Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Message Board Group Hike 09/15/07 (Saturday)

Good report, Bob based on what I heard from Paul this morning. I'm sure the Forest Service feels better knowing that the numbers were far more reasonable than what I posted. Now that he knows the way, I'll be up there with Paul sometime soon.

Ed

Thanks to all who joined in on the fun. Paul put together a 1st class event and Bob R. made sure it was fun and interesting every step of the way. Everybody helped out, shared stories and made it a fun day. Even the weather as perfect!

This was my first time up the North Fork. Talk about doing it in style! Thanks everybody!

Below are some "preliminary" photos. We are all going to send our photo's of this trip to 1 "board member", Chris, who is going to get all of the photo's in 1 place. (Thanks Chris)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/likelyhikes/sets/72157602034984550/detail/

Sounds like everyone had a blast & a safe, fun filled trip! Wish I could've joined everyone. Maybe next time.

Paul & Bob - Thanks for organizing and leading a great hike up Thor. I would also like to thank all my hiking companions as everyone made the trip that much more enjoyable. It was an awesome hike and I look forward to the next one.
Paul, the pizza always tastes so good after a Whitney trip, thank you for arranging that.
Take care everyone.
Dan (dierk)

great start of the pictures thanks, for us who could not make it.
maybe next time...mark

My photos:

http://toffa.smugmug.com/Whitney%20Portal%20Store%20Message%20Board%20-%20Group%20Hike

Once you get the smugmug page up click on 'thetoffa's photos'; hopefully other galleries will start filling as participants upload them.

Thanks Paul for putting this together and all the veterans, especially Bob R of course, who made this such a great day out by sharing their knowledge. Great people, great weather, great hike - what could be better? I hope it becomes a regular event.

Chris

Oh, and by the way -

Norma, I found it! What a marvellous site; just don't miss spell it like I did the first time, a slight variation on the name can produce some interesting results. Here's the right address (I think):

http://www.dirtygirlgaiters.com/

A great day all around. I had been on the ELs once a few weeks ago and was thrilled to get back on them to more solidly imprint the route. An extra early bonus was approaching the ELs entirely on the north side of NFLP Creek via the Elephant Ear shelf. The views from Thor were specatucular, we saw the Russel group signaling from the west summit of Russel. The descent down the SE Coulior with the 8 others was surprisingly clean, with everyone thoughtfully watching their step and waiting for others to get out of the rock-fall line.

I was impressed that, despite the variations in pace abilities, this was a group hike, with everyone staying together in groups. I was even more impressed with the communication that occured when the route options were discussed and folks went one way or another - there was excellent discussion about routes and meet-up strategies. What a good team of folks - it was nice to meet you all! It was such a treat to hike with Bob - thanx Bob for your leadership, route tips and stories.

Paul - thanx for arranging the hike and for the beer and pizza.

As an aside - I need to PM Doug and beg that he rescue my cooler (or just retrieve it and toss it) I left in one of the bear boxes, but am having a hard time finding a post by him so I can link to it... can anyone help?

Doug Sr.

MC

Thanx MC. PM sent.

I'm in for next year - thanks for all the great photos so far - looking forward to more.

I just uploaded my photos to Flickr: Board members on Thor

Board members: Please look at pictures 32 - 47. If it's not there already, I would like your message board handle with your picture. (And I would also like your first and last name for my notebook.) Actually I think I remember a few more, but left them blank because I'm not 100% sure. Just e-mail me at rockwellb at gmail dot com.

After I have figured out how to upload them to thetoffa's site, I will delete this post. But it may be a while, because I just got called for a lost person search in Yosemite. Leaving shortly.

First of all, I would like to say it was a pleasure meeting everyone on the group hike yesterday and a big thanks to Paul for organizing and to Bob for leading the hike. I only wished we could have made the entire hike with the group.

My wife, Corrine, is a rookie hiker (this was her third hike) and I promised her that I would not leave her and that we would/could turn back if we ever reached a point that she was unable to handle or felt uncomfortable. That point came at the beginning of the E-ledges with the 50 or so foot section with exposure. That part of the ledge was hard for her and she was afraid she would slip and fall. We hung out there for about 20 minutes talking about it and I tried to talk her through it. But yesterday was not the day, so we headed back down.

As we were coming down we met Ranger Dave and talked with him about the group hike and told him the group size was much smaller than the permit office was thinking based on the reservation count. He was relieved to hear that and asked me to pass on to Bob the group his apologies for possibly being short, terse, and otherwise frustrated with some folks when they picked up their permits for the hike. It just overwhelmed them when they thought there was going to be 64 people on the trail all at once. He went on to say that he knew we were all responsible hikers and thanked us for understanding their surprise and frustration. He is a really nice guy and we enjoyed chatting with him.

Corrine was a trooper and I am glad and proud that she was able to make it as far as she did. She showed some good skills and determination and she says she is willing to try it again so we will be back out there one of these days (Barley too!).

I had never been up the North Fork Trail before and having gone as far as we did it only served to whet my appetite to get back up there to explore new (to me) areas. I also have a permit for the main trail on Oct 11 so maybe I will see some of you up there again.

Thanks to everyone for showing up and let's do it again soon!

Adam

looks like it was a great hike yesterday. glad you were able to recieve my signal mirror flashes - looks like good timing. we were a little later getting down than planned so missed most of you at the pizza factory. great job of putting a trip together Paul.


Moosie pops the cork - and thus enjoys a champagne bath:

This was a great day. Thanks for all for a great climb, great attitudes, and great respect for the mountains.

I posted my pics at
http://4jeffrey.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=562

Sometimes in life, you are caught between what you would like to do and what you should do. Consequently, I missed sharing with all of you what would have been a great experience.

This was such a great idea.....I hope a group hike in the Whitney area will be on the table again....maybe next summer.

Thanks Paul for getting this together.

Ditto that. And what a previous post said about cross country, soccer games, etc. Had all of that to do on Saturday and could not make the hike. Sounded like a great time was had by all. Hope to join the next group hike. So much great hiking up there!

Out of familiarity and convenience, I've uploaded my pix to my Webshots account. I may try to get them onto the Smugmug page if time allows. Ranboze's pix

I was up on Thor Peak the day before you.

I was thinking about the group as we were heading up the East Ridge of Mt. Russell, but never did manage to see anyone, even thru a long lens.

It would have been a lot more fun talking with some of the group on Friday evening if I hadn't been operating on one hour of sleep.

My photos from Thor Peak are at:
http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/3491129

It sure looks like you all had a great time this past weekend! I guided a wonderful climb of the East Face of Whitney. It was great running into Rick, Richard, and crews on the MR while we were descending.

It was also fun having a burger with a bunch of the gang at the Whitney Portal Store on the deck in the warm sun on Sunday. Great times! Thanks everyone.

Well, I finally managed to get home via a trip to the White Mountains, and I've got to say that Saturdays hike up Thor Peak was awesome.

It was great meeting up with everyone, some I knew and others I only knew from their trip reports on the Board.

Thanks Bob and Paul for a memorable hike, also thanks to Jeff and Norma for guiding some of us down the Southeast coulier, that rounded off the hike perfectly. Hope to meet you guys again.

Cheers Phil
Pics here http://philbrown.smugmug.com/gallery/3493748#196907240