Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board First timers summit on Thursday

My boyfriend and I summited around 11:00 a.m. on Thursday. Here's a report of what we encountered:

We began the hike at 9:30 a.m. from the portal on the main trail on Wednesday with fair weather. The plan was to camp at Trail Camp and we did that however, we thought we were at Trail Camp at least three times before we actually made it there. The landscape change dramatically around 11,000ft. A beautiful lush forest gives way to rock and dirt. There was nothing generally romanic about Trail Camp, save the romance for Outpost Camp. OK, the important part... the wind on Wednesday night was calm but the temperature dropped below 30 degrees. Water bottles filled the night before were frozen by Thursday morning.

Cold weather made sleeping really miserable and we discussed just calling off the summit hike but I think our inexperience made our confidence suffer terribly. We left Camp at 7:00 a.m., a half an hour later than we wanted to leave. You head up the switchbacks to Trail Crest and the trail to the summit switches to the other side of the mountain. What's funny is that once you pass Trail Crest, everyone you run into is trying to figure out which 14,000 ft peak is Whitney. No one knew. So, everyone keeps going. No one looked like they were having fun expect for a couple families with kids. The hike is work, no doubt. We stayed at the summit for 15 minutes. Signing the book was a highlight!

We got back to Trail Camp at 2:30pm, packed up, ate a light meal, and headed back to the portal starting at 3:30pm. Our car awaited us at 7:45pm. Our legs hurt like holy heck. The dinner at Seasons in Lone Pine and a night at the Dow Villa made it all worth it. Made props to those who hike the PCT from the Mexican border for six weeks and use Whitney as a side trip. However, I love beds and central air.

Have fun, everybody! Try to make it fun, if the weather cooperates.

Thanks for sharing. Glad to hear that you stuck with it and made it safely to the summit and back.

I do have a few comments:


That is why I prefer doing day hikes. (See Decide whether to day hike or stay overnight). Trail Camp is great if you want to get an early start, but it has its challenges.


Interesting. Are you saying that people you ran across knew nothing about the Summit Hut or had not picked up information at the Portal Store? Yes, the 2.5 miles from Trail Crest to the summit is a long hike (See Learn the layout of the main trail).

So, how many people were actually hiking the trail? It seems rather amazing that "no one" knew "which" mountain was Whitney.
I guess everyone up there were "newbees" who also didn't do any study or research prior to their trek. Why the hell do people hike a mountain without reading about it?

I think most people knew about the Summit Hut but it's difficult to see at most parts of the trail. The impression I got was people were "on a mission" and once you've been hiking for four hours, focusing on which peak is the end, is not the high priority.

Whoa, Greg, slow down. Yes, I generalized but those we talked to did not know which peak was Whitney. To be fair, several peaks are in the 14,000 range and it's hard to eyeball the summit.

And people do all sorts of research. Bear in mind that for new hikers, trail descriptions are not very intuitive. Reading about a trail and hiking it under difficult conditions are very different things.

As for the number of people on the trail, I'd give it 20 that we met on the way up.

NicPeanut: Congrats to both you and your boyfriend for a well-earned summit! I was hearing this past Friday about how cold it was during the week, and I almost borrowed a heavier sleeping bag for my trip, but it had warmed considerably by Saturday night.

I ran into a lot of people in both directions of the trail who also did not have a great idea about where they were going (following the trail a bit blindly, you could say), or what they were in for (how steep some sections of the trail are). It was actually something my friend Doug and I talked about on our descent.

Now, I'm horrendously anal-retentive when it comes to studying up on a hike/backpack, but mainly because of two reasons: 1) I'm incredibly geeky that way and I love technical information; and 2) I've done most of my hiking/car camping alone so I need to be as prepared as possible to be safe. I don't expect others to be as thoroughly oriented information-wise as I am, but to put Greg's statement another way: it's best to do some background work before embarking on any sort of trip into the backcountry. And in answer to Greg's question: Lots of people do no reading or research whatsoever before heading out. Which is why if I meet someone with a question, I am happy to give them as much info as possible!

There are a lot of books on Whitney and backpacking available out there, and this board, as you've probably noticed, is a wealth of information on the latest trail-beta and equipment/training/other recommendations. One of the best things that helped me with prep is watching the videos from HikeAlongPete, which you can reference through the search engine on this board.

Although you suffered through one miserable night, you still were able to accomplish your goal! Congratulations! I hope the trip was memorable for both your summit, as well as the lessons you learned along the way!

-Laura

PS: For the record, it's TOUGH sometimes to pick Whitney out of the lineup from Trail Crest!