Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board To Newbie Day Hikers, From The Whitney Veterans

WB,

I will second that a thousand times over. Many years ago I day hiked from Tenaya Lake to Yosemite Valley in brand new boots. I learned a huge lesson, I think I had a blister for every stinking mile I walked, about 17 of the the little boogers. I couldn't walk straight for several days.

My big tip for overnight trips is to hydrate heavily every morning before starting out for the day and drink a liter of liquid before bedtime. My night time drink is usually powdered milk, weighs a little more than electrolyte powder and has less calories from sugar with about 36 grams of protein.

wbtravis5152

You are right. Not only is the fit of your boot important; so are the socks. Smartwool socks are excellent. I still use moleskin on occasion (I may be one of the few who still use it). I just like to be 100% sure I will not get a blister. I'm not familiar with J & J Blister Block. It’s nice that you help out others on the trail when the need arises.

To repost that which many already know, I participated in a research study at the Portal, in which we interviewed over a thousand hikers who had attempted the mountain.

Another way of asking the question is: What caused people to fail?

Answer:

1.Altitude illness
2.Altitude illness
3.Dehydration
4.Carry too much weight
5.inadequate preparation (gear or training)
6. Wacko stuff (climbed wrong mountain, took wrong trail, got lost, didn't have permit and got stopped, kidney stone, etc)

Perhaps 20% each for the first four, 10% each for the last two. These are not hard numbers, but my "off the top of my head" impressions.

So, if you are actually interested in succeeding, if you eliminate these factors, you eliminate what stopped almost all of those who failed.

Oh, by the way, there was a considerably higher percentage of people in cat#5...ridiculously improper gear(no light, new boots, no warm layer, no map, tiny water bottle, etc).....but they didn't let that stop them, and they were lucky.

Ken,

1. Altitude Illness twice?

I know this one is over looked by SoCals who spend fifteen minutes on Mt. Baldy, Mt. San Gorgonio and Mt. San Jacinto. At their highest these peak are still 3,000' short of Whitney. And it does make a difference.

I know a lot of people I have spoken to about this trip are affected with AMS for their first time when they attempt to summit this mountain...I know I was. There is, also, a tendency to wall out at about 12,000', for some reason the air gets a lot thinner at this elevation.

I really don't know why more folks, especially newbies from SoCal who are spending a ton of money gearing up, do not head up the the Sierra three or four weeks prior and spend a challenging weekend summitting Cirque, Langley or peaks around White Mountain. I've taken groups to these peaks prior to doing Whitney and they all talk about how it helped them on their maiden Whitney trip.

In general I would have only a few suggestions.

1) Do as much preparation hiking as you can, especially at elevations above 10,000 feet. The biggest surprise for me was how tough the 97 switchbacks were above trail camp. I had never hiked at elevation that high before.

2) Spend extra time up at the portal or Horseshoe meadows, at least two nights. That will go a long way toward minimizing altitude sickness.

3) Pay attention to gear, clothes, water and food. This board would be good in that regard.

location, location, location..........

I summitted on june 20th on a day hike. There were 4 of us and we were all rookies to whitney, we all made it. We did San G a couple of weeks before. Slept at whitney portal the night before. The thing that we did that i liked best, was leaving at 2:30 in the morning. ALOT of people said it wasnt neccasary, and a agree, but it turned out to be a luxury. An early start allowed us to cruise, acclimitize, eat, rest, enjoy the scenery, spend 2 hrs on the top, and get back down by 4:30. We wanted to get a hotel room also, but with the portal campground being so close, nothing sounded better than the three B's, burger, beers, and bed. Oh ya, BYOB, $15 for a 6 pack at the portal store can make a grown man cry.

coming down from trail camp on 6-28, i met 2 dayhikers just below consultation LAKE who said they were carrying 20 liters of water. couldn't believe my ears. Dude, a filter is lighter than that