Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board (Unsuccessful) Trip Report - 8/19

Your thought process is correct; higher temps raises the density altitude and decreases the partial pressure of oxygen. But this doesn't really effect how your body processes oxygen. Oxygen is diffused by alveoli from air in your lungs to your blood supply. But the temperature inside the lung is a constant 37C (more or less). So ambient temperature really doesn't change anything. Pressure altitude and density altitude are the same inside your lungs.

This link is a very detailed explanation of the process. It is written for aviators but applies equally to climbers.

Couldn't agree more that you made a smart decision to head down the mountain.

"Success may be found when you reach the top of the mountain but lucky is the one who finds adventure along the way." m.c.

I'd say you found adventure along the way...

I suppose I mis-represented by using the term "unsuccessful" in my post. It was merely meant to indicate that I didn't summit - which is what everyone wants to do, right? It by no means applied to my feelings about the experience of hiking up this mesmerizing mountain. I've told people the past few days that I'd do it all over again, fully cognizant of having AMS kick my butt out of nowhere.

Even though I've spent a respectable amount of time between 12K and 14K feet and never had the first symptom of AMS prior to this trip, I was prepared for the possibility, however remote. I learned a lot about myself on this hike - most importantly that I could keep my priorities in order (husband, father) when things didn't go my way. It took me several attempts to fight off summit fever and admit I had to turn around. Four or five times I stopped on the switchbacks to rest and told myself, "This isn't going to happen today - I've done my best - I'm turning around", only to find myself headed up instead of down when I started trekking again.

And honestly, I went into the hike with the expectation that I would (1) enjoy and appreciate the experience, and (2) summit if possible. I had no ultra-competitive goal of summit-or-bust, not by any means. The problem is, when you have the needles in sight on the switchbacks, it looks so attainable - "Hey, it's right there - keep going - just three more miles". Summit Fever is a real disease!

If I had turned back when it became apparent that I was having AMS issues other than just a mild headache - about Trail Camp - getting down would have been a lot easier. As mentioned several times on this thread, the mountain will be there tomorrow, and next week, and next year and so on. I'll be back to hike it again some day, only a little wiser I suspect.

Your experience sounds a lot like my hike of Dragon Peak last Sept. (WPSMB group hike). I never get AMS but definitely felt symptoms on Dragon (no headache or nausea but very sluggish). It was extremely hard for me not to continue on with the group as I could see the summit and I have tendencies of "summit fever". But I didn't want to hold up the group so I stayed at Dead Mouse Lake with two cool chicks (Moose and Blooty). Had a phenomenal time. You'll probably know what I mean when I say, just stepping foot on a mountain is a great day...

M.C., Amen to that! Beaches are nice, lakes are pretty, but give me a mountain any day. There's a reason most of our national parks are mountainous. Living in WA, you have the most majestic of them all right in your backyard. Some of my best hikes have been on the Rainier trails. Or the North Cascades. Or Hurricane Ridge . . .

I, too, tend to have "summit fever" or, as my husband calls it "goal oriented." Give me a finish line and I'll crawl over it with sheer force of will - something my father called character and my husband's boss calls mental toughness. That is why on the Whitney hike my husband insists on being "the voice of reason". He has the ultimate authority to call off the hike if he feels we have hit the safety limit. Since he is much bigger than I am, I really don't have any choice in the matter Sometimes mental toughness is really stupidity wearing a tux!

Seriously, at times trekking parties need a person with a level head who has the ability to distance themselves from emotionally charged situations/persons in order to come to a common sense decision that the rest of the group might not be able to make at that particular moment in time. The group must preagree to give that person the authority to abort for the safety of the group, be it two people or ten people. In my group of two, it's my husband David and I've agree to follow him anywhere, be it up or down that mountain. He is the safest person I've ever known.

Cecelia

Cecelia, that's the biggest danger (other than injury) in hiking this mountain solo - if your judgment becomes clouded, there's no one by your side to say, "Enough, dude - we're past our pre-established limit." I generally think of myself as a very reasoned, cautious hiker, but I definitely went past that "redline" point where I would have turned around on any other trek. I like your husband already . . .

My next trip to MW hopefully will be as a part of group. It just didn't work out that way this time.

Best of luck on your next attempt - please post a report!

Disappointment Cleaver Route to Camp Muir on Rainier is my favorite training hike... so beautiful! I have an affinity for the eastern cascades and have my sights set on the Enchantments. The photos I've seen remind me of the eastern Sierra...

Bulldog,

As a fellow flatlander I was really pulling for you. It sure seems like your training regime was ideal for a summit attempt. The "textbook" approach to acclimitization is above 10,000' to only go up 1000' a day, with a rest day every 3rd day. This is almost exactly how you describe your pre-summit days. For AMS to kick in at 12,500' defies this logic.

I suspect (opinion only) what happened is a combination of factors which all added up to AMS affecting you. Maybe it was a little bit of disrupted sleep pattern, change of diet, fatigue, anxiety, gear malfunction(?), etc, which independently would not have mattered but created a problem as you climbed.

My pre-summit profile was similar to yours with the exception that I spent quite a bit of time sleeping in the 10-12,000' range. It is impossible to know if this really makes a difference, but it was my approach. I also took diamox.

On your next attempt you may want to consider camping at Outpost/Trail Camp. This will have the burden of carrying camping gear but overall the fatigue factor should be reduced. Also, think outside the box a little bit ... you might consider spending more than one night camping on the trail. Lots of info on this board about diamox, wouldn't hurt to review its advantages.

The uninformed will focus on not making the summit but as you already stated, it was a positive experience. You set a personal high, learned a lot, showed good decision making, and most importantly had fun.


I have no doubt you will post your photo on the summit. Thanks for sharing your experience.

LonePalm, thanks for the support. Lack of sleep may have contributed to it - I had maybe 4 hours of real sleep the night before. How the hell do you fall asleep the night prior to Whitney, especially given a 2:00 wake-up? It's like being a kid on Christmas Eve!

I can assure you that there will not be another dayhike. My next attempt will certainly involve a night at Trail Camp. I had orginially planned to do that this time around, but since I was solo I really didn't want to haul my backpacking gear across the country and up the mountain. Lesson learned. A 7-mile heavy load to Trail Camp doesn't look bad at all now in retrospect!

Although I hiked high during my 4 acclimatization days prior - 11K and 12K feet - I slept at 3700 in Lone Pine. Next time I'll bring my backpacking gear and camp in the Cottonwood Area. Like I said, lessons learned.

What we need - those of us east of the Mississippi - is a nice high mountain range that's easily accessible. I've always thought that if it were possible to pick up the Inyo Mountains - which are virtually ignored in California - and drop them somewhere on the east coast, they would be the most visited mountains in the country.

Thanks again!

Hi, Bulldog. I faced a similar issue with the altitude last year. I did a lot of the same things you did. However, I did two things differently, and had no problems with the altitude. I slept two nights at the Portal before my ascent, and I stopped at Trail Camp for one night. Based on my experience and what others have already said, this may make the difference for you. Good luck next time around, we are all pulling for you.

Maybe because that's one of the scariest roads in the Sierra.

I hate that road.

Ditto on the road. I actually had to get out of the car to move some boulders in order to pass. After that, I stayed at the Portal and did day hikes from there.

I have been climbing and hiking the Sierra all my 43 years and up until 5 years ago I never had issues with AMS. 5 Years ago I started getting headaches more frequently and more intensely while climbing the East face routes. I again felt the same while skiing at Mammoth and camping with my family in the Whites near 10k feet. Last year I started on low dose Diamox when going to altitude. I did a 6 day 50 mile trip that was mostly above 11-12k feet and never once experienced any signs of AMS. After 5 years of being miserable any time I went to altitude it was a welcome relief to be able to enjoy the mountains again.

I would recommend looking in to low dose Diamox for your next trip. It was a life saver for me.

Funny you say that, in the last several years my interest has turned from the Sierra to the Inyo and White Mountain ranges. While not as dramatic as the Sierra the Inyo/Whites are just as interesting and much more accessible than the Sierras. I love the high desert feel and the stark nature of the desert ranges. There are many surprises up there waiting to be found for those willing to explore.

Hey, youze guyz that hate the Horseshoe Meadow Road - it ain't that bad, folks. Yeah, there's a lot of exposure in places, and the occassional rockfall, but I like scary roads. In fact I'll go far out of my way to drive a good, terrifying road.

I went up and down Horseshoe Meadow road 3 consecutive days and loved it. Really scary drives? Coupl'a recommendations for you:

Mt. Evans in Colorado, just outside Denver - scary going up, absolutely terrifying going down due to the outside lane exposure. Colorado doesn't believe in guardrails as a general principal, but the outside lane of Mt. Evans has no shoulder on the exposures - and quite oftem crumbling pavement.

Also, Hell's Backbone in Utah. It's a USFS road up a mountain, across a long ridge and down another mountain. Think of the Windows on MMWT - very similar. Single lane wide enough for one car, dirt/gravel, with 1500-3000 foot drops on both sides. Utah don't need no stinkin' shoulders or guardrails either. I went 200 miles out of my way specifically to drive this road, and rented a 4WD Explorer at SLC for this one 44 mile stretch of our vacation that year.

To each his own, although I get the idea. My wife feels the same way, but puts up with my twisted eccentricity on this. I enjoyed the Horseshoe Meadow Road, and I really liked the campgrounds up there as well. Definitely where I'll acclimate overnight the next time I try MMWT!

Oh those poor Inyos! If they were just about anywhere else other than in the shadow of the eastern Sierra, they'd be the crown jewels of the state (except CO and AK, of course). It's the old adage - location, location, location . . .

And low dose Diamox may be my trial response to having AMS for the first time at 51 YO. God knows the Ginko Biloba and Cytomax didn't appear to help in this department.

Diamox will make caronated beverages taste weird. So it will absolutely destroy the victory beer at the end. I took large doses of aspirin over a few days before the trip instead. I don't know if aspirin really helps or not, but it didn't hurt.

Just a note on my experience with diamox, I had no adverse taste with carbonated drinks when using diamox. Not that how a beer or coke tastes should stop you from using it.