One day some time ago, I hiked Whitney for the third time. The first two times were abusive, a 16-hour pummeling and two years later an equally punishing 14-hour trek. So in 2001 at 39 years old I had a new hiking partner. He was younger, ex military, 10th mountain division guy and he had never done Whitney before. We were hoping to break 12 hours, deep down I didn‘t think we could. So starting at about 5:00 a.m. we cranked up the to the summit in tank tops and shorts, passing scores of other hikers dressed properly for the windy 40 degree conditions on the mountain. At the summit he looks at his watch and says ‘ we can break 9 hours’. We rip down the mountain and come in at 8:48! We were stoked! We have since hiked it much faster but at the time we could not believe it. Were eating pizza in town at 3:00 in the afternoon and the place is deserted. We hung out in the spa at the Dow and a few hours later we were starving again so we shoot over to the pizza place and its packed with all the people we passed that day. They were pointing at us and some people started calling us the ‘Tee-Shirt Guys’! It was really cool!
We wake up the next morning about 6:00 a.m. Plans are to sit in the spa as the sun lights up the mountain. Eat a ridiculously massive breakfast, cruise around the shops with a fine cigar in hand and head back home to our wives and kids. As I get ready for the spa my friend is doing laps with the remote on the TV. The conversation went something like this,
“Hey.... something's on fire.”
“Yeah,..what?”
“I don’t know, looks like a grain silo or something.”
“So”
“Must be important, it’s on every channel”
The date was September 11, 2001. We were watching the very first long distance shots of the World Trade Center attacks. At this point we sat down and watched for a while with the impression that the first impact was an accident. Then we saw the second plane hit and along with the rest of the country we realized exactly what was happening. At this point we just wanted to get home to our families. We packed up, ate a quick breakfast and hit the road. We had trouble with radio reception down 395 but kept checking the radio to see if somebody was going to start lobbing nukes at us and if Southern California was still on the map(seriously). I remember reading this web site a few days later and the hikers that were on the mountain that day came into town with no idea of the days events. I hike Mount Whitney around the same date every year. So every year staying at the Dow is somewhat of a time of reflection and remembrance of that awful day .
Thinks for reading,
GRINDER
