Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Solo Hiker Trip Report 9/4 - 9/6 - and a question

The Triumph: I made it!!!

The Beauty: With all the discussions about gear, campsites, acclimatization and training, I completely and utterly underestimated the sheer beauty of the trail. This weekend, the journey was indeed as much the highlight as the summit.

The Preparation: I am a female, certainly not a novice to outdoor adventure, with a dream to summit Mt. Whitney. Without friends/family who share this passion, I decided to go solo. I trained by hiking above 10,000ft almost weekly as soon as the snow melted off those Southern California mountains. I splurged on a lightweight one-person tent. I gathered up my winter gear, because I know I would be miserable below 45 degrees. The first aid kit was updated and the bear canister held an abundance of food.

The Trip: I arrived at the Portal allowing two days of acclimatization and spent some time at Horseshoe Meadow. Friday, I hit the Mt. Whitney Trail at 9:30am with a goal of settling at Trail Camp for the night. It is with great embarrassment that I share this: but my pack weighed in at 46 lbs (mostly water and tons of food, plus that heavy winter gear). With the heavy pack, the persistent rain and rapidly dropping temperature I decided to stop at Outpost Camp instead. At 6:20am the next morning I headed for the summit. I paced myself, drank electrolyte fortified water continuously, and snacked every two miles. At 12:06pm I arrived at the summit in surprisingly good shape. Here is where things turned sour: Against all better judgment I had a huge, fatty lunch. About a third of the mile into the descent my stomach protested. I became weak and nauseous and sure enough threw up everything. Unfortunately it didn’t get better – from then on I was unable to keep anything down. So the journey continued with “twenty steps to the next rock for a rest, one sip of water in the hope it will stay down, twenty steps to the next rock…etc” all the while still becoming sick every quarter of a mile or so. It took 2.5 hours just to make it back to Trail Crest. With a more rapid drop in altitude I felt somewhat better but still could not keep anything down. I became weaker by the minute. At Trail Camp I seriously considered wrapping myself in my emergency blanket, resting until I felt better, was able to keep some food down, and then descending the final miles in the dark. Somehow I kept going at snails-pace, all the while wondering about the effects of serious dehydration (“Shouldn’t I be on an IV? Will I have a seizure? Am I just going to pass out on this mountain?”). That’s when a Ranger came up the trail. I shared my blight and he was quite reassuring that I would indeed be ok, that I was doing all the right things, but that he would be willing to walk with me to Outpost Camp. Despite this misery, the stubborn independent spirit in me prevailed: No way was I going to inconvenience anybody! I got myself into this wilderness, and surely was going to get myself out of it. In the end another hiker came along looking for a companion for that final stretch to Outpost Camp. So at a crawl, with lots of breaks and good conversation we finally made it into camp at around 7:15pm. Whew!!!

Thank Yous: First off I want to give an extra big thank you to the friendly, competent and considerate ranger. Your reassurance and encouragement meant a ton and kept me going for that last stretch. Thanks to Dan for the company and lively conversation during those final miles. Thanks to Aaron for providing the fodder for so many entertaining hiking stories. Thanks to Jeremy for the company at dinner. Thanks to the crowd of guys who cheered (yoddled?) when we finally made it back to camp. Thanks to the hikers led by the “guy in the orange pack” who stopped to offer water and such when I was at my worst. Thanks to Whitney Portal Store crew for making a mean burger that restored me to full strength the day after.

Words of Caution: Well there you have it – hiking with a buddy does make a difference. Having someone to talk to about this experience, someone to provide another perspective, maybe filter some water, take my mind of the misery by engaging me in conversation would have made a huge difference.

Final Question: So - it’s no secret that one shouldn’t hike alone. But what’s a girl (or guy) to do when the outdoors are your passion, yet you find yourself surrounded by people whose idea of roughin’ it is a weekend of car-camping? Not ever pursue those goals? Go alone? Hike with strangers you meet on the internet? The experience I had this weekend made me revisit this question. I wonder if other hikers, particularly solo hikers have any thoughts or input.

Find others of us in the same boat! I made friends in a local running club. Thanks to them I had a companion this past weekend. Otherwise I would have been like you - up the trail alone!

But I think that you provide a good lesson for others though. Even though your pack weighed in a little on the heavy side, your being ready for anything allowed you to make the summit and get back down *safely*. Yeah - maybe a little uncomfortable, but safe none the less.

By the way - summit at Noon? I probably saw you up there - that's about time I was leaving!



Congratulations on a great accomplishment - getting up *and* back down that is....

love2climb: To find companions, you have to talk to people at work and at the trailhead to make contacts with like-minded people. Try doing some hikes with the local Sierra Club groups; they have organized hikes of varying degrees of difficulty planned and posted weeks to months in advance and you don't have to be a club member to participate and you'll meet others who share a love of the outdoors. Google for local hiking clubs. And, finally, while solo hiking isn't generally recommended, people do it all the time, either because they prefer their own company, they have a shortage of hiking partners (like you), or they go on the spur of the moment. There is risk involved, which you minimize by not pushing your limits while solo. As you gain experience, you know what you can and can't get away with. John Muir mostly explored the western US alone for years with minimal gear --- and, yes, he did have some close shaves.

I agree that nowadays, there are many resources to find excellent partners.
You don't say where in SoCal you are, but many local options.

Sierra Club is one, and a particularly good way to really bond with a group of them, is to take their WTC course (LA/OC), equivalent courses in San Diego, Ventura County.
This is the place that really jumpstarted Laura (Moosetracks) in her adventures.

Outdoorsclub.org is a group that I've led 300-some trips, and attended more than that. I've met some of my best friends through that.

SCMG, CMC, CMG....quite a few other options. To to some of the talks and clinics at Adventure 16.

Take one of Kurt Wedburg's Avalanche Courses, you'll meet a bunch of great people.

Do some tail maintenance with local groups, or High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew (www.trailcrew.org), or Friends of the Inyo (http://www.friendsoftheinyo.org/foi/)

However, I'd say I've done most of my stuff solo. I wouldn't let it stop me.

g'luck!

[quote] So - it’s no secret that one shouldn’t hike alone. /quote]

First, congratulations on your successful trip despite your problems!

I would say that it's no secret that if one is going to hike alone s/he should be aware of and willing to accept the added risks. People have different tolerances for risk and what's OK for one person may be unacceptable for someone else.

If you're going to hike alone you need to do your research - everything that might be distributed among the smarts of a group of hikers needs to be in your own head. There's an amazing amount of good information about nutrition, hydration, lightweight gear, in fact, pretty much everything you need to know about mountain hiking in the US, on this BB.

I usually hike alone. In part that's because of a lack of a compatible partner when I want to hike. In part it's because I value my solitude in the mountains. (OK, so that's not a factor on Whitney MT.) I have enjoyed wonderful close-up encounters with bighorn sheep and bear in the San Gabriels and San Bernardino Mtns that I probably would have missed if I was talking to someone else. I will not hike with a group for whom hiking is a social activity. I can hear Sierra Clubbers from a long way off when they're in the same area I'm in.

So, don't hike alone unless you're comfortable doing it. But if you are, enjoy it, be careful, and don't let the people who absolutize safety at the expense of self-discovery discourage you.

Burt

I recently completed an 8 day solo trip from Onion Valley to Cotton Wood lakes. I was never solo at night and met a lot of great people on the trail. I encountered at least 4 women whom were hiking the entire JMT trail (21 days). One was from Japan and just came over for this hike. I think they all enjoyed hiking alone during the day, but camping with others during the night. This is also what I ended up prefering.

This message board is a great resource also for finding partners. Just post your interest and see if someone responds.

Hopfully you have learned more about what you need and don't need for a two night hike. It took me a couple of trips, but you should be able to get the pack to 35 pounds or less pretty easily. Know your water sources. On the Whitney trail and many others there is no need to cary litres of water till beyond trail camp. This was also the case on my 8 day trip. I rarely carried more than 1 liter of water, except the day I summited Whitney and the day I summited Langley. Hope you find great hiking partners

Congratulations!

I agree with what the previous posts have recommended. There are many people out there with the same "problem." I was in a similar situation. I did not have enough friends that could join me on the weekends. Taking the Widlerness Travel Course theough the Sierra Club is a great suggestion even if you are comfortable in the backcountry.

What I found helpful was to talk about my weekend adventures when anyone would ask "how was your weekend" or "have a good weekend", not knowing I would actually answer. I was surprised how many of my clients, acquaintances and even strangers share a love of the outdoors. I now have three more rock climbing friends because I met one of them on a scuba day trip to Catalina.

When I can't find anyone to join me, I still go, but I take shorter trips and take more precautions.

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. They were very validating and informative. I surely will explore all the various outdoor clubs. Thanks Ken for the link about volunteer opportunities with the NF (on another thread). I'm sure all these will lead me towards likeminded people.

Lastly, thanks to those who validated some of the joys of hiking solo. Like many of you, I would have never experienced certain things if I had been with a group. There are trips where I'm comfortable alone, and others that I would not attempt without a buddy.

What an experience. So much more psychological than physical. Awesome!

Outstanding trip report, love2climb, and congratulations on a successful summit despite the problems you encountered on your way down. I empathize with your difficulty in finding hiking partners for a climb such as Whitney. I had the same problem, only magnified by about 2500 miles. Didn't keep me from trying it though!

My wife and 9 year-old daughter hike regularly with me, but each year I spend a week solo somewhere between the Sierras and Rockies, and this year my go-it-alone adventure was the Eastern Sierra and ultimately Whitney. I thoroughly enjoy these solo wanderings, but after getting hammered with AMS on the MMWT switchbacks above the cables I found myself wishing for a partner on the way down. It took me 5 hours to descend back to the Portal, being cautious with almost every step placement, but it seemed like forever. That was about 3 weeks ago and reading your trip report was deja vu in so many ways for me. Glad to hear you successfully negotiated it without serious incident, and that so many were willing to offer assistance along the way. Without a doubt, there is no shortage of jerks on any trail, but I tend to believe that most of us who wander in the wilderness share a unique bond and are sincerely willing to offer assistance when it's evidently needed.

Having monitored this board for about 18 months prior to my trip, the thing that jumps out at me - in retrospect - is that so much effort by first-timers (like me) is concentrated on obtaining advice about the hike UP and getting to the summit. That "top is only halfway" sign at the trailhead is the best advice possible. The trip down can be grueling, and much more dangerous than the trip up. Almost every dramatic Whitney story I've read on this board is about the descent.

I'll continue to ramble solo in many places in the future - it's just so satisfying in so many ways - but my next trip up Whitney will almost certainly be with a partner. This mountain is no leisurely weekend jaunt (except for Richarp P., that is - 10 weekends in a row?!? Jeez!).

Congratulations L2C!

I decided to end the streak at 10 due to the fact that I noticed that the trips were becoming mechanical and I wasn't appreciating the beauty of the area. I'll be back shortly though!

I'm one of those who goes out solo a lot. You just need to have a really thorough understanding of what your limitations are and have solid plans in place if you miss a return date/time. One thing that I would mention is that as I've gotten older (and wiser, maybe?), is that I prefer to climb with others.

I would like to offer my congratulations as well. You showed tremendous toughness. I can't imagine even trying to lug 46 lbs up to Trail Camp.

I also had a problem finding a partner after my 26 yr old son decided he rather spend two weeks with his girl friend in Spain instead of a week of hard hiking in the Sierra's with his old man. So I found a partner for an August 19th trip through a post on this board.

After watching this board for the last few months and meeting the people on the trail on my trip, I wouldn't have any hesitation on making a blind date through this board. The vast majority of the people are really friendly and helpful.

Congratulations and may your next trip be everything you want it to be.

A lot of good advise. I would add that the hiking fitness/speed is very important for finding and keeping hiking partner. When I started, I was not so fit, hike slow, and easy to find partner. But, as I aim for bigger hike, and training hard, you quickly start to out grow your existing partner. So, the partnership may be more dynamic than static. When you feel the urge to be on the summit, and no one could go with you, well solo hiking is just as good.

That's a matter of opinion. Hiking alone can often be far more gratifying than hiking with people.

I don't see any special danger in hiking solo in California as long as you stay on an established trail. Someone will always be along soon, especially on weekends.

And in any case, I don't think I do anything in the backcountry that is half as dangerous as the drive to the trailhead.

ThinAir: You made a very important point. One of the main, if not the main, difficulty I experience with finding/keeping a hiking partner is compatibility. Not just in terms of fitness and speed, although that plays a huge role, but also in terms of hiking philosophy. I'm definitely a "stop and smell the wildflowers" kind of hiker and would want to share these experiences with the hiking buddy.

Everyone is offering tremendously helpful suggestions. I guess for now the gameplan is to participate in some the activities with the various outdoor clubs mentioned. If all else fails and a trail calls (JMT has been in the back of my mind) then a well planned solo hike, a lighter pack, and the knowledge that there may be someone to share camp with at night seem a very doable alternative.

love2climb, a couple more recommendations for places to look for climbing partners:

Primarily West Coast but also some climbers elsewhere, climber.org. I've met several climbers through their trip reports and announcements and made it up to the top of my mountain with a trio of other climbers who learned about my several attempts there. Funny thing...I was coming down from an unsuccessful attempt on Borah Peak last month and ran into Steve Eckert, who is one of the founders of climber.org. We had e-conversed many times over the years but our paths had never crossed. Whodathunkit? Wandering about the wilds of Idaho and you run into somebody you know! (Steve twigged to who I was when I mentioned having to fly from Salt Lake "back" to St. Louis the next morning...said he didn't know any other climbers from MO!)

If you're interested in climbs outside of CA and literally around the country, check out the Highpointers Club. This group of like-minded folks aspires to hit the geographic highpoints of all 50 states. Some (Florida, for instance) are less than challenging other than being fairly obscure to drive to, but others (AK, WA, WY, MT are among the hardest) are serious climbs and/or long backpacks. You can also check out the Highpointers Club bulletin board for trip reports, commentary and occasional announcements of upcoming trips to the harder or more remote highpoints.

As far as solo trips go, I'm in that boat now, too. My son and long-time climbing buddy (I started him backpacking when he was about 5 years old) is off on his junior year abroad in Germany and once he graduates from college in 2011, I doubt he'll have time to go hiking and climbing with poor ol' dad. Ah, but we've had many a good trip together, so I'm not really complaining, but I'll miss having my built-in pack horse now that he's 6" taller than I am.

Doing well-traveled trails and peaks solo doesn't worry me, but I try not to do trips that will be too far into the back country without knowing that there will be others around if I am solo. Likewise, I'll be a good bit more cautious on 3rd-class climbs if I'm solo...that's a big reason why I turned around on Borah last month...got to a move that I was "iffy" about with lots of exposure and nobody to go tell the recovery crew where the body was if I did fall off (and down more than a thousand feet, so the exposure was real). It's not going to stop me from going back and figuring out where I got off-route and into that dicey bit of climbing, but it pays to have the sense to back off when it's prudent. (Discretion being the better part of valour, as they say...)

Love2Climb - congratulations on your summit, sounds like you did all the right things...

As for hiking solo, my predicament as well. I hike solo for various reasons, the least of which is that not to hike is not an option for me. I would love to find more hiking compadres who are at my fitness level - which is to say that they are comfortable hiking at least 12 miles w/backpack if necessary a day. Not a race, just a steady pace.

Blooty - was that you SOLO on the NFBP trail at 10am on Sunday? did you do 12 miles?