Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board 3/11/07 Mt. Whitney Dayhike Update......

WARNING THIS IS A LONG ONE…….

So my friend and I day hiked Whitney September of last year. I got as high as Trail Crest before (nausea, vomiting, headache set in.) I quickly descended and waited by the trailside meadow for him to reach the top and come back down.

This past Sunday we gave another stab at it. We knew the winter time would throw in a few more variables than summer time had but we were ready. I started taking Diamox several days in advance hoping that was the key to me reaching the top this time.

We arrived at the Mt. Whitney Portal/ trailhead and were hiking by 1:45 a.m. The first mile it was mostly bare dirt on the trail. Once we passed the John Muir Wilderness sign it was pretty much all snow from then on. It wasn’t hard knowing where the trail was because we just followed the previously made tracks that others plowed for us.

We had a GPS with us, with 40 KEY waypoints plotted which we acquired from another posting in this forum which really helped us double check to ensure we were heading in the right direction.

The last running water that we saw was at Mirror Lake (4.3mi). You can’t miss the small stream because you walk right over it. We hardly did any postholing at all on our way up because it was so cold the top layer of snow was frozen pretty good.

Just past the trailside meadow I had to stop because I was feeling nauseous. I quickly threw up twice. My buddy urged me to keep going to trail camp where we would re-evaluate my condition. I said ok and we kept going even though inside I couldn’t believe this was happening again with me taking Diamox and all.

We arrived at Trail Camp at 6:45 just as the sun was starting to come up. We were surprised to see 3 tents next to each other and two guys were standing outside looking just as surprised to see us while they made coffee. We talked with them for a few minutes. I forgot their names but it was 3 guys all in one group and some French lady who was by herself. They said it was 20 degrees and I definitely believed them.

They said they had been camping at Trail Camp for 2 nights now and have been unsuccessful in their attempt to make the summit. They made it halfway up the switchbacks but when they came to the cable section they were postholing up to 2 feet and then the snow was giving away. They thought it was way to squirrelly and as I stated it (they choose life instead.) They were packing up that morning and heading back down.

We were low on water and went to the small lake/pond at trail camp and broke through the ice to pump some water. We pulled out or SMR (not so SWEET) Sweetwater filtration unit and started pumping. Nothing came out though, our pump had froze. We tried several things to warm up the hoses but nothing was happening. By now even our insulated Camelbak tubes that we were drinking out of froze and I had to tuck the whole tube inside my backpack to rewarm it.

I will be honest. I was somewhat relieved that we had to turn around without being able to pump any water because I still didn’t feel good and my toes and feet were starting to get very cold because we were sitting still. We went back and talked to the group one last time and told them the bad news and headed back down the mtn at 7:30 a.m.

During our descent we did some postholing as the sun was warming up the snow. It got warmer and we had to shed our layers several times. On several spots we glissaded down which was my first time trying that technique. We kept talking about all the What Ifs. What if I felt fine and we had water? Well we might have had to turn around at the cable section to………

We got back to the Trailhead/portal around 12:30. Even though I got shut down my 2nd time in a row we experienced new things and learned from our mistakes.

NOTES: -We did bring crampons, ice axe but never had to use them.
-the group at trail camp had used snow shoes they said, but we did fine w/o them.
-we started off with 3 liters of water but should have refilled them at Mirror Lake, we didn’t thinking we could pump from the lake at TC.

I have some pictures posted here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joegentry/

Feel free to ask any other questions about this trip.
Thanks. Joe

joe, tough break on the altitude sickness despite the diamox precautions. it's one thing to have trail conditions force you back, but probably another to have some questions in your mind about your body's ability to adjust to altitude. 3 years ago, my brother-in-law was loaded up on diamox and stormed up to trail camp for a overnight summit try but got really sick and went home. and that was after a night at the portal. the following year, he did the one day thing and made it to the top, without diamox. go figure. my take would be to forget the bat-out-of-hell approach and try spending a few advance days enjoying the mountain hoping your body can adjust. you can search the threads here for a lot of perspective, some successful, and try something that works for you.

you had some great photos on your link and thanks for posting. i've got my whitney shots on a lcd digital frame, which rotates like a screensaver, and i get pumped each and every day looking at the beautiful shots i've captured over the years. keep snapping away, and keep hiking. good luck to you in the future.

Joe: Those shots of sunrise are breathtaking! Looks like even though it was a tough day, you caught some gorgeous moments.

How are you acclimatizing? It sounds like you're just running up there and hitting it hard, instead of maybe spending the night+day at the Portal to get a bit more used to it. Since the lower trail is so clear right now, maybe a day hike up to LP Lake (hike high, sleep low) before going for it?

Again, great shots, and sorry you felt so lousy! It'll happen! Keep at it!

-L

Joe, do you have any other pictures looking up towards Trail Crest other than the one captioned "Heading down from trail camp?" I'd like to get a better perspective on the snow on the slope below.

Nice photos.

I havent heard anything about a missing woman. She didnt speak good english when we talked to her. Last we saw she had her crampons on, with ice axe in hand and was heading towerds the switchbacks. The 3 guys at trail camp said she was crazy becuase she didnt bring any water, she just ate snow...go figure we thought they were joking at first.

Richard, check my website agian with my photos. I just added some new ones. Hope thats what your looking for.

Awesome pics Joe.
I also really appreciated the Audie Murphy tombstone at Arlington Cemetary.Audie was an amazing hero. He was a good friend of my father.I doubt that many people under 40 know who he was.

Joe,

Diamox only REDUCES the risk of AMS, it does not ELIMINATE the risk.

And taking it a few days in advance does no good unless you are at SIGNIFICANT altitude elsewhere BEFORE attempting higher.

Trailside Meadow is where I turned around with my AMS-sick son on our first attempt there, despite Diamox. That was 13 years ago. Since then and many, many other trips, we have learned that he needs 3 days of "natural" acclimatization first, whereas his brother and I do not. Different strokes. Harvey