Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board C2C, 10/19/13

I swore I'd never do it again, but my father-in-law was visiting from NH. We were hoping to hike Mt. Whitney, but with the gov't shutdown and the 'expected' full winter conditions, we decided we'd save the Whitney trip for another time. I still wanted to do an something epic (for lack of a better word).

Even though I did this a year ago, this may have been my toughest hike ever. I started getting cramps 7 miles into the 17 mile climb, but still managed to beat my PR for Skyline by 40 mins and shave 55 mins off of my C2C time last year.

Great PR reduction for this hike. I have done this hike once. Once. Had a group of 10 to start, and 4 turned back after less than 2 hours in. Luckily it was "cool" enough in early May to do that - more often it is safer to continue going up to the Aerial Tram stop and take the Tram back down, than descend back into the heat rising up from Palm Springs. Best part was from the Tram to the summit, after 9 miles of effort to get to that point. Legs didn't cramp up for me until stepping out of the tram and sitting in a taxi for the ride back to the trailhead. Then everything locked up.One of the toughest I have ever done, and I can also say I don't plan on repeating it.

Whitney is a tougher hike for me, since I usually have problems with altitude, but I'd much rather do a Whitney Day Hike than C2C.

I love doing just Skyline Trail, but adding the 11-12 mile roundtrip to the peak after already climbing 8,000+ ft is brutal.

I had a friend turn around on a Skyline attempt (Oct), somewhere around the 4300 ft mark. He returned with me a few months later(Apr) and completed the hike to the tram. He said going down was worse than heading up!

I've had cramps that last 3 times I've done Skyline and they're getting progressively worse. I need to get this problem figured out. I purchased 'SUCCEED S Caps' this week... I may have to return to Skyline to test them out

Wow, amazing. Way to go!

Congrats!!! I was up there on the 11th for my first time!

I'm glad to hear you bested your time. I also love the graphic you made.

We had a lot of snow from Long Valley to the summit (coming down my feet were slushed out and I was sliding all over the place). I did avoid cramps for most of the hike(I got small flutters in my quads for the last mile below the summit). I didnt have a problem on the downhill or afterwards with cramps. I've been drinking a mixture of cytomax, whey protein, and a little gatorade (I've used it on the C2C, R2R, and MWMT all within 3 weeks of each other, I only gotthe same light quad-cramps on the R2R and C2C after I had run out of the mixture for a while [i.e. at the very end]).

Awesome - sounds like you had a great 3 weeks. I mentioned your R2R trip to my father-in-law on our C2C, telling him we need to fit that one in there somewhere!

I only really had the cramps starting somewhere after the 4300 mark to Grubb's Notch. Once I was done with Skyline, I didn't get them anymore unless I tried to keep up with the people with the fresh legs coming off of the tram.

I am hoping the S Caps takes care of my problem. In the past, coconut water worked, but it's not cutting it anymore.

Kudos man, I may have tapped out with cramps that early on in the game.

If I remember that 4300 mark is where first I slowed down, it was right when the sun came up and I topped the first serious knob on the ridge where you seen Grubbs Notch and Coffman Crag so flipping far away.

And I'm glad you enjoyed the TR for the Rim to Rim!

Having completed the Skyline trail six times, and the entire Cactus to Clouds hike three times, let me say that anyone that has done this adventure has accomplished something special. I have also day-hiked Whitney five times, and depending on weather conditions, I do believe that Cactuis to Clouds is a much tougher dayhike than Whitney. The most demanding section is after reaching a point called Flat Rock, a very good rest stop. The next mile, mile nine of the hike, you gain about 1,700 feet in one mile. Do the math and this works out to about a 30% average grade, much steeper than the 97 switchbacks on Whitney. Whitney has the elevation, but C2C has much steeper climbs. Whitney Mike

Yep - that's where the fun begins! The section from Flat Rock/Dry Falls up to the Traverse is brutal. I believe this is the section that Doreen (a lady with 270+ trips up Skyline) calls the 'Enchanted Forest.' Usually when I get to this part of the hike, it's starting to heat up.

Here is a comparison of my toughest hikes over the last 15 months or so. Skyline would be next on the list, right after Mt. Washington:

(click for full size)




I will post a map of Skyline that I've been working on when I have a chance.

Hi Chevy forgot your name but anyway thanks for the graphs nice job done on them.

mark

Thanks Mark. They're probably not all that useful to anyone other than myself, but they were fun to do. My father-in-law is very intimidated by Mt Whitney (he hasn't done it yet). I thought this 'infographic' might add some perspective for him. We have done C2C, Mt. Washington, Baldy (up Ski Hut), and San G (Fish Creek) together. He lives in NH, so we don't get to hike together that often, but he always leaves me gasping for air!

No worries on forgetting my name - I have a hard time remembering it sometimes too!


Here is the map I have been working on. The mileage and elevations measured are from my GPS... ymmv!

Lyndon

Chevy - awesome graphs! Thank you

No problem lew. Is that you that just joined the facebook page?

Hi Been watching the topic. Great graphs and overlays, Your time/distance breakdow should be copied for a Whitney trip. I try to think in energy output , watching the steep switchbacks and the flat sections so over the day up or down the speed (distance/time) uses the same amount of energy.
Never did the Catcus thing but SJ I always thought was a hard hike , Heat / Smog and dry above the saddle, We would start from the Hemet side.Thanks Doug

Thanks Doug Sr.

I have not hiked San Jacinto from the Hemet side (Humber Park?). I had plans to do it as my last training hike before Whitney in 2012, but those plans fell through. In your opinion, how does it compare to a Whitney Day Hike? I would like to hike from the Hemet side at some point, as well as hike to the summit from Palm Springs (Skyline the SJ Peak Trail) then descend to Hemet side.

As for Whitney timing, here is what I carried on my last trip:


This info was printed along with a scan of a Whitney Main Trail map (complete with a big red X by the John Muir Trail Junction), and a line drawing of the trail profile noting the relative position of landmarks. I printed the images back to back on normal paper, covered the paper in packing tape then cut them to size. The card is about 4" x 6". I gave them to everyone in the group. I also have another version that has 9/10/11 hr splits that I used a couple years ago.

The book One Best Hike: Mt. Whitney, by Elizabeth Wenk has info regarding the trail profile (link here), as well as distances, elevations and split times( pages 100-101). The book was a huge help my first trip up and I recommend it to any friends that are interested in hiking Mt. Whitney.

I now make a chart/map like this for many of the hikes I do. At the very least, I scan my map and make a chart showing distance between landmarks, elevation gain and average slope. If it's a long hike, I try to estimate time based on slope. In my opinion, I've gotten pretty good on guesstimating (MY)pace and time by looking at elevation gain and elevation. Is all this work necessary - definitely not, but it makes the journey more interesting for me! I keep this little card in my pocket for quick reference and put the big map in my pack (if I decided to take it).

I found this image a while back. I suspect it was created by one of the members here, but I unfortunately did not note the source. I wish I could give credit to whomever took the time to compile this info: