Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney Failure, 7-19-08

You're killin' me. Stop already with your wonderful weekly outings, so amazing . . . you are the "luckiest girl" Oh well––stuck here in SF for a few more weeks and then the Sierra will be mine for three!!!

Laura and Richard.
You gotta be crazy to get sucked in to what Scott McKenzie would consider fun!!! Way to go kids.
Scott M. (how do you make some sort of evil smiley face?)

Truer words are seldom spoken.

But it's crazy in the best sense.

I had the privilege of meeting Richard Sunday morning about 11:30 as he was starting up the Main Trail to Trail Camp. He told me about his and Laura's trip. Unbelievable! Said his jaunt up to Wotans Throne was just to stretch out his legs a bit! Amazing stories and great motivation for newbies like myself. Congratulations to both of you. Laura, great write up and photos!

Kind regards,

Mark A. Patton

Thanks everybody!

Mark, it was nice meeting you. As I was walking up the trail, I was trying to guess which Mark you were. Now I know.

RK, I'm signed up for 5 days of SC'08. Looking forward to getting credit for more than one peak this year. I've been working Laura to get her to participate. She kept mentioning that she thought it was beyond her, but it's not.

And one other story Laura: Remember my telling you about the "old man" that I passed at Crook's Peak? (I explained that he had the traverse under Keeler Needle and then the switchbacks up the summit plateau remaining.) Well, I ran into him and another person we'd seen on the JMT a short way up the trail on Sunday. It turns out he had to bivouac at Trail Camp because he was too worn out to continue. Fellow climbers helped him out. He had a cold night, but managed. The other person who helped him out and stayed with him on the way down was one of the three guys we talked to at the Wallace Creek crossing. They had decided to summit a day early and continued on down to Trail Camp. Small world; good going guys!

Thanks to everyone for the continued kind words. I'm actually able to walk more normally today, and the blisters on my big toes have subsided, so I might find a nice leg stretch to do this afternoon after work. Then again, I have more time tomorrow afternoon and White Mountain is looking really appealing...

Again, thanks to Richard for inviting me along on this adventure. I know it wasn't a "failure" to not make the summit, in fact I know I made the right decision in terms of stopping there and making Trail Crest my "summit" for the day. The "failure" comment was actually based on a previous TR format from Rick Graham that I shamefully copied. I really had a fantastic time, and enjoyed pushing my body that hard, especially when I'm in capable hands if something goes wrong!

Richard: thanks for the update on the guy you saw up there. I'm really glad he made it down OK. Looking back, I also should have slept at OV for at least a few hours driving home: I got lucky there wasn't anyone on the road. But the desire for a shower and my own bed was just WAY to strong. I STILL woke up at 0600, dammit!

-L

PS: As for the Sierra Challenge, I'll think about it. Rick insists it's not a competition...

Laura -- As I recall, back when OV - WP was getting a lot of discussion, a certain RP said that he would probably skip the peak, having been there so many times. In his mind, the goal was OV - WP. I am not shocked that he changed his mind when presented the actual decision, but you did the whole hike as described a couple of years ago.

I think it was Rick Kent, not Rick Graham, who introduced "failure" into the titles of amazing trip reports. He did some fantastic Iron Mountain hike and called it a failure. I think we all knew it was in fun. We also all knew that he would go back and atone for his "failure."

It's just a word. And not on George Carlin's list of 7.

BTW: I received a pm from a fellow poster today expressing concern over my symptoms of AMS that I experienced at Trail Crest. So I thought I'd take a moment to clarify things a bit, in case others were thinking the same way.

What I was experiencing at the switchers below Trail Crest was exhaustion, pure and simple. At that point, Richard and I had been awake for almost 30 hours, both of us having worked a normal day Friday before meeting at the Portal, driving to Onion Valley, and starting the hike. I had made every attempt throughout the night and day to hydrate, eat, and refresh electrolytes. Even though my appetite had been suppressed around breakfast time, I was definitely hungry by the time we reached Crabtree Meadows.

So, the symptoms I had on the climb were: deep muscle aching, especially in my hip flexors; moderate difficulty with catching my breath or maintain a regular breathing pattern even with attempted pressure breathing; desire to sleep. From my own experiences, my usual AMS symptoms include head rushes, nausea (usually extreme), and a strong desire to sleep. So of my usual swarm of symptoms, there is only one correlation.

I will hopefully pick Scott M's brain about more regular nutrition during such extreme events (I had food in my pockets the whole time) next week. But another condition that springs to mind was menstrual cycle. Mine started the next day (thankfully!!). Basically, there's only enough energy in your body to go around, and I think there was a shift that occurred at that point. I don't know what the research is (or if there is any) besides those articles that point out that continued stressfull activity in women causes amenorrhea, leading to the unhappy triad of female athletes (loss of cycles, decreased production of hormones which help maintain bone density, and osteoporosis).

AMS is one of those things of which I am acutely aware every time I am out there, and with everyone with whom I am climbing. I would encourage everyone to familiarize him or herself with the true symptoms of AMS vs. HAPE vs. HACE (there's a really good breakdown in Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills). The most important thing to remember is that everyone experiences altitude differently, and symptoms are unique to individuals. It's an extremely important consideration to make with any undertaking into altitude.

-L

You're right, Alan, but the post I was referring to is here.

Graham cracked me up with that one!

-L

As much time as we're spending high these days, I doubt AMS would kick in until about 16,000'!

Your comments remind me of the "winter" dayhike of Whitney that Tina and I had to bail out on a while back. Proves again that you're tougher than most.

Richard & Laura - Congrats on accomplishing such a incredible feat. It might not be a "day" hike, but it was a single push, which is amazing. It was also cool watching your progess Friday night and early Saturday morning via Richard's SPOT.

Btw Laura, all the snakes Rick and I saw this past weekend say "hi"

Laura, the consensus on the cause of ammenorrhea and dysmenorrhea is that it is a result of energy imbalance, not the stress of exercise. Here is the reference article:

Hilton, L.K., and Loucks, A.B. Low Energy Availability, not Exercise Stress, suppresses the Diurnal Rhythm of Leptin in Healthy Young Women. Am. J. Physiol. Endocrinol. Metab. 278:E43-49,2000.

Loucks' follow-up research has since confirmed and built on these findings, showing that energy intake, not energy output, is the primary reason for the disruption.

By the way, awesome hike!

Thanks, Salim, for the reference. I'll be sure to look that one up.

One thing I was wondering, though, was if the start of the cycle corresponded with the significant energy drop I had at the final climb up to TC. I have a feeling it's more from the total exhaustion of the whole hike, but it's an (at least to me) interesting theory.

-L

Laura, you might be interested in this link:

http://www.femaleathletetriad.org/

You could post it on the Women's forum, if you think there is an interest.

Laura,your report reminds me of a famous mountaineer who once wrote

"they did not fail, they made progress"

If interested, I can search my collection of 3000+ quotes and maybe find it.

anyway, congratulations. Harvey