Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Flashlight too heavy??

August 26th I left the portal at about 3:30 AM heading for Russell. About 5 minutes up the trail, I heard voices but saw no light. I came across two individuals that were trying to navigate with the illumination of their cell phone! They asked if they could follow me and I asked where their flashlight was. They replied they thought it would be too heavy. Then they wanted to know if they could follow me, and I told them I was going up the North Fork trail (which totally confused them) but they could follow that far. They were able to keep up all of 30 seconds and that's the last I saw of them. Darwin must be busy??

Darwin has his hands full with those two... Hadn't they ever been to an REI store? Buy a headlamp!

Just in case they're reading this:

Big 5 occasionally sells a tiny clip on light that you can clip to a ball cap, pack strap, etc. It weights just a little more than a penny, gives plenty of light, and I have two that have functioned for about 10 hours each so far.

They cost three bucks.

It might make your trip better.

z

They may have read the trip report by one of our members who actually rescued himself (avoiding having to spend the night on the mountain) by using his cell phone to navigate down the North Fork.

I don't recall the details, but I do recall that a number of people were impressed by his ingenuity.

Ted Nugent's song Cat Scratch Fever: "Don't know where they come from but they sure do come..."

Probably never heard of the Whitney Portal Store Message Board! Some of the things you see and hear about on the trails. Seven Ps: Prior Proper Planning Prevents P*ss Poor Performance. I rest my case.

I'm sure they make a flashlight that wieghs less than a cell phone

I learned everything the hard way too.

The first time I attempted University Peak I hadn't yet been convinced I needed to carry a light source. To make matters worse I also continued well past any reasonable turn around time. I ended up trying to find my way through a morraine and then a maze of manzanita all by the light of the LCD on my camera. After that died I was screwed and ended up spending the night on a hard cold rock. Ahhh. The memories.

Those tiny clip lights are great. In addition to my headlamp I keep a clip light in my first aid kit just in case the headlamp should fail.

-Rick