Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board MR Route Trip Report 7/2/08

Hey everyone,
Thought I would post up a trip report. Me and my wife spent 3 days up on the MR Route. The trip up to our camp at lower boy scout lake was easy and my wife had never attempted to climb any mountain so for her to get past the ledges was a pretty huge feat but she did it with no complaints.
Since we were coming up with out being able to camp at the portal we decided to make our basecamp at lower boy scout lake instead of heading farther up the trail. It worked out nice and we had the place to ourselves the whole time, although I will mention I was surprised how much farther it was from topping out on the ledges to lower boy scout lake. For some reason I thought it would be closer then it was. Perhaps it just seemed far lol.
We had a great night although the misquitos there are crazy and Off dosen't seem to help too much. That must be the real reason people like to move higher on the mountain.
The next day we woke up at about 6:30 am made some breakfast and headed off to summit. The climb up was actually really enjoyable for both of us and the trail was really easy to figure out, we didn't get off the trail once and never needed a map or anything. We hit some snow in the canyon before Iceberg lake but nothing horrible.
I was still surprised my wife was doing so well, no problems at all. until we got to around 13k she started freaking out a little and we decided it was best to turn around rather then get her in a position she was too scared to get out of.
It ended up being a good move as we both came down with slight symptoms of Altitude Sickness on the way down. No doubt due to our quick rise from sea level since we live in Lake Forest which it about 50' above sea level.
Despite not summiting it was still a great time and even though my wife doesn't plan on returning she is happy she did it and pushed herself so far. As for me I think I am going to return next spring/summer and try again.
Stay safe out there!

Good job dude. That mountain isn't going anywhere.

Great job. My wife would have killed me trying to take her up the MR without experience.
"Oh come on honey it is not too much farther and it really isn't that scary"

Yeah I was very happy with how well she did, there was another couple who made it to where the lone pine tree is and freaked out and turned around... I thought we would be right there with them but she climbed it no problem.
I think we are going to hit up Mt. San Jacinto before the summer is over... my dad has never hiked that one so I think we are going to make it a trio and she will for sure get her first summit there based on how well she preformed on the MR.