Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board A Mt. Whitney story

For those of us who have followed the board for a long time, Bob R. someone we respect and listen to. He earned our trust by showing the way and being helpful.

Bob, Thanks for sharing your story. You are always an inspiration.

Wonderful story, Bob!!! Incidently, when you and your highschool chums were first there in 52' were you priveleged to have experienced the entire Whoopee Road? When I was there in 58' only a portion was left. (but it was amazing what a 52' club coupe Chevy can do on that kind of a road!!!!)

Bob - another great story. Have you ever seriously considered writing a book about your Sierra experiences? I'm sure everyone on this board would run out and buy a copy. I hope that one day when I'm out there I'll get a chance to meet you and hear some of those stories first hand.

Bob,
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful Mt. Whitney Story. I know you originally posted it on September 3 and I was waiting for a time when I could devote all my attention to the treasure buried in the Whitney Board. The wisdom, knowledge and fun and interesting stories you share are invaluable. Thank you again. I look forward to meeting you in the future.
Sincerely,
Sheila Fehrenbach

Bob......I overstayed my lunch break today to finish reading this amazing story about your first Mt. Whitney summit experience. The ascent story was a good one in itself, but the tangential spin of the bomb blast and the subsequent research you put into finding out whether what you witnessed was a 'dream' or reality was fascinating. It reflects your perpetually curious, research scientist mentality that inspires you to pause and really think about the grand scheme of things. I enjoy your posts on this site enormously, and we have personally been the recipient of your time & generosity when preparing for our second summit hike a couple of years ago you met us at the Dow Villa and shared with us a "tip and shortcut" sheet encased in protective plastic that we still have stashed in our backpack for reference on all future summit adventures. And you talked to us about the water, where to find the delicious mountain water, the best streams....and we did. It wasn't until much later when I started reading this message board at regular intervals and found your frequent posts that offered motivation, inspiration, problem solving and understanding that I realized what an amazing mountain adventurer you were. And you have shown such generosity of spirit to share your wealth of knowledge, expertise & inspiration with us.
I, for one, thank you for taking time to help so many of us, and giving us a chance to experience some of your marvelous life experiences through your eyes. Keep hiking, keep studying, keep helping all of us reach a little higher.
Your personal ER nurse from the Central Valley

Bob, just wanted to put my 2 cents in. That was a
GREAT story. I loved it. Thanks for sharing.

JJBB

Bob,
Thanks so much for the story. I am currently stationed overseas in the desert and miss the mountains. It really is enjoyable to be able to read others adventures until I can get back and make my own.

I ran across your story again while doing a search on the Internet. As I was re-reading it, I found it fascinating to see the similarities in time to the one-day ascent that Rick Kent and I did recently (14 hours up, 7 hours down, more or less). Fortunately, we didn't have to bivouac on the summit.

Your story is still a great read.

Yes indeed! I too loved your story from the moment I first read it and had to share it with others. Truly a classic and an amazing beginning to such an adventure packed life. Since I first started reading your posts I was inspired and yearned for more. Meeting you for the first time on Wild Rose peak (by coincidence) and hearing your story about climbing high peaks in the former USSR during the height of the cold war was definitely a rewarding experience for me. I long to hear more.

-Rick

Awesome! I found it! I remembered reading this story and seeing the pics Bob when I first researched about going up Whitney. I can't seem to remember where the pictures host page is at and it's bumming me out.

WHERE'S HUELL HOWSER? In paraphrasing wbtravis' remark: I wasn't a twinkle in my daddy's eye when you were up there to witness world history, American history, Cold War history, atomic history. An amazing story. I hope to meet you some day, Mr. Rockwell!

I was lucky enough to climb with Bob on his 50 year reunion trip. Make no mistakes, Bob R. is a big stud and could still run circles around almost anyone on this board. Read everything he says twice. If you're new, read it three times. Congrats BOB!

I read it twice and something doesn't make sense. If you were planning on seeing the atomic blast and climbing Whitney in a day, you climbed 1 day early and just happened to see the blast the next day after an unexpected summit bivy.

@i2d & roc,

Thanks for boosting this back up near the top of the board, where I could see it while taking a lunch break from doing my taxes on Thursday. I don't think I've gotten back from Ridgecrest and Alamagordo yet, but now I have to finish my taxes on Friday the 13th.

Lots of great reading on this post. Is there some sort of affinity between mountain climbing and story-telling?

Hurrikain, it's amazing what 50 years does to your memory for details of a particular event.....

My comment wasn't ment to discredit, I was trying to help with the memories by pointing out an inconsistency. That's all.

I can barely remember anything from last week much less when I was in high school. I do remember my first car in high school and my first girlfriend. I can't remember the details of how I got either of the two, but I do remember it was love at first sight. It's an awesome story. Near legendary proportion. I'd rather remember the accomplishment instead of trying to remember how many rolls of toilet paper was packed.

Bob,

Your story was wonderful to read.

I remember my first time up Whitney (my only time in fact) in the summer of 1978.

Prior to that adventure , I had been a swimmer in S. Cal and was currently working at the Chimney Peak Fire station. I had never cared much for sun-screen. When I climbed Whitney, the biggest mistake I made was wearing shorts with no sunscreen on my legs. We climbed Whitney in one day and that night (very late back at the station) I had great difficulty getting into bed. My legs were burned very badly. That was the last time I forgot sunscreen. I don't think I got much sleep that night, even though I was exhausted.

Whitney is a great teacher.

I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning...