Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board South of Mt. Whitney zone on Labor Day

Richard P. invited me to explore from Meysan Lake, Sky Blue Lake, Crabtree Lake, to Mt. Whitney summit for three nights four days. This was my 2nd cross country hike with Richard. The last one was the Tulainyo Lake,Wallace Lake,and Arctic Lake two nights three days in August. Again,I learned so much from him and from this hike.
Route:
09/03/2010
I met Richard at Portal store around 9:00 am. He just finished his 91st Whitney summit early in the morning and visiting GigaMike at Portal Store. Mike told me that my pack was heavier than his winter pack. We headed up for Meysan Lake late afternoon and Mike tagged along to near Camp Lake and turned around. He promised to meet us on Mt. Whitney on Labor day. We camped out the night. Richard went to sleep very fast because of the long day.
09/04/2010
There were three possible routes to Sky Blue Lake,1)Meysan Lake to toward Mt. LaConte,2) Meysan Lake to toward Mt. Mallory, and 3)Mt. Irvine to plateau of Mt. Mallory and Mt. LaConte.
We chose the last one. We headed up Mt. Irvine,13770 feet. The climb was manageable on ridge line of false summit of Mt. Irvine.
The route to the real summit was very hard. Then we went down 600 feet and traversed the 13200 feet of Mt. Mallory to Mt. Mallory and Mt. Leconte plateau. This was very challenging traversing. Then we hiked down 1000 feet of Green Pass to near Sky Blue Lake. Camped there that night.
It was about 5-6 miles a day hike but very hard climb up and down.
09/05/2010
Headed up to Crabtree Pass,12600 feet, down to Crabtree meadow.
We hiked about 10 miles. It was a nice day hike.
09/06/2010
Richard headed up for Mt. Whitney summit departing above Guitar Lake. I headed up Trail Crest to Portal straight down.
Hiked down with GigaMike,Richard P. and Rick Graham together.
They chased me down last two miles. I survived very well under the given my physical condition. My mental condition was very good and positive. I used more water to keep my head and neck cool than drinking it.

General experience of this trip.
I learned so much about packing,food preparation,route finding,mental and physical conditioning for cross country hiking from Richard again. He was very cool and logical about solving any problems.

Personal issue:
Again, I couldn't eat well at all with unknown reason from 2nd day on like last hike. I might have suffered AMS. But,there were a few common denominators in both hikes. I was carrying very heavy pack which compressed my chest continuously so I couldn't inhale well at all and I kept on exhaling all day long. That condition might have messed up my breathing pattern and stomach condition. Richard encouraged me to force eat to get some energy. I hardly ate anything except slice of apple and oatmeal in the morning and nothing at night of 3rd day. I had a cup of hot chocolate and 3/4 of Valencia Orange and water for entire day. I didn't have any problems like this in Mt. Shasta or other hikes. I have to learn how to pack light and eat well by next year. Richard mentioned that Bob R. has a lot of information and he learned a lot from him.

The highlight of the hike:
1)Richard made two Mt. Whitney summits on this weekend.
2)GigaMike got well enough to climb Mt. Whitney with Rick Graham.
3)A young lady hiker spared me a fresh Valencia Orange which kept me alive from Crabtree to Portal on last day. She was an angel!!!
4)Found a last water source on north side of Trail Crest and first water source of south side when I needed a water.

Special thank you to Doug Sr. for serving me a fresh honeydew melon. I can give you a five star rating for customer service.

Nice to meet you Robin and hope to see you on the trail.

Nice to meet Mr. Bill Burke,the oldest American Mt. Everest climber. Good luck on your invitation from Chinese government of climbing Mt. Everest next year and hope to see you on Mt. Baldy in winter time.

See photos on the album link.

Thanks again, Richard.

Shin

WOW, nice pictures again Shin..Congrats to you and that guide of yours, beautiful lakes out there...

mark

I'll start this off by saying that maybe next time we should get Shin up here a few days earlier to hang out with Doug and Earlene for some proper aclimitization. I shouldn't assume that because Shin does a lot of climbing at 10K, he'll carry that over to the Sierra.

Now for a few classic quotes:

"Take him over the top of Mt. Irvine. It's easy terrain." Unnamed individual.

"Your hat's black?" Anna from the trail crew camped at Crabtree.

"Free food for life!" Me to unnamed individual in regard to the reward Shin should receive for making it over the top of Mt. Irvine on the way down to the Mitre Basin. I'd almost call that a classic ridge if I hadn't had a 25#+ pack on my back. It had to be much worse for Shin!

Thanks for putting up with me, Shin. We'll do this again soon.

BTW: another set of classic captions on your photos.

Mine are at: http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/Whats-New-1/Labor-Day-Weekend-2010/13664377_sKghu#997969286_Rgt6Y

Congratulations and those photos of yours and Richards are just breathtaking. I would like to do a trip like that, the terrain is just so beautiful.

Shin, I mean, Thin, maybe eat a lot and gain weight BEFORE the trips next year?

Richard is down to the single digits before hitting 100

A little explanation: the climb of the East Face with Myles is up there in the top three in ranking how bad I felt at the summit, but it was a glorious pain.

Congrats Shin, on completing the xc routes! Nice to meet and talk with you at the Portal. Richard - nice to see the experienced ones passing on their wisdom, creates good mountain karma. And, congrats on the East Face.

Hey Richard, congrats on the East Face climb! Great pics as always too!

Congratulations Richard for 93X Mt. Whitney summit through east face. I didn't know that you could HIKE vertically. The photos are fantastic.

Now you are in counting down mode for 100X.
We are looking forward to climbing with you for 100X.

Please take a good rest today and do more summits on next weekend.

Shin
PS. You are a real animal.

Shin, congratulations on another great hiking trip! Great photos as always. You have some great adventures out there. We all need to get out there and do that!

Richard, congrats on #93 and the east face. I am itching to climb the EF and EB. Looks fantastic!

Thanks.

Doooh! I just noticed that I can change the N to a T and it would be a true representation of what I felt like from above the Fresh Air Traverse... I definitely underestimated what kind of phsical conditioning (especially the upper body) is required to do this route in style and without blowing up.

Thanks again, to Myles for the fun day. And, to Doug for taking it easy on me after the boasting of Friday night. And, for the dinner that was supposed to be my treat on Saturday night!

Shin, I'm already thinking of suggestions for our next trip out. Stay tuned...

That's what I thought you meant when I first read it. What fun, with unintentional pun!

Great stuff though, guys. The EB and EF are definitley on my list too, as soon as I get better at trad. climbing.

Would love to join you guys on your next adventure, the R & S adventures, that is...

Not quite ready to make the annnouncement ('cause I can't remember what I was thinking about yesterday evening), but I think we may be able to squeeze one more in before Winter sets in. You're welcome to join us as long as Shin says it's OK.

Ryan,
You are always welcomed to any hike with us.

Shin

Cool. Thanks guys. Just keep me in the loop on the next one.

Maybe October 29-31, if the weather doesn't dump a bunch of snow in the backcountry?

Sounds good. I've got it marked on the calendar. We'll just watch and hope that the weather stays good.

Thanks Richard.

Shin/Ryan: Center Basin? I've never been there before and have mentioned it at a bunch of times this summer.

Richard,
I couldn't find the Center basin on the map.
Is it near Mt. Joe Devel Peak and Mt. Pickering?
Is it west of Trojan Peak and Mt. Versteeg?

Is it too remote to go or too crazy to go?

I'll be ready

Shin

Here you go Shin
http://sierras.gajc.org/2005/Kearsarge%20-%20Bubbs%20Creek%20-%20Center%20Basin.JPG


could be an interesting loop trip.

Thanks KT.

Shin, I'm thinking point-to-point with the start at Kearsarge and the exit at Shepherd. Anna (from the CM overnight) mentioned Center Peak as being a fun, easy one, and I don't think Junction Pass is that difficult. We can tag Mt. Keith on the way out.

This should be a leisurely three days (Doug'll probably say "day hike"), instead of the marathons I've been taking you on. I'd guess all of this, except for the peaks, is on (maybe not well-maintained) trail.

Of course, it there has been snow, or any threat of bad weather, we'd be pretty dumb to head in to such a remote area.