Introduction
My wife and I have been planning to climb Mt. Whitney for six weeks. Six months ago, we had planned to climb Half-dome in Yosemite, and to come down to Lone Pine, only to climb to Lone Pine lake on the Main Whitney Trail. However, six weeks ago, we decided to make summiting Mt. Whitney our focus.
Raw Materials
I am 40 years old, and am 40-50 lbs overweight, and "apple shape" (meaning I carry all my weight around my stomach). My wife is 34 years old and is 40 lbs overweight and "pear shape", (meaning she carries her weight around her hips and bottom). We certainly don't look obese by any means as we "hide" or carry our weight well, so that we still look attractive so to speak, but I point out our weight, and body type so as to encourage others who are very average to below average in weight and body type.
Health Problems
I have elevated blood pressure (but take no medicine for it) and suffer from fierce migraine headaches from time to time, and some mild asthma. My wife has some problems with her knee joints and going up and down normal stairs at times creates some aches and pains for her.
Hiking Experience
My wife has no hiking experience what so ever, except perhaps the odd 1 mile to 2 mile hike in grade school and junior high. She has no back-packing experience. I climbed Mt. Whitney last year with two buddies from college. I have climbed Long’s Peak in Colorado, and Half-dome. I have never back packed before in my life. My three summits that I mentioned were all day trips from the trailhead to the summit and back down to the trailhead. I am a slow hiker, by professional standards. Mt. Whitney on June 30, 2009 took me 22 hours and 40 minutes to hike. Long’s peak took me 15 hours and 30 minutes. Half-dome took me around 10 hours and 30 minutes.
Professional Background
My wife is a Speech and Language Therapist, and I am a self-employed business owner.
Educational Background
I have an Aeronautical Enginnering degree and MBA, my wife has a BA and MA in Speech Pathology & Audiology.
Religion
We are evangelical, non-denominational Christians who believe in prayer, and we try to live our lives according to Biblical principles. We fail, and when we do, we rely on God’s forgiveness and grace to help us through the valleys. We had several folks praying for our trip. We also read Psalm 91 before we left the hostel in Lone Pine.
Lodging
We stayed for seven nights at the Whitney Portal Hostel at 238 S. Main St., phone number, 760-876-0030 in Lone Pine. Doug Thompson is the owner, and as most of you know, he also owns the Whitney Portal Store right next to where the Main Trail begins.
Training
My wife and I definitely trained for our hike. We have been training for around 9 months. My wife completed two half marathons, and a third one that she walked. Her time was around 2 hours, 50 minutes for the two that she jogged.
I primarily focused on the gym. I typically would perform 2 hours of cardio three times a week. Cardio for me was primarily the elliptical machine and the stair stepper, occasionally. Twice a month, I would go for 3-4 hour sessions of cardio. I did not do any strength training, only cardio.
Three weeks before the start of my Mt. Whitney climb, I went to a commercial 20 story apartment building where I would climb from the top to the bottom, and then ride the elevator down. Three different days, spaced a few days apart, I climbed 140 stories, 240 stories, and then 600 stories for my final day. If you figure 10 feet per floor, that is 6,000 feet of vertical climb. This took me 4 hours and 45 minutes to climb 600 stories (including the 30 elevator trips down). My wife also climbed on one occasion, completing 240 stories, as well as a session on the stair climber at the gym with 200 simulated stories.
Equipment (non-winter conditions)
Backpack
Trekking poles (these are worth it, buy them)
Boots
Polypro Sock Liners
Hiking Socks
2nd Skin band-aides (for blisters)
Breathable wind breaker shell
Convertible pants or nylon shell pants
Shorts
Hats – one to keep the sun off your head, neck and a second hat for cold conditions
One medium-weight fleece jacket
Headlamp
Food
Water, storage for 2-3 quarts of water
Electrolytes, i.e. Gatorade, Vitalyte
Filtration pump or purification tablets
Pain medicine, i.e. Advil, Tylenol, etc.
Acclimitization – Diamox, Prednisone, etc. (This is a matter of personal opinion).
Personal Toiletries (if staying overnight)
Approved Bear Container (if staying overnight)
Tent, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags (ours were rated to 20 degrees) if staying overnight.
Wag Bag (if starting your hike inside the Whitney Zone, otherwise bury your poop and bring toilet paper)
Hand sanitizer
Winter Conditions (additional)
Ice axe
Crampons
Strategy
I am very aware of the different types of people who come to climb Mt. Whitney. Some are what I call hard-core climbers, who like to climb the Mountaineer’s route and have the climbing harnesses, rope, carabiners, etc. There are also what I call serious back-packers who have lots of experience climbing up and down trails and have good basic rock scrambling skills, decent experience with the small 100 feet to 400 feet snow/icy path traverses (with boots), and then there are the uber-climbers, like Kurt Wedberg of Sierra Mountaineering Internationa who have climbed Mt. Everest who also climb on Whitney, and Peter Croft, etc.. One step below the uber-climbers are guys/gals who are very comfortable with crampons and ice axes. They know basic to intermediate self-arrest skills and have intermediate crampon skills. There hiking skills, such as rout finding, physical conditioning, etc. are good too.
My wife and I are really basic in our skills, particularly my wife. I knew that to have a chance at summiting Whitney, I had to capitalize on my strengths. This is using my mind. I am bright, and so I tried to exploit my strength to overcome my weaknesses or “averagness”. So here’s what I did, I thought out my strategy (here were my specific steps):
1) Study the whitney portal store message board. I spent around 80 hours on this board over the last year, reading about trip reports and discussions and studying photos taken on the mountain by climbers in all different types of conditions. You can find peoples’ thoughts/opinions on subjects like: do you need crampons? Do water sources need to be filtered on the trail? Do you need an ice axe? How many liters of water should I drink? Should I consider taking Diamox? Do I need a bear canister? Etc.
2) Bring good quality equipment. It’s not worth foregoing the hiking boots you really need to climb Mt. Whitney in snowy conditions, because they are not on sale, and instead buying the cheaper pair that is on sale.
3) Be physcially conditioned, even if you are overweight like me and my wife.
4) Get in a couple of practice hikes and acclimitize properly. We arrived on Sunday, June 6th, and immediately took a practice hike from the portal to Lone Pine lake. We also broke out our 100 lumen Black Diamond headlamps and hiked back in the dark, arriving back to the portal around 11:30 p.m. On Monday, June 7th, we hiked from the portal to Mirror Lake. Tuesday was a rest day, and then Wednesday, June 9th, we began our main climb.
5) Gather as much intel (intelligence) as you can from people coming down the main trail to find out the conditions. Talk with Doug from the Whitney Portal Store to get his take on things. Talk to the Rangers at the National Park Services station on the South side of Lone Pine just off of Hwy 395. I already mentioned the message boards. One word of caution, do not take everything you hear as gospel truth. It's just one person's opinion through their "colored spectacles". You will get such wildly different perspectives on the same section of trail that 10 people just crossed if you talk to them. This can be frustrating. But filter what you hear by being observant of who you are talking to. Are they very physically fit? Are they experienced? Are they flippant, or are they willing to take the time to be caring and concerned for you and your safety and successful hike?
6) Balance risk and reward. Whitney is a stretch for many of us. The mountain requires tough nerves, especially in winter- like conditions and also requires physical toughness. Your body is an amazing thing; you can push it a long ways before it breaks. There are definitely a few places on Whitney where a slip would be fatal or would cause severe injuries. Keep in mind though, of the thousands of people who climb it every season, very few people actually slip and even fewer persons expire. I don't have real statistics, but a casual search on google, will show about one death every year or two on Whitney (not many compared to how many people are climbing it).
One final note. You must tell yourself, do not fall. Period. You don't want to fall. Even the most advanced climbers in the world, don't want to fall. You can't afford to do it. Now glissading is a different story, but that's a controversial subject that you can do your own research on.
7) Networking. It's a good idea, if you want to do something beyond your skill level, or to compensate for a weakness to network with other people, either in person or through the internet. We were fortunate to communicate with Richard, a regular climber on Mt. Whitney.
8) Map out your Main Trip. Doug suggested we do the climb in three days. So that is exactly what we fixed our minds on. Day 1: Hike to Outpost and camp (3.8 miles)
2: Hike from Outpost to Trail camp and sleep there (2.5 miles)
3: Hike from Trail Camp to the Summit and back to the Whitney Portal (4.7 miles to the summit + 11 miles back down to portal for a day total of 15.7 miles).
Main Trip Report
We left Wednesday, June 7th at 8:30 a.m. from the Portal and hiked to Outpost camp. We arrived at Outpost camp around 12:30 p.m. It took us four hours. My wife and my pack weighed 38 and 36 pounds, respectively. My pack was a Gregory Z65 Large (65 liter) and my wife's pack was the Osprey Aura Medium 50. From our time, it's obvious that we walked a leisurely pace. However, this was the first time we had ever worn a back pack, let alone one that weighed over 35 pounds. It was sunny most of the day, and on the trail, I would say the temperature was probably around 68-72 degrees or so. In Lone Pine the high temperature on Wednesday was 95.
For the rest of the afternoon we practiced using our ice axe (self arrest) and walking with crampons on a snow slope right next to Outpost camp. We used Black Diamond Contact 10 point crampons, and Raven ice axes. One word of caution, if you have a very wide toe box, then the Contacts are not good strap on crampons as they tend to fall off! I had to thread the crampon strap under a few of my furthest front boot lace ties in order to keep my crampons from slipping off.
That night at Outpost, the wind howeled like a scene from a horror movie. The tent shook constantly and kept banging against my head. The winds died down for a while, only to come back again. Don't count on too much sleep. My wife wore earplugs; I did not, but she couldn't sleep much either.
Thursday, June 8th, we left outpost camp around 8 p.m. and arrived around 1:00 p.m. The rout finding was fairly obvious, with a few places where we had to cross over a snow patch where the switch back or trail was covered in snow. However, there was one spot, about 0.75 mile from Trail Camp where we had to put our crampons on and traverse a pretty steep ledge that connected the trail where the snow had completely covered it. This stretch was about 75 yards long. It was a bit un-nerving for us.
After we arrived at trail camp, we set up our tent, watched people come down the infamous snow chute, and then we went to bed at 5:30 p.m. We had fresh legs when we woke up in the morning at 4:30 a.m. There was almost no wind that night, but the temperatures had really plummeted! We woke up to frozen water bottles and the tent was covered in ice crystals. Richard, our hiking companion, met us around 5:15-5:30 a.m., and by 5:45 a.m. we were on our way toward the snow chute. The snow chute has been estimated by some to be 1,600 feet in length. It has taken the place of the 97 or so switchbacks. Quite a few hikers did not make it to trail camp, and even less decided to tackle the snow chute at trail camp. To me, anecdotally, it seemed about 12-18 people per day were attempting the snow chute. There were decent boot buckets (depressions in the snow from a boot step) going up the chute most of the way up, except where glissade tracks had wiped them out. I couldn't tell you the exact angle of the snow chute, but I would say it starts around 10-15 percent for 700 feet, then the main section is 30-35 percent for 825 feet, and then the top section right before trail crest is probbly 40-45 percent for 75 yards. Physcially, the climbing up the ice shoot with crampons was fine. It was not that physically demanding, and the snow was nice and crusty. There didn't seem to be any slippage of boots. It was quite un-nerving looking down as we climbed. It took us around 2 1/2 to 3 hours to climb from Trail camp to trail crest. The actual snow chute took aroun 2 hours, but it takes a half hour or so to get over to the snow chute.
Trail crest was uneventful. It's colder on that side of the mountain, a little windier, too. The final 300 feet or so to the summit is a little draining. There were some steeper snow to traverse, but there were nice bucket holes, so we didn't get out our crampons. We summited around 11:30 a.m. One spot on the trail crest required maybe a class 1 or 2 scramble to avoid a steep ice/snow cropping. Not a hard move, but probably fatal if your foot slipped.
We got back to the chute around 1:50 p.m. The journey down the chute was jarring on the knees. Each step required a major step down. Make sure you have a viabrim sole or stiffer boot for the snow chute. A very soft soled hiking boot, although maybe more comfortable, will roll too much when you place your foot down! I learned this the hard way! I have Keen Mid Targhee II's and my wife has the Asolo Stynger. She had a much stiffer sole and did better than I did (she moved faster and had less anke roll). The imagry coming down the chute was daunting. Richard, my wife, and I were the only ones out of 8 climbers or so who came down the chute with crampons. It was snowing when we came down, not hard, but enough to make it a little more challenging. It was cold too, as the winds were picking up. The other 5 climbers glissaded. They had a tough time because the snow never got slushy and they got some pretty bad friction burn on their elbows. One lost his ice axe, I believe. Two males only made it half-way down the chute and decided to try and put their crampons back on. It was a painful experience for them.
We arrived back to trail camp at 4:10 p.m. and packed up our tent and gear. Richard was a true gentleman and helped us carry down some of our supplies, including a bear canister weighted down with food and tent poles and stakes. We hauled down the mountain from trail camp and arrived at the portal by 8:30 p.m. However, there were many times we wanted to stop because we were tired, and our legs felt like noodles. We expended so much energy coming down the snow chute, we had nothing left in the tank to make it down to the portal. The thought of spending another cold night at trail camp, and being unsure of the snow and weather patterns, was a motivitation to leave and hike down to the portal. It would not have been a bad idea to spend another night at Trail camp, but our strong desire for a warm shower, a proper dinner, and a comfortable bed made the pain and discomfort worth it, at least for us.
It was a thrill to summit and to share that bonding experience with my wife. She is such a wonderful woman, and we have great chemistry together. Richard was so gracious with his time and was patient with us and came all the way down to the portal with us. We couldn't have made it as safely to the top, or as quickly to the bottom without him. He knew two short-cuts on the way down, one across a snow field from trail camp to just above outpost camp, and then showed us the old whitney trail that shaved some time off our descent. I am confident in saying we wouldn't have made it without him or without Doug's good advice of encouraging us to camp at Outpost and Trail camp so we would have fresh legs for the snow chute.
And because we are Christians, we want to give thanks to God for watching over us and protecting us and Richard. God is good.
Summary
I hope this trip report was informative. We feel that a good strategy and planning can help the ordinary person have a better chance at making to the summit, or at least further up the mountain. Congratulations to Richard on his offical 81st summit!
Our best to you,
James & Rayla
