Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board This Bites: Novice Trip Report of August 11th, 2003

Candace: When JHM says he drank 5 liters, he is referring to the fine stout lager I recommended, not water or one of your fancy, new-age sports drinks. I take blame for this, it is how we hike in my home country.

RipVanHiker: I seriously thought about adding my name to the recall ballot, but could not get the requisite number of signatures. I sat outside the Santa Ana REI all day in the heat and got maybe a dozen. Most folks would look at my hobnailed boots, shake their heads and walk away muttering something like "I ain't voting for a dead guy". Feel free, though, to write me in on the ballot.

Your Brother of the Rope,
Andreas

I agree with most of what you said. I just want to confirm that the Whitney experience is different for everybody. My little 18-year old brother day-hiked it with me early this month. He came from New York the week before, never having been above 5,000 ft, and practically ran up to the summitt without much difficulty. I, however lagged far behind, and I had been training & exercising for many months in the sierras (I'm local). ~Doesn't make any sense.

We did spend some time at horseshoe meadows & cottonwood lakes (~10-11,000 ft) 2 days before the hike; maybe that made the difference.

I also want to say that I don't climb because I like all the pretty views (definite bonus however); I do it because I like to stretch myself and push myself to new levels. When I make it to the top, there is an awesome sense of accomplishment. To me that's worth much more than the pretty pictures I bring home.

Having just gotten back from the second-highest point in the lower 48, if you want a "pile of rocks", try Mt. Elbert (CO, 14,433').

It's a shorter hike (10 miles round-trip) and less gain (4,500', roughly) but the north approach takes you up a beautiful/miserable (depending on your point of view...I like having to actually climb sometimes) boulderfield for a thousand feet.

Plus, before that, we did Wheeler Peak (NM, 13,161') over the short but sweet Williams Lake "trail" that takes you from about 10k' to 11k at Williams Lake, then up 2,500' in a half-mile of unrelenting scree/talus to the ridge, from which it is an easy walk to the summit.

Now, I will admit that we used a three-day itinerary for Whitney (Portal-Trail Camp, Trail Camp-summit-Trail Camp, Trail Camp back to Portal) and I wouldn't like to try it as a dayhike, but that was a couple of years ago (see 2001 trip report on my <a href="http://www.mtritter.org">WWW page</a> for details) and my son was still shorter than I am (these kids do grow if you keep feeding them!!), but I'll take even a "busy" trail like Whitney over the same time spent around town, any time!

Joe, I could show you some other Sierra "rock piles" that make Whitney look like a piece of cake (Mt. Ritter, for instance) even though they may be 1,000' shorter. Personally, I'll take 'em all...rocks or not...and I treasure the few days a year I get to spend up in the mountains.

Congratulations on making it up Whitney...now that you've knocked off the "big one", take some time to explore a few other peaks and maybe even read a bit of John Muir's "The Mountains of California". There's a lot of pretty territory out there to explore, and taking it more than a day at a time will give you a bit more perspective and time for reflection...

Andreas, I wish you would have said hi to us as we rolled on by you & the brother in law. We weren't going that fast!! And I must apologize to all those on the mountain as we hooted, hollered and encouraged our speedy friend as he took off down the switchbacks to Guitar Lake on his way to a sub 4 day completion of the John Muir trail from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles in Yosemite. Yes, we were the idiots up there having a good time and making far too much noise, sorry if we offended anyone.

To Daskew: Oh, Debra, we DID say "hi" to you. And don't be modest, your group was blazing fast. In fact, to others, Daskew and her group were some of the amazing people I saw on the trail that day. I think she told us that she'd climb Whitney about 22 times or something. And she manages to do it in about 8 hours round-trip. And I think she is around my age. So, don't be so modest.

rudyray.... You go for it and disregard any discouraging posts. Like yourself I made my first attempt last Sept. and it was an experience I'll always treasure. Preparing for the dayhike weeks before was almost as fun as the hike itself. I acclimated at the Portal two nights, hydrated and grazed while hiking, and took time to enjoy the surroundings. I started at 2am which was a cool new experience and didn't finish till after dark. Good Luck and hope you'll post your experience.