On Wednesday, Sept 3rd I set out with three other wonderful ladies for our first hike up to Mt. Whitney. For the last year and a half we’ve trained hard and enjoyed the camaraderie that comes with fulfilling a goal. Originally, our group included another woman who unfortunately lost her mother to cancer one week prior to our trip. For obvious reasons, she couldn’t join us. We arrived Saturday to start acclimating ourselves to the high elevation and stayed at Lone Pine Campground. We had a lovely hike up to Cottonwood Lake (#1), only to be blown this way and that once we reached the lake. It felt good to be at high elevation. We joked as we pulled into the Lone Pine Campground that the place looked deserted from the previous day, only to find that our entire campsite was turned upside down by the gusting winds. We lost one of our tents and my tent was barely hanging on by the one metal stake. All of our gear was scattered and there was no way we were going to be able to stay at the campground. Thank goodness for the hostel!! What a GREAT place. You can’t beat the price and the facilities are clean and well maintained. Staying at the hostel gave us plenty of opportunities to mingle with the folks coming off the JMT and other trails. Wow, that gave me inspiration for our group’s next outdoor adventure!
All of us gals were feeling really good about our impending hike up the WT. We packed, unpacked, and then repacked our bags several times. We loaded up on carbs and hydrated like camels. At 3:00 AM we started our hike. It was soooo peaceful and the temperature was absolutely perfect to hike in. We were giddy about our wag bags and had many of laughs at each other’s expense. Everything was going right. We were snapping pictures left and right and enjoying the sunrise with all of the other hikers on the trail. We even commented the hike was feeling pretty easy as we were making really good time on the trail. As we ascended up the 99 switchbacks, one of the ladies in our group suddenly developed nausea. A few people helped with Rolaids and Ib. Unfortunately, as she attempted to hike up further, she couldn’t control her barfing and was forced to head down the mountain with one of our other members. It was both fortunate and unfortunate as this woman also started to get sick and they both headed down the trail barfing. They say it was quite a messy scene.
That just left two of us to continue on. We were elated when we reached Trail Crest and savored the view. We cried a few tears, not believing we were actually there. Nat was told days before we left that due to a (non-life threatening) medical condition she wasn’t going to succeed by her doctor. We cursed him a lot and headed off for the summit after a little water and food. At this point, I started to develop a small headache. I knew this was the beginning of altitude sickness for me, so I told Nat I had only a small window of time to get up to the top. Well, the headache worsened rapidly as I climbed and we started to really slow down. Our water and electrolyte drinks were low and we suddenly had this epiphany that we weren’t going to summit. We perched ourselves on a rock along the trail and just hang dogged for the longest minute. Every hiker that walked by told us to keep going and that we weren’t far from the summit at all. A few hikers generously gave us their water and Gatorade so we could continue on. It looked like we were on our way again. We slowly made our way up and found so much encouragement from those coming down. It truly helped fuel us. We triumphantly made the summit at 1:50 PM! There were only four of us up there at the time. Thank you to the over night backpacker for taking our pictures. My headache was reaching a climax at this point and I was beginning to loose my ability to speak and think clearly. I knew to get off the mountain immediately, as I had been a park ranger at high elevation another life time ago. At the junction, I had this over whelming sense to sleep. Eventually, I found myself lying down, hugging a rock with my back facing the ledge. I couldn’t talk and I knew I was in trouble. I thought if I just slept for 5 minutes, I’d be okay. A ranger came down the trail and rallied me up and told me to get my butt down the switchbacks. He was right. Another hiker along the trail named Steve Y. also came to my aide. And here I would like to express my biggest gratitude (and I hope he’s reading this). Steve gave Nat and I ALL of his water, some electrolytes, and took my backpack down the switchbacks for me so I could get down faster. He’s truly a hero as he had helped another hiker going up the trail to the summit by giving him water (apparently, he wasn’t carrying ANY at all!!). Once I made it down the switchbacks, I was feeling almost my old self. Steve and his friends replenished our water supply and cheered us up at Trail Camp. I felt like they were like my big brothers looking out for me and Nat. The trip back down to the portal was uneventful aside from helping another gentleman who was hiking by himself and looked like he was suffering badly from dehydration. We gave him water and told him we’d try to keep him in our sights as we hiked. Because he was hiking so slowly, we couldn’t stay with him as we already knew we were overdue and our friends were probably worried. We reported him to the sheriff once we got down to the hostel. I hope he’s okay.
I’m sorry for the long read. It’s so hard just to sum up in a few words how much joy, disappointment and gratitude all of us in our group experienced on this trip. Thank you thank you to all that helped me and Nat attain our goal. Steve please email me…I need to talk with you (usandsenna@yahoo.com). And, hopefully, next year we might meet more of you on our SECOND trip up the WT!! Awhoooo.
Celeste
