Like many first timers who use this forum, I felt like I was able to glean a vast amount of knowledge here and would like to give back a bit if I can. Some of my favorite trip reports were the most detailed ones, although quite lengthy, they were a great help, so thanks to everyone who posted one this spring/early summer. I am sure I took something from your report up with me.
Pre-Trip Training
I was initially a little nervous about my June 28-29 trip date when I received my permit in the mail. It was literally my last choice. I was hoping for the perfect July/August day to take a group of 12 first timers (including myself). However, we couldn't have asked for better conditions, and I think I would actually prefer the weather and conditions that we had for several reasons that I will describe. I try to hike and climb pretty often, but I intentionally ramped up my hiking schedule in the 3 or so months before our trip date arrived. I would take 4-6 mile hikes once a week, and then in the weeks prior to the trip, I took 8-10 mile hikes with a loaded pack, every Saturday for a month, and some steep 3 mile up and back hikes with a fully loaded pack 2-3 times a week. I was also doing P90X for 2 months prior, which I felt helped a ton.
Our group left from several locations throughout Southern Utah, Northern Utah and Orange County, CA to convene in Whitney Portal on Sunday night, June 27th. We had no campground reservations, but were able to get a spot in the family campground without too much trouble. The only issue was vehicles, as we had 4 because of we were coming from all over, and only one parking spot. This was easily solved with shuttling back and forth to the trailhead, probably a bit to the dismay of our neighboring campers as we pulled in around 10pm, but we tried to not make too much of a ruckuss. The campground was great and we all slept pretty well and woke up with the sun. We didn't plan on getting out super early since our destination was just Trail Camp that day.
Day 1
So after some breakfast burritos and muffins, sorting through all our gear, one last civilized bathroom break and leaving behind the down coats and a few extra layers, we started up the trail around 9am. We had a perfect weather forecast of all sunshine for the next 2 days and Monday morning was crystal clear. At the bottom of the trail my pack weighed in at 47 pounds including water, my heavy DSLR camera, axe and crampons and a shared bear canister. A note about bear canisters- in our group of 12, we took 5 canisters, which was probably pretty spot on for what we needed for a 2 day trip. We probably could have gotten away with one more, but then again, we hauled food down with us, so its sort of a toss up. I would probably just recommend that everyone take less food next time.
We intentionally took it really slow going up, stopping about once an hour for a 15 min break. I think this was really helpful in acclimating. The lower part of the trail was the perfect temperature and most of us were in shorts and t-shirts right up to Trail Camp. We stopped for lunch around 11:00 just below Lone Pine Lake near the waterfall and then continued on taking breaks at Bighorn Park, two of our members jumped in Mirror Lake for a quick splash.
We hit a few patches of snow right around 11,500 or so but they were pretty stepped out and didn't require crampons. We hit Trail Camp at about 4:00pm. I definitely think we could have hiked faster, but none of us had any major problems up to that point and I am pretty sure its because we took it easy going up. Trail Camp was pretty full and most of the obvious spots were taken. We almost went for a spot near the end of camp right before the trail continues up the switchbacks, but after a little searching around, we found a great spot at the lower end of the lake hidden among some rock ridges and boulders. It was a great spot for 12 people and our 4 tents. It was a little disappointing that a few inconsiderate people before us had left their full WAG bags for us to discover, including a few that didn't use bags at all and just went on the ground. Really makes you appreciate the rules that the forest service has in place and they made perfect sense at that moment. There was literally poop and garbage everywhere up there despite the rules.
We hung out around camp just keeping ourselves moving, filtering water, moseying around, just trying to not sit still. The youngest member of our group, a 19 year old, had just flown from Europe the day before and wasn't looking so great. He had no desire to stand up and just sorta plopped down lethargically and fell asleep. I had to wake him up to eat, but he was complaining of a head and stomach ache. We were pretty worried about him, sure he had altitude sickness and were just about to drag him out of the sleeping bag to take him down the hill, but he insisted that he would be fine in the morning that it was just lack of sleep from his previous vacation. He happened to have some leftover pain meds from his recent wisdom teeth extraction and decided to take those, which knocked him out and made him sleep through the night.
Also worth mentioning was that I had been taking Diamox for 3 days before the trip, and although the early side effects were horrible, including frequent urination akin to a pregnant woman at 9 months and some dizziness, those effects went away by the time we were there and I think it really did help on the ascent, as I had almost zero problems with the altitude, the highest I had been previous to this trip was 11,000 and I was pretty nervous that I would shut down at higher altitudes. However, I only had a 5 minute headache when I took off my pack at Trail Camp, which I cured with some Ibuprofen, everything else felt great the whole time. A few threatening clouds blew in around 5:00pm and it looked like it could rain, it got pretty cold and made us all break out our coats and beanies, but it blew past and we were rewarded with some great sunset clouds and it actually got really warm up there for a bit after they were gone.
Day 2
After sleeping kinda ok, we woke up at about 6:00. I made a quick breakfast of oatmeal and mango slices, and we all headed for the chute. The guy who was sick was chipper and on his feet, saying that he was ready to head for the summit. We were all quite relieved.
After asking around and watching the forum quite a bit I felt pretty confident that we could take out choice between the chute and the switchbacks, which gave me a warm cozy feeling because I was unsure that all of our group could handle the chute. Nevertheless, we all hauled up axes and crampons and all but 2 of us used them. Two members of our group chose to take the switchbacks, starting at the same time. The other 10 of us took the chute, the fastest members getting up in around 1 hour, the slowest arriving at the top at the same time as the switchbackers. I was somewhere in the middle, one guys crampons kept falling off and I was the designated spotter. This probably added 20 minutes to my time, but I think I got up in around 1.5 hours.
The chute was surprising easy, although it was physically strenuous, I would recommend it to anyone at this point in the year as long as you get up pretty early and don't waste time climbing up. I can imagine it being pretty gnarly early in the year before it gets any boot tracks, and later in the year when it is pure slush, but right now I think its super doable for most people with good balance and the proper gear. The payoff was coming back down it.
It was getting slushy fast, and by the time we reached Trail Crest, our crampons weren't biting as well. Seeing only photos and descriptions of it before made me kinda nervous to take people up it that had no experience in mountaineering, although I have climbed quite a bit of vertical ice, I really had not hiked in steep snow unroped before. Everyone did great, including the 19 year old, who did it in shorts and a tshirt. We passed a European fella coming down in skate shoes and no crampons or axe, we're not sure what he was doing up there but he had gotten pretty high and said he felt ill and decided to bail. We ditched our axes and crampons at the top, joined up with the guys that took the switchbacks and headed for the summit.
The trail from Trail Crest to the summit was pretty mild, but we took a pretty quick pace. The fastest members of our group reached the summit at around 10:30, 3.5 hours after leaving Trail Camp. The slowest reached it at 12:00. We paused for a photo of all of us and then headed back down.
Going back down the trail is a huge relief, we made it back to Trail Crest in about 1 hour, donned our slick pants, some of our group brought heavy garbage bags to wear for the glissade and we all started the long slide. For most all of us this was the most enjoyable part of the trip, as what took us 1.5 hours to get up, now took us about 1.5 minutes to get down. The guy in the shorts had a bit of a hard time and about froze, so he kept on his feet with crampons. One other guy somehow forgot to bring gloves or waterproof pants, so he didn't quite enjoy the sliced up hands and soggy bottom. For those of us that read the gear lists that I sent around 5 times, we all loved it.
Some of our group decided to traverse over to below the cables for more glissading, which although unnecessary, added a bit more fun to the experience.
We got back to Trail Camp at about 3:00pm to discover our open tents full of marmot feces and urine. We had left all of our food and smelly items in bear canisters away from the tents, but I guess they decided to give back what some previous humans had left for them. Nothing a few wet wipes couldn't clean up, but I might recommend collapsing your tent and putting rocks and stuff on top of them so they cant have the enjoyment of using it for a latrine. One guy unwittingly left a half-eaten subway sandwich in his pack, which was chewed through and extracted by a rodent. Be really careful what you leave in your packs. The ground animals here are hungry and ruthless!
We departed Trail Camp at about 4:00pm. The hike down was probably the hardest part for most of our group, just for the fact that it is harder on the joints and muscles. I was pretty sore when we rolled into the portal, but the decent went really fast I thought. The last member of our group arrived at 7:00pm, 3 hours after leaving Trail Camp and we headed down to Lone Pine to grab a bite to eat getting there around 8.
All in all, this was by far the best hiking trip I have ever had, and can't wait to get back. The mountain is a magical place and is a bit overwhelming to take it all in within 2 days.
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Full photo set can be seen here Also, if any of you are up there, look for this crampon's twin near the base of the chute and let me know if you find it.
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