing photos guys, what a great accomplishment. I have always found the months of training as enjoyable as summit day.

Shin, when is #400? I have never climbed Mt. Baldy but would love to join you and the gang.

OLD DUDES RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE SILENT HIKER

Congratulations Shin on another goal accomplished! Rick, good job getting Shin back to the big mountain in style.

Your smiles are contagious.

Hi Silent Hiker,
I am hoping to do my #400 next January or February as WPSMB group hike if Rick G. keep me alive till next year.

Hi Tracie,
I was just thinking about you and Talus on Register Ridge trail today.
Looking forward to seeing you both when the weather gets cooler.

Great report Rick and Shin, sounds like the training and teamwork really came together on your summit day. I loved your report as you explained not only how you summited but also how you prepared for the big day.
Shin, I guess your "Baldy #400" is going to be another big day, if invited I think most of the hiking community will want to join you. let us know.
Many thanks, Phil.

I met Shin in 2008 and the long standing joke is he is 2 months younger than my own Dad...So I call Shin my Step Dad...Nobody knows but maybe Patrick how proud I am of my Step Dad.....I called him 3x that day I was so worried about him. Not many people do Shi$ with Rick G and live to tell about it. I'm 40 and would not do the E Buttress in a one day affair! Great Job Papa Shin I can't wait for your 400th we'll celebrate it in So Cal Style!!!!

Yeti

That's pretty impressive, you two! And also rather inspiring.

Incidentally, I've done one outing with Rick ... and it was one of the most exhausting days I've ever had in the mountains.

Hi Shin, sorry about my late congratulations, but congratulations on a job well done. You have raised the bar once again for all of us as we get older! I remember seeing you last month up at Baldy and your pack weighed about 30lbs. See you next time and I'm looking forward for your 400!