Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Happy Birthday, Michael T

Today is Michael Theobald's 50th birthday and he is celebrating by day-hiking Mt. Whitney, and hopefully Mt. Muir. He also said he'd be bringing up a bottle of champagne for the summit.

Happy Birthday, Michael. I hope your hike went well. Looking forward to a trip report when you return.

(My 50th birthday is not until tomorrow, but my day-hike won't be until Sept. 8)

Rob C - I returned on Friday afternoon after my successful one-day summit of Whitney on the 3rd to celebrate my 50th birthday. Two-thirds of my large group of 23 that joined me were also successful. A few turned back due to the affects of altitude, and a couple due to the cold. It was quite cold at Trail Crest at 6:30am.

After summiting, I opened up my bottle of Dom Perignon champagne that I lugged up with me, and shared it with all that wanted to partake in a sip or two. When I decided to leave the summit, I left the bottle at the entrance to the summit hut for all to enjoy. A friend of mine that summited a couple of hours later brought the empty bottle back down to me, where it will now become part of my "50th Birthday Party Bash Atop Mt Whitney" keepsake collection. I really did enjoy the experience that day, and everyone was friendly.

My only regret was that I was not able to summit Mt Muir also. Maybe because I was carrying the extra weight of the champagne, I just did not have the time nor the needed energy to do this side trip (though I did actually go up the first 30 feet of the rock chute towards the headwall of Muir). There were two guys that were well on their way up the chute when I was at the bottom, and I hope that they were successful on their attempt of Muir. I have decided to do it as a separate trip at a different time.

Happy 50th to you too Rob, and good luck on your September 8th hike of Whitney.

Michael T.

WOW !!!!!!!

Wouldn't something like champange almost explode as you pop it?

Whew boy, that cork must've skyrocketed!

Happy 50th!

It's interesting that you ask about the champagne and the cork. Many people in my group thought that I would lose 3/4ths of this expensive bottle when I popped the cork. Some even thought that the bottle would not even survive to the summit without exploding in my pack.

Not only did the bottle make it to the summit, but all I needed to do was to open the cork slowly, once the wire cage was removed. It did make a loud "pop", but all I lost was about 1/2" of champagne. There was plenty to go around for all.

This was about the best way for me to celebrate my 50th, and I do appreciate all the people that stopped by to wish me well, both on the summit and along the trail, it meant a lot to me. I will remember this experience for years to come.

Michael T.

Michael -- we were up there on the 3rd, but did not make it until a bit after noon. Sorry we missed the champagne! Happy Birthday anyway. Having been there, I know that 50 is the new 50! :-)

Thursday was my 32nd wedding anniversary. I got to call my wife from the summit and she made it to the Portal from Glendale before we got down. We ended up having dinner at one of the finest restaurants anywhere (the Portal Store, of course) -- at least it seemed that way to me after over a week on the trail.

Michael, I have a suggestion that may help for Muir. When I did Muir last year I made it my only objective for the day, and I told myself if and only if I felt good enough after Muir would I even consider climbing Whitney. Luckily I felt good enough to climb Whitney as well but for me both summits made for a 17.5 hour dayhike. My next must do summit for this year is Russell. In order to succeed I will do this one first and if I have enough gas left I'll include Carillon on the same day and Whitney on the next. Last year when I climbed Langley I also intended to do Cirque but I just didn't have the energy. Hope that helps.

Rafael...