Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board H20

I saw some discussions about H20 from Trail Camp to Summit and back, but no discussion about H20 to trail camp from portal and from trail camp to portal on the way back.

i was thinking of playing it safe and bringing 4 quarts from trail camp to the summit.

Kim,
There's plenty of water from the Portal to Trail Camp and back.4 quarts from Trail Camp to the summit and back should be ok.I've been drinking water and Gookinaid.Gookinaid is a powder you add to water,much like Gatoraid and the potassium in it seems to help keep me from cramping at high altitude plus it energizes me.Good luck.I did my first trip to the summit 2 weeks ago and it was a blast.

Kim, I notice that you have posted a lot of questions about various aspects of this adventure. When are you and your husband going?

I enjoy hiking along with people who are curious about the conditions/experiences/expectations involved with climbing this wonderful mountain of ours. Perhaps I could join you for part of the trip, and share some of my thoughts along the way.

kim - When opportunity knocks....

fish395, good to know that there's plenty of H20 from Portal to Trail Camp. How much did you bring in between filling H20s? I will prob be leaving at 2a and won't want to stop to filter H20 in the dark and always hate to stop once I have my pace, too. How much H20 does one normally drink up to Trail Camp?

Bob R. You've gotta be from the store or something, huh! Member #13?!! Does that mean you're alway up there and hike Whitney that often? We're going up on the 6th of July.

I started out with 70oz.of water than stopped at Mirror Lake to fill that up again and mixed up some powdered drink in a 32oz container to supplement that and got to Trail Camp with that no problem.Took the 70oz.bladder and 2 qts to the top and back to Trail Camp.Coming down was even less.Good Luck and have fun.I'm going to Cottonwood Lakes with a trip to check out Mt.Langley the weekend of the 4th.Don't forget your DEET.

fish395, everyone talks about deet. i guess the reg stuff won't do the job?! the mosquitos must be bad there. i'll prob bring them both. thsnks for the H20 amts, too.

any other experiences with H20 amts would be appreciated!

bob, we're just day hiking, but our packs prob are heavier. i'm no minimalist by any means. i have a hefty size first aid kit i put together, will prob bring my miniworks filter, might buy rain pants, and will bring warm clothes. i also usually/well, pretty much always bring more food and H20 than i need. i don't know if u saw my posting on mt humphrey-weatherford-kachina training hike. that itself took 9 hrs. i'm hoping we'll make whitney!!!

i want to leave at 2am or so so that we can get up the mtn without having to worry about storms so much, because i'm pretty determined to make this hike and i don't want to push myself to do something dangerous like hike to the top in a storm, because if i were that close, i'd prob do it.

i'm a white 5 foot 6 dirty blond female with glasses-lenon-type, sort of. my husband is hispanic, a couple inches taller-in our 30s. should be easy to find us just with that description, i'm sure. how will we know you?

Bob - Where's one of your famous "some guy" pictures? :-)

Kim,

Bob R. is without a doubt one of the most experienced Whitney hikers around. He has summited Whitney over 100+ times. Do a search on "Bob R." and see what you come up with. Also, from watching this board for some time I have come to the conclusion he is also an all around good guy.

In my opinion.

JJBB

Bob R., given the limited number of permits, how is it that you're so confident you can pick one up? Don't people camp out to get the walk-in permits?

Hey Bob R., amen to that too-early departure time. I find also that if I leave too early, my brain spends the rest of the day trying to decide of what time it is (kind of like jet lag)--it detracts somewhat from the enjoyment of the hike. 4:00 to 5:00 AM is perfect for the Whitney trail. Although I've had people tell me that a midnite full moon hike is very nice.

I'm still hoping we get together in August for the MR day hike. Let me know also if you end up doing another Thor climb this year, I'd like to do that as well.

I don't want to contradict anyone but the last time I summitted Mt Whitney, we left trail camp at 5:30 AM, were on top at 8:00 AM and was hit by a thunderstorm at 8:45 AM. When we summitted at 8:00, the storm appeared to be on the other side of the Kaweah's and not a problem. However, storms deceive and move very fast.

The point being, storms can hit at any time of the day and quickly.

You take a chance every time you do this hike that you will have good weather. It's a crap shoot.

yes, it all seems like a crap shoot-whether to bring rain pants, leave early... i still have to decide on these issues and where i'm going to hike the couple days before.

Bob, maybe we could do an acclimation hike on monday. i received lots of good info on local hikes, but just haven't picked which one i'll do, yet, and still have to get maps. do u know if i can get them there or should i see if REI has them while i'm still here?

you certainly have lots of experience on whitney- is that true that you've hiked it over 100 times?!

CaT,

<a href="http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/California%20Mountains/12347">Here</a> are some albums that have some pictures of "some guy."

Look specifically at the June 2004 and March 2002 albums. If you go up a level to "California Mountains," there are some Russell and Williamson albums with the above mentioned person.