Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board My First Summit!

Our group of four- Dan, Dave, Tom and me- came up to the Portal Saturday morning. We planned this trip in January, and have been individually and collectively preparing for months to make sure we had all the abilities and gear to get us up to the top.
We aren't young bucks- all of us over 40 and me the old man at 53, so we made this an end of summer vacation trip, taking three days to get to the summit. On Sunday morning we hit the trailhead with full packs (mine lightest at 43lbs)and headed for Outpost Camp, stopping to do lunch and fish at Lone Pine Lake, where I caught my first trout on a fly. Stayed at Outpost Sunday night- great camping, no toilets, stars forever!
Monday's hike to Trail Camp was great too. Fished Consultation Lake Monday afternoon, Dan lost count on how many he caught and released. Dave brought his Martin Backpacker guitar and we sang songs until sundown.
Tuesday morning the 29th we hit the switchbacks at 6:20am. Cool and breezy, and a little icy in spots, and the springs were flowing great on the way up. I tried to count all 98 or 99 switchbacks, but after about the 24th one, I gave up and accepted the fact that there are a bunch of them. We each had 2 quarts of water and Dan brought a gallon jug to share on the way up, so when we got to Trail Crest we all had almost 2 qts in reserve. Man, the wind was howling on the west side of the ridge, and it was a lot colder than I expected!
Happy to say all four of us made it to the summit by 10:30am, no problems with altitude sickness or blisters, etc. While standing at the top taking pictures, up comes a guy climbing over the summit from the east face! He says it was no big deal...uh, ok, maybe for you....
Anyway, just wanted to post this to leave my mark of achievement on the board. Yeah, it wasn't a one day trip, or the fastest time up, but it sure feels great to be able to successfully see the planning and preparation pay off with my name in the register and my feet at that benchmark on the highest rock in the Continental US.
Oh, and if Doug reads this, I am the guy who ordered the "little" pancake breakfast Wednesday morning... thanks for the silver dollar flapjack!
Joe

Joe,

You Da Man !!
It really sounds that you and your friends had an awesome time and not just in climbing the mountain. Ya stopped and smelled the Roses and in doing so caught a strong breath of Life.
Big "Congrads"!!

Well done! The nice thing about the mountains is that there are so many ways to enjoy them...speed ascents, summer, winter, multiday, hard routes and trails. The best way is to share it with your friend. Congratulations to you all.

Sounds like a great time was had by all. Way to go. I never thought of fishing my way up. I think I may have to quit this web site. Everytime I open it, it gives me another reason to hike the mountain again.

Congrats on a successful summit and safe return!

Having backpacked Whitney ourselves back in 2001, I concur that taking a few days to enjoy the area is worthwhile. Now that my son is a bit older (he was 12 when we did Whitney), we could dayhike it, but I'd still rather spend some time, take a more relaxed pace on the way up and down and enjoy our limited time in the mountains.

Joe:
Congratulations! I'm right there with you on the taking your time route. I didn't fish my way up (although that sounds like a FABULOUS IDEA!!), but I did spend two nights at Trail Camp last weekend and could have spent many more days exploring all around the region. There's no prize for getting up there the fastest! ;-) I passed a guy as I was going up who said he didn't like the backpacking b/c he had trouble looking "up". When I mentioned the beautiful wildflowers all along the trail, he had no idea about them!
COngrats again! Next time try bringing a split of champagne to celebrate the achievement like I did!!!
-Laura

Congrats as well. There's a lot to be said about taking your time and indeed smelling the roses ('er wild flowers). We all seem so intent on getting to the top and watching the trail carefully, that often times the big picture items are missed, or at the very least not fully appreciated. We met a guy last Friday who did the Main Tr up and down in just under 8 hours. When we started to compare notes about certain people and/or sights along the way, he had no recollection, and actually said, next year "I think I'll take my time and my camera and have a little bit more to show for the effort. Great job and hope to see more reports on the extended whitney experience.