On Saturday two friends and I reached the summit for the first time on (thankfully) our first attempt.
The day started at 3:45 with short delay after about ten minutes when we realized that our permit tags were back in the car. The stretch from the Portal to Trail Camp only took us 2 1/2 hours. We passed on group fairly early and didn't see anyone else on the trail until after sunrise. There was some snow pretty early on, but most of the trail was cleared. The worst part of this stretch was the ice which I fell on before we realized it was there. After a short stop to eat at Trail Camp we hit the switchbacks where the altitude and snow started to catch up with us. The snow was crunchy enough to trudge through, but it slowed us down. Our failure to acclimate to the altitude overnight (we stayed at a motel in Lone Pine) was probably not a good idea and we started to take regular breaks. On this stretch we were passed by a couple and there were at least two other people ahead of them. Reaching Trail Crest was great, but we really didn't do a good job estimating how much farther we still had to hike. We were passed by three more pairs on the trudge to the top. The views were great and we had no wind until the summit, but the snow and altitude were killer.
The peak itself was extremely windy and we wanted to get back to the portal as soon as possible so we hightailed it out of their after a short rest. We passed another pair on the way down from the summit so we can confirm 15 people reaching the summit on Saturday. On the trip down from the summit we didn't veer left soon enough and found ourselves too far down the backside of the peak. We had to feel our way across some snow-covered, hole-filled sections back to the trail, but started feeling much better on the downhill.
The uphill sections on the way back to Trail Crest were still tough so we didn't make terribly great time. We hit the switchbacks just behind some ladies who had taken our pictures on the peak and followed their lead in putting on crampons for the descent. We passed a group still going up at this point which seemed late to me. The sun was already behind the peaks so the switchbacks were in indirect sun and starting to ice up again. Since none of us had experience with crampons or ice axes we stuck to the switchbacks rather than taking a shorter route down the incline. We hit Trail Camp in pretty good shape, but probably followed the wrong footprints off the flat. From there the descent involved a lot of feeling out a good route to avoid holes under the snow. We stopped to filter some water at one of the lakes (I'm not sure which) near sunset. After taking off the crampons we moved pretty quickly until one of our group started feeling pain in his knees. We all took another spill or two on some ice and trudged back to the car. We did not do a good job noting progress or distance so the last few miles seemed interminable while we thought repeatedly that we just had one more switchback. We hit the Portal at about 9 which is way later than expected. The snow and ice really slowed us.
Today I'm still sore, terribly sunburned on my face, and glad to have done it. When I do the trip again I'll either make it a 2 day or make sure there's no snow. Training would probably help too. At the very least I'll probably go with my dad who has done the trail a bunch of times and knows it well.
The other guys took pictures so I'll try to add some when they upload them.
