Long story short: Do NOT underestimate this brutal "day" hike. Why do you ask we decided to summit the highest summit in continental US in one day? Hmm. I think it's because of overconfidence, zero failed summit attempts and in general a sheer love of inflicting pain on ourselves. This type 2 fun activity is totally awesome, but also totally killer. Below is the list of our key mistakes and how to avoid them: 1. Poor Planning We didn't plan. At all. So much so, that we bought peanut butter, jelly, chips for lunch and forgot to buy bread...The night before we started hiking, we didn't even know exactly how long the route was, what the hike entailed, whether or not water was available on the hike, etc. Being a mountaineer, one tends to become quite confident about long hikes and one's gear. This happened to us and it is quite unfortunate because we probably won't get to try again until next year. Due to poor planning, by the time we go to base camp, we thought we were much further than we really were and this was quite debilitating. I highly recommend you plan ahead. Plan your route, your day, your food and your gear. If you're unsure about the snow conditions, call the rangers, look for blogs. But be prepared for alpine conditions at all times. 2. Leaving at 5:30 AM We didn't end up leaving our campsite till it was quite early in the morning at around 5:30. This meant that we started around 6 AM, which is quite late to go up a giant mountain. It's doable if you're a long distance runner, but we weren't in long distance running shape. Bottom line, leave early! Plan to be at the trailhead at 2-2:30 AM and even earlier if you're not in great shape. 3. We carried basic hiking shoes and rented crampons This mistake was actually more significant than starting off late. We ended up making it to base camp (~12k feet) around 11 am, which isn't bad timing. However, the weather was blistering hot and the snow had all turned into slush by the time we got to the snow field. This wasn't ideal. The crampons were basically useless due to the slushy snow. It was taking people 6 hours to summit from the saddle region with full mountaineering gear. We could have attempted to summit at that point. But that would have meant wet shoes, pants and freezing legs for 7+ hours. No thanks. Therefore, bring mountaineering boots in June (pre-summer) weather. For the rest of the hike, my brand new salomon quest hiking shoes worked great without a single blister in my feet. It is true that you can summit Whitney in trail running shoes. But that is possible only after most of the snow is gone. AKA, bring proper shoes for snow traverse on the mountain. 4. Attempt a one-day hike This was easily the worst decision. Justin and I are fit people - not insanely fit, but fit enough. We have hiked half dome in 7 hours round trip, climbed Grand Teton in one day, etc. But combination of heat, slushy snow, improper gear was an utter disaster, especially when combined into a single day's adventure. The smart thing to do would be to spend the night at base camp and still leave for the summit next morning at 3 - 4 AM. Respecting your body is the single most important thing on the mountain and I am glad we decided to turn around. 5. Permits! If you're busy with your career and want to get out over the weekend to climb Whitney, you're very limited with options. Permits are insanely hard to get for an overnight or day trip to Whitney and tend to run out as soon as they are open to public. We made a mental note of booking our overnight permit once the permits were available on the Recreation.Gov website. These mental notes have a way of not working as well as you'd like :D . I recommend you add a calendar update and an alarm to get the exact dates you're looking for. All in all, it was a great experience. The views were stunning, the the company was excellent and the weather was gorgeous. We didn't make it, but I did realize that failures are often a better learning opportunity than victories. And this experience was a solid reminder to train for your goals. Beginning of the hike and first of several stream crossings. This was just divine! Gorgeous view of Lone Pine Lake from the trail. View of Mt. Whitney from the trail camp. Going towards the saddle to the 99 switchbacks We decided to turn back, but had a great time. Until next time Whitney!
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MahimaNuclear Engineer, Product and Strategy expert, Vegetarian, Adventurer. Categories
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December 2019
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