Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Hiking at Night

Many of the Whitney newcomers will be hiking at night for the first time when they hit the trail at Whitney Portal. I'd like to offer a bit of you a bit of advice.

1. Do a practice hike on a trail you know before coming to Mt. Whitney. This will give you an idea of what to expect.

2. Utilize a powerful headlamp. The first generation LED and the ultralight units do not put enough contrast on trail making very easy to kick many of the rocks that protrude on what seems like a smooth trail.

3. Plan to be eating a burger and fries at the Portal Store before the PM darkness. It is more difficult descending in the dark than ascending. It will take you 10 to 15% longer to descend than it normally does and it takes a lot of mental concentration...looking for those rocks that are trying to trip you.

4. Use brand spanking new batteries with whatever light you use. Even though your light is rated at 100 hours, it will not give you peak output after just a handful of hours.

5. If it is still dark when you are hiking above Mirror Lake take your time. It is very easy to walk off the trail in this area. Also, you want to be at Mirror Lake or lower before PM darkness.

Have a safe trip.

Thanks for the useful tips. My friends and I (all first-timers) are going to be hiking in the night next week. We plan on doing a practice run the previous day till lone pine lake.

We are planning on refilling water on the way and were worried that we may not find the water source in the dark. We are planning to fill up at trail side meadows as we read that this is the best source of water closer to trail camp. Can you advice on how we can locate the water source at trailside meadows in the dark?

Any other tips on finding the water sources in the dark?

Thanks

Folks,
Can someone please help us out here. I am worried about this aspect of the hike. Please point me to the post if this has already been discussed.
Thanks

THe creek runs beside the trail at trailside meadow.Should be easy to find in the dark,also the trail crosses the creek right after.

You will cross the streams several times on the way up to Lone Pine Lake. Then you will cross the stream again at Outpost Camp.
Then there is Trailside Meadows.

I attempted an all night hike of Whitney last year - we got close to the summit but turned around due to my hiking partner's knee problems. I found that I did not drink as much water when I hiked at night. I have read elsewhere that is one advantage to hiking at night.

Have you looked at Bob R's article on water along the Whitney Trail? I think you will find it in the "Orientation notes for Whitney first timers". Bob's article has detailed information where to find water - it will be very helpful at night.

When I did my all night hike, I was essentially a novice hiker. I had successfully hiked Whitney in 1990 but had not done much hiking since then. My partner had never hiked Whitney. We did fine. It did help that we did had a GPS system.


Good luck on your night hike!

Having hiked Whitney 4 times with midnight starts, I will second wbtravis' suggestions. There is a place above Mirror Lake where the trail takes an abrupt left turn. It's easy to miss because it is outside the beam of a headlamp. If you come to an edge, just back up a few steps and look for the trail turning left. You want to hike in the dark going up, not coming down when you are tired. Leave early enough to be down before dark. Your dayhike permit allows a midnight start and you won't get much sleep from the anticipation anyway. Water is easy to find in the dark because the trail parallels the creek closely in many spots. We like to refill just past Outpost Camp where there is a big flat rock to the right of the trail. It's a nice place to rest and the creek flows next to the rock. You shouldn't need to refill again until Trail Camp. Good luck!

One of the questions asked constantly here and can be answered by just looking at a map is where is the water and in this case will I walk by the water in the dark. You are more likely to walk in it than walk past it.

Water is all over the place. You will cross water at least 8 times before Trailside Meadow. Even if it is pitch dark you will hear the water there.

No one should ever have to worry about water on the MMWT...unless you decide it is your best interest to carry 8 to 10 quarts of Crytstal Geyser with your from the trailhead then you have to worry about a hernia.

I would get a nice head lamp. Don't skimp on this item. When I went there were two women ahead of my group. One had a nice lamp, the other bought a budget one. The beam from the cheap lamp was so bad, she had to walk next to her friend to see the trail. Not good.

I would also suggest bringing a small quality flashlight if you are hiking alone. If your headlamp fails, you are screwd! They make nice light LED flash lites for around $20. Extra batts too.

What he said...in addition to my main light I carry a Petzl E-lite for just in case. This light can be had for about $25 and is 1 oz.