Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mount Whitney Slideshow 9-21-06

Last Thursday, on September 21, I climbed Mount Whitney via Mt. Whitney Trail as a day hike. It is a long walk, but I have enjoyed myself greatly on every stretch of this scenic trail by admiring the vistas, chatting with friendly backpackers, talking to wild animals, taking photos or just simply breathing in the clean, high altitude air.

We drove to Whitney Portal a day before my long hike and walked a mile up the trail to get acclimated and then returned back to spend the night at the Best Western Frontier Motel in Lone Pine. We got up at 2 am. After an early breakfast and strong coffee accompanied by a good movie on HBO (“Troy”), we took off for Whitney Portal again.

I began my hike at 4:30 am. I saw several pairs of shiny eyes in the bushes below the trail. I presume they were coyotes.

My Support Team consisting of Henry(my husband)and Hadrian(my dog) planned to hike to Mirror Lake.

I reached the windy summit of Whitney at 11:30 am and stayed there to enjoy it for a while and walked around. On my way down to my delight, I have observed many marmots. I got back down to a very blue Lone Pine Lake at 4 pm. Henry and Hadrian awaited for my return at the shore of this pretty lake. We descended together to Whitney Portal by 6 pm.

Here is a link to the eSlideShow from my adventure. It is kind of long, just like the hike itself , but I hope you enjoy it:

http://www.adventureinternet.com/mt-whitney-09-21-06/

Nice pictures. I especially liked the pika picture.

I second that. Awesome shots!

A really nice album of pictures with a higher number of quality wildlife shots than I have seen recently. Well done.

You must have been jogging a bit here and there in order to reach 6 mph while going up and 7mph while coming back down.

CaT

California-Trailwalker, 10.7 miles / 7 hours = 1.5 MPH going up.
--the math police

Nice going Anya!

Anya: That may be the best slide show of the Whitney Trail that I have ever seen. You captured everything: the trail, the vistas, the wildlife, the vegetation. Fantastic job! This one's a keeper.

Thanks for posting this,

RV

Bob K. - I understand the math. If you look at picture #98, the three boxes in the right-hand column (i.e., Max Speed, Moving Avg, and Overall Avg) all appear to be denominated the same -- in mph. Unless I've misread this due to the quality inconsistencies of that particular picture, then the "Max Speed" of 6.0 mph is certainly beyond even a fast walk, and would require jogging -- thus my earlier comment. Yes, the overall average speed was 1.6 mph; but my comment was simply an observation that she must have jogged -- even if only for a few seconds -- in order to register a 6.0 mph Max Speed on her GPS (ditto for the 7.0 mph Max Speed on her trip back down to the Portal). 'Nuff said.

CaT

I did not jog during my hike at all, but I did stumble a few times and that is probably then that the GPS has recorded my max speed at 6.0 or 7.0 mph

california-trailwalker, Thanks for clarifying what you meant. I was using dialup that particular day and I didn't get to picture #98. With dialup, going through Anya's fine pictures was almost like viewing them in real time and I had to turn around before reaching the summit. But I did eventually see them with high speed internet and "summitted", and I saw what caught your eye on the Garmin.

Anya, thanks so much!! Your photos really make my trip more vivid. It sure beats my hi-tech disposable. =) em

Thanks Anya fantastic slideshow.The weather when I summited was a tag wild,snow and very windy.One day I shall return and walk the trail again in better conditions!

>>With dialup, going through Anya's fine pictures was almost like viewing them in real time...<<

LOL! I remember when we had dial-up, and I sure do sympathize!

CaT