Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board August 12th Climb

Karen and I summited on Thursday August 12th. This had to be a top ten thrill of our lives. We began the hike in darkness at 3:30 am. There was only a sliver of a moon. Headlamps performed brilliantly for several miles into the hike until day finally broke. We reached Trail Camp at around 8:00am manuevered the legendary swithbacks and summited at about 11:45am. The clouds came in quickly forcing us to leave the summit after only enjoying about 15 minutes on top. We were pelted with sleet and rain on our journey down until about timberline. I hope all other brave souls were able to summit and safely get down that same day. We are in our upper 40s and our training consisted of running in Dallas so we were not at all acclimated. This made the whole adventure even more special. No bears, no broken bones and no lightening...no direct hits anyway.

Congratulations!

Since you live in Dallas, I imagine you don't get the chance to hike too much. What prompted you to travel to CA to hike Whitney, just the challenge? There ain't nothin' in Dallas that compares to Whitney, is there? :-)

Thanks! No, there are not too many peaks around Dallas. This time of year there is just heat and more heat. Until this year, we have always ventured to Colorado for an annual fourteener climb. I began researching Whitney back in January of this year and entered the permit lottery in February. What a great experience!

I'm with you, jlively. Living in Maryland, our highpoint is at a lower elevation than the town of Lone Pine. Still, over the last three years I've done Whitney twice, plus Lone Pine Peak, Irvine, and Mallory, each time with one night to acclimatize. There is nothing on the east coast that remotely compares to the High Sierra in terms of altitude, but there are more than enough low-altitude hikes here to keep one busy, and lots of beautiful scenery, especially in the fall.

Hi jlirely and Jim R:
Next year try Mt. Shasta in northern Calif.

Hey Jlively congrats on the summit. I'm a 50 year old from Buffalo NY who summitted at about 10AM that same day. I was chased off the peak at about noon by the nasty storm. I probably passed you (white Bills baseball cap.

I actually started jogging at one point because the lightning was scaring the heck out of me. Did you see the people trudging up to the summit and into the storm? I hope they were able to make it down OK.

Once again congratulations, us flat landers don't get enough credit for making it up into thin air!