Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mom's Memorial Climb - May 31, 2018

3 years, 6 months, 2 days...

It was sad.
My Mom would have turned 92.

The confidence is lacking.
I had doubts until I crossed under Keeler Needle.

It wasn't clean.
I used Diamox because of a few barff sessions at Horseshoe Meadow the previous weekend.

In the end, it was fun.
There is no beating the Atmosphere at the WPS!


So, here's my take on the conditions as they existed:

-Forget the Switchbacks...
There is still a big snowfield at the Cables.

-Crampons.
If you are not highly skilled on your feet (micros good enough), you should know how to use crampons. The bowl up to Trail Crest is icy in the morning. There are excellent boot tracks. With the wind and clouds, it never really got mushy for me. I walked down (crampons) faster than a group glissading.

-The West Side is mostly dry.
Again, if you're confident, no gear necessary. If not, have micros for the 5-6 snowfields you'll cross.

-Not much snow below Trail Camp.
There are the usual snowfields just below Trail Camp.



Here are some photos:






















Album link:
https://piotrowski.smugmug.com/Whats-New-1/Mom-s-Memorial-Climb---May-31--2/

Great trip report......hope to see more in the future.

I am happy that you are back on the mountain, and may there be more.

paul

Welcome Back Richard. My condolences on the loss of your Mom...Hope to meet up with you on the mountain soon!

Richard,

Your inspirational Trip Report and Conditions Update is appreciated. In your successful summit effort, the Love and Energy of Mom was far more powerful than any benefit of Diamox. Surely, some of her Love and Energy will remain forever at the Summit (14,508') to greet us, as well as above at "14,509."

Jim

Thanks for the comments.

I'll throw out some additional coincidental numbers...

04.22.18 is the day my Mom passed away...

Earth Day 2018...maybe she was trying to remind me that I used to be active on this day...

22 years after my father died...

05.22.18 was a Taco Tuesday. We live about 300 yards away and we used to walk over there when my Mom was still on her feet and mobile...

I went looking for my passport the other day (knowing I had let it expire) and guess what date it expired on? 22-April...

After years of no luck, I got an X9B tag in the CDFW lottery today...



The reason for the search for the passport: interested is doing another WPSMB trip down to Mexico this November...

Sorry to learn of your mother's passing, but can totally relate to doing a Whitney summit in her memory.

Your post reminded me of a few years back when I was browsing your albums. I remember thinking how cool it was that you took your Mom's boots along on the climb.

I was disappointed in myself for not thinking to use my Mom's walking stick/cane on my climb.



More of the bizarre numbers thing...

Cleaning things out of my Parent's garage, I open a box that had this calandar page sitting on top of a bunch of my notebooks/ journals from my college days. No notes, or anything else on it...

My Dad passed away of cancer on November 2, 1995.
Premonition that I'd only have a decade left?




I looked at the history of the date and the only thing that stuck out was the Grateful Dead playing in Virginia.

Instead of Mexico, I think I should go spend some time with the Monks in the mountains of Nepal/Tibet...

Desiree and I are going to Nepal doing the "three passes trek" in November..

sorry to hear about your mom

BTW Richard I tried to do the short cut to Langley today and to much snow in the chute needed crampons didn't have them I'll post some pictures Sunday.

mark

Good choice in psssing on the Madness of October in Nepal...
Be prepared for some cold temps though...
Yoe are going to enjoy this trek!

The trips up to the Portal had me saying (to myself) that the NE Couloir on Langley looked to be in good shape (still) with the snow coverage, so I'm not surprised that you encountered a lot.

Thanks for the condolences. It still hurts a lot.