Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board The 2nd Annual Whitney Follies

Thanks Bob, allways read your posts. I took up 3 thirty yr olds this summer, made the top no problem; spent a full day and night at the portal,first night on the trail at TC. Hydrated, good food, full moon, early summit day, first on top for sunrise then back to TC for rest up before all the way down. Then my Big screw up; my nephew had the hardest time and back at TC he hit the tent for a nap. About an hr. later we all packed up and made it down to the portal.My folly; didn't ck on him once while he was napping, will never forget this one!

Here's someone else's major folly to learn from:

At about Lone Pine Lake on the trail, we came across a guy sitting on a rock wrapping his bloody bare feet in what looked like a t-shirt. We inquired as to what had happened. He said that there were more sharp rocks on the trail than he had expected. We thought we would see that his boots were old and torn and not protecting his feet well from the sharp granite rocks on the trail.

But it turned out that he didn't have shoes or boots. He wanted to be the first person to summit whitney barefoot. I don't think he made it.

talusdancer wrote:
> Then my Big screw up; my nephew had the hardest time and back at TC he hit the
> tent for a nap. About an hr. later we all packed up and made it down to the portal.
> My folly; didn't ck on him once while he was napping, will never forget this one!

I don't understand this one -- not checking on someone napping in a tent???

Sorry Steve; an old habit of mine is to do an ongoing eyeballing of each team members mental and physical countenance and once he hit the tent, out of sight out of mind. Needed to keep cking for AMS,HAPE,hypothermia and his hydration;I dropped the ball this time.