Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Gamblers Special Peak

Saturday, 12 May 2007
Whitney Portal to Gamblers Special Peak

PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/2850842#152865536

Gamblers Special Peak is named in the memory of the 35 people who lost their lives in the ill fated DC-3 Feb '69 plane not found til 6 mo later. The wreck is 1500' below the summit.

It took 7 hrs to go the first 4.5 miles with altitude problems, but an hour after taking Diamox I felt a lot better. Should have done it sooner! It felt good to be back in the Sierra again!

Nice photos Snowy. It was good to finally meet you Saturday night.

great pictures - captured the day excellent

nice trip report over on HST - brings back the lesson of the day ..... acclimate acclimate acclimate - this was my 6th weekend in a row above 10k feet and it makes all the difference in the world when it comes time to mow that uphill

signed up with smugmug this morning - so I will try and get some up later tonight

Great photos, Snowy! That looks like a lot of fun to do. Perfect for me to practice my Class 3 climbing!

Would love to head out one time with ya. Let me know when you guys go to play!

-L

Congrats Snow Nymph and Tomcat,

Looks like a pretty stout scramble, both up and down. Snowy, superb photos as always. I couldn’t tell from all the photos, but is the airplane wreckage still visible?

Cheers,
RickG

I can see a hydration tube, but what in the center case and gear attached to the left shoulder strap??

if you are referring to my gear - I use a e-trex Vista for downloading my tracks into computer when I get home - also my cannon ps s80 hangs from chest strap for easy access.

Rick(the E.)- the plane wreckage is in a different location - appr NE of the peak - but lots of vertical so was not visible from our location. if we had gone to the tarn - then crossed over to the saddle then dropped 1500 feet and the traversed around we would be able to answer your question - save that for a different day.

Tomcat_rc

edit 10:10pm - not sure why I am the one answering checksix - that is not me in the photo #6

finally got some pictures up. the only comments I would add to Snow Nymphs are

the mesquitos are out - bring deet
the views of Whitney and all the surrounding area were spectacular - we counted 9 14k+ peaks we could see while on summit

pictures now up - I will finish adding captions later:
Gambler Special pictures

Great trip, and beautiful photodocumentation, you guys!

I'm amazed that you would have had problems with altitude, with the amount of time you spend at altitude, hiking. It's also unusual that a person would respond to Diamox so quickly, used when it hit, as opposed to the usual way of using it, beforehand. That was sure a bonus! I know from personal experience that it sure makes you feel punk, glad it didn't ruin a great trip.

Nice pics, I think I know where I want to go next

tomcat_rc's picture #31 has a great view of the switchbacks, outlined in snow.

Bob R. posted a shot of the switchbacks from Muir a couple of years ago, looking from the top-down and incredibly detailed.

Anyone who hasn't done the switchbacks should look at both pictures - they really give you a perspective of what you're up against, particularly if you want to go up the chute.

Greg, is this to what you were referring?

High resolution version here. See also upper and lower switchbacks.

(Sorry; this is obviously way off topic. Using the opportunity to practice a bit with the new format, and with my new photo hosting site. I'll delete this post after a day or so.)

Hi Ken, The only way I’ll avoid altitude problems is to stay in it. I’ve been hiking in the desert this year, mostly between 5-9K, and Tomcat kept telling me my speed was improving. I told him to ‘wait til I’m in high elevation and that’ll change”. I was feeling a little on Telescope, but not enough to make it miserable. A few weeks ago we drove up to the Inyos to 9800’ and at the start of the hike I started blacking out. I had trouble that night with breathing, dizziness and blacking out. But the next day I kept a good pace on the short hike we did at about the same elevation. I need at least one day at elevation to feel normal. I try to avoid Diamox, but I guess I was desperate. I was amazed the chest pain went away. That was the 3rd long break we had taken, so I’m thinking the rest combined with the Diamox helped.

Bob, you should leave the photo, don't delete.

The next day we hiked out of Onion Valley and turned back partly because of snow and tired legs. After, I drove 20 miles up Mazourka Canyon to Mazourka Peak (great views), and made stops on the way down.
PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/2855354#153160390 (now this is off topic)

Bob R. - yes that's the picture. The 'zoom-in' detail on that photo is phenomenal. tomcat_rc's gives a different perspective, along with a shot of the snow climb.

Seems like there should be a permanent place for pictures like these, hosted by the message board. Nothing tells the story like a great photo.

my turn to do a test preview ok I got the width figured out - but still would expect to link to the photo if I click on the posted photo

Wow..those are both fantastic photos...!

Chris

Since you're using smugmug, which offers various sizes of your picture, you really don't need to give a size; just use the appropriate jpg (small, medium, large, etc). If you are using UBB code and not HTML, a clickable image looks like this:

&#91URL= http://tomcat-rc.smugmug.com/gallery/2851355/1/152910498 ]
&#91IMG] http://tomcat-rc.smugmug.com/photos/153227361-M.jpg [/IMG][/URL]

(Credit goes to V.Fred for showing me this.)

thanks Steve (and Fred) - honest I wasn't being lazy - trying to post during lunch from work was limited time - will look closer tonight when I get home.

edit: Anita - thank you for the review - I always love your positive comments

ok that works - now if my memory works as well - I'm in business

Lots of interest in this peak currently. Below is what the LA Times was reporting the day the wreckage was sighted. A readable image and some other pictures are here.

And some details.