On Sunday, two days before my annual Whitney hike, I re-did a favorite hike I discovered several years ago, up above Meysan Lake to the NE base of Irvine, for a
nice view of much of the lower half of the Mt. Whitney Trail route.
That night, I encountered soreness in one of my feet, and there appeared to be some internal bruising, caused by reasons unknown. I spent the most of the next day at Horseshoe Meadow, as I usually do, and tried to give my feet a rest. It would not heal in time for Tue., but a floating holiday is a terrible thing to waste. So I padded my foot as best I could and decided to hike as far up Whitney as I reasonably could, stepping more carefully and aggressively using my poles.
Do to the slower pace, I decided to abort the summit attempt at Trail Crest, so for the first time in 17 tries I did not summit. I did have some extra time before going down, and I had always wanted to explore above Discovery Pinnacle. I scrambled up to the base of the pinnacle from Trail Crest, but there was not an easy way around. I returned to the trail and hiked about halfway down through the long top switchback. A talus slope called out “Scramble me”, and I did, and hit the top of the ridge about 200 feet beyond Discovery, with walkable terrain. I continued up to a wide saddle that I thought was Whitney Pass, but a later map check showed that to be farther along. At one or two points I could see some evidence of the old trail.
Some switchbacks were still covered by snow, requiring a short scramble at the turns.
Top switchback: easy to cross with poles and gloves... ...but you don't want to slip here You can avoid the last snowbank with the bypass in the foreground Cable area The snow footholds at the cables were well worn and ice was not a problem at 9:30 in the morning. Poles and careful movement were sufficient. After crossing the cable area on the way up, I sat down and had my breakfast and watched a couple of parties come across.
You may be proud of your thighs, but lon...frozen (gloves) There was a Sigalert at the cable area on the trip down. A guy had slipped down the slope about 150 feet. He had no injuries. The slide had knocked off one shoe, which was in the snow 10 feet above him.
He sat there waiting for assistance. A couple of hikers had a handline and tried to descend to him, but the line was too short and they only got halfway. Eventually, another hiker went up the gully and walked him down to Trail Camp.
