Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Thor peak memorial

My name is Ilene Ashcraft, the wife of the late Kent Ashcraft.
First I want to thank all those that have expressed their condolences for Kent's passing. You have all been so unbelievably supportive in so many ways, your thoughts and prayers have been felt. Sincerely, felt.

I need some advise . . .
Ok, this is kind of scary,
never went up to the mountains without kent organizing everything for us, driving, preparing the food, sleeping gear, etc. But I feel this is something we need to do. This is Memorial Day weekend and we would like to pay our respects to Kent Ashcraft. We will be driving in on Sunday evening then trying to hike up to the base of thors where kent fell on April 20th. Andrew would like to hike the almost 14 year old twins up the top of thors (a different route then kent went up). Andrew has been up there before - but do you have any reminders for him - which shute is the best for them to go up? Please let me know your thoughts. We would like to try to leave from Whitney Portal by 5am on Monday morning to hike to Thors.

Dear Ilene,

Gosh, I would like to accompany you on Monday, but am involved with something else. The chute Kent liked the most on Thor is the one we call the southeast chute. You hike the main Mt. Whitney trail until passing the spot where Kent fell. Then go another quarter mile or so, until you can see the eleven logs crossing the stream. Don't go to the logs, but turn immediately right and you will be ascending toward the southeast chute.

It should be almost free of snow. They can climb the southeast chute all the way to the giant slanting summit plateau. When they reach the edge of the summit plateau (still an hour from the summit itself), they should look carefully around, so they can remember where that point is for the return.

I will be finishing a climb of Mt. Whitney Sunday late afternoon. Hopefully I will see you. I always try to make it down before the kitchen closes, around 5:30 - 6:00.

Good luck,

Bob

Ilene, I am sorry that I'll be committed elsewhere in the State.

I'm sure that many would want to join you, in spite of being an intrusion into your family grieving.

Bob's advice is sage, as always. Andrew will do fine, Kent prepared him well. The route is safe, although hard work. The hour sounds good, you'll see a gorgeous sunrise.

Have comfortable broken in shoes, do not be in a hurry, and take rests stops as often as needed, so the altitude will be less likely to cause problems. Everyone should drink more water than they think they need. But you know all that. This should go well, and it will be a fitting memorial to Kent.

Ilene:

Would love to hear about how the hike went. I just talked to Tom, whom you met at The Store this weekend. I'm sorry I wasn't in town to see you and the family.

All the best,

Laura

Ilene, hope your memorial day was everything you hoped for, it was nice to meet you and your family in the lobby of the hostel Sunday afternoon. I was lost for words after being introduced, and just wanted to say, God really must have a special plan for you and your family, and I know many of us that revere the Sierra as our home and those that dwell there as our family, will have you in our prayers for a long time to come.
Dave

It was so fun to meet so many at the Hostel and see the nice accommodations there. Doug you've done an amazing job in the ten year process of establishing the Hostel and I hope many others take advantage of opportunity to mingle with other hikers in that kind of atmosphere.

We didn't stay at the Hostel cuz, kent's tradition was to go camp out in the Alabama Hills and we wanted to keep that tradition alive. The weather was unbelievable. We chose not to set up the tent, so that we could just enjoy laying there under the stars.

We were there in time to bring out the firewood and built a big fire to roast our hotdogs, and enjoyed being together as a family.

We set the alarm for 4am, but after putting everything away, driving slowing to Whitney Portal, getting the hiking equipment and everyone with their own backpack or fanny pack, etc. Goodness we still didn't get started up the trail til 6:15am.

Nathaniel (13 yr old) started lagging behind, but when Ilene asked Nathaniel to help her across certain parts of the trail - his inward worries of inabilities seemed to subside and he regained a renewed energy. It's amazing if you're hiking or doing anything for someone else, how your own inabilities cease to exist (or they're not so pressing)and you can conquer the world. That's why hiking is so good for us - We teach ourselves to (as my daughter, Tiffany kept saying to Nathaniel) "You've got to rise above it". Hiking is just as much emotional as physical.

And we did it. We got to the area of the Chute where Andrew was standing when he looked down and saw kent descending rapidly through the icy snow below.

ps. How do I go about posting pictures from our trip?
Stay tuned for more amazing info.
Eager to share,
Ilene Ashcraft- Kentswife

Check out the FAQ page. You've got to have the photos on-line somewhere already (no uploading to this server). Here's the link: FAQ images
 

Ilene...
I never met Kent in person but, like many here, knew him through the boards. He was such a help and inspiration in helping me to get my Boy Scouts movitated in the right direction... and in helping -me- get the gumption to help the boys in the right direction.

I would like to say congratulations to you and your family. And Thank you... even through the adversity that you and yours have faced these last several weeks you carry on Kents memory and tradition... inspiring the rest of us and teaching us how to carry on, despite whatever hurdles we may face.

My families prayers continue to be with you and yours. Keep up the good work... and please don't be a stranger...

It states that In order to add an image to your message or your signature, you must have the image already available on a web server and reachable by a URL. This can be an image on your own personal web page. Can I access it through my own email account or do I have to open up a whole new webpage account?

I appreciate your message. I am honored that you speak so highly for Kent and his ability to touch the lives of so many people. I am so blessed to have been with him for almost 25 years, with 6 children. To enjoy his sense of humor, his thirst for knowledge (he was always reading gospel doctrine and desired to vacation as a family to all the church history sites), his work ethics and determination to help others - rather it be up the mountains with children, family, friends, relative (he was a scout merit badge counselor for many things), His handyman work around the house, or working around his parents house in Utah in the short 3-5 day visit we would squeeze in. We loved going dancing together. We were apart of the South Bay Dance Club and everyone knew we were not going to share - or change to other partners.
I've talked enough. Thank you for your kindness.
Sincerely,
ilene

Ilene:

If I can help you out posting pictures, please let me know. I have plenty of space on my web site and can either help guide you through the link creation or set the links up myself in a post within this thread.

If you check my profile, you'll see I'm a long-distance (flatlander) participant but this board was a great resource back when my son and I hiked up Whitney back in '01 and I try to contribute where my expertise and interests can be useful.

You can email me via the "contact" link on my web site.

Hi Ilene. I think Kent had a photo account with Webshots (one of several popular photo hosting sites), on which he had a number of existing photo albums. If that account is still active (don't know if it was a paid or free account), then any photos that you upload to that site can be shown here in one or two ways. Without going into too much detail, probably the simplest of the two ways to do it would be to upload all your pictures into a single album on Webshots, and then simply post a link to that album in one of your future posts here. If you have more than a couple of pictures to upload, then that's probably the simpler way to do it. If you are unsure how to do what I just described, than I'm sure there are several of us here who would be glad to help you do it.

Thanks so much for all that you are sharing with us here. I know it means a lot, and it is a real tribute to Kent. I could especially relate to your description of rising beyond yourself when helping others on the trail, and how hiking is as much emotional as it is physical.

CaT (David)