Whitney Mountaineers - Best Hike Ever!

Rhett, Jared, Brad, Maryann, Michelle, Kevin at 14,505 feet

Last Thursday and Friday, August 9-10, I went to go climb Mt. Whitney. It was my second time summiting this mountain! The first time I did it was in September 2006. It was such an amazing experience that I had to do it again!
Mt. Whitney is just 4 hours away from Huntington Beach in the Sierras and stands at an altitude of 14,505 feet. It's the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states. The Main Route to the summit is a very popular hike, starting at the Whitney Portal at 8,360 feet. It's a non-technical route, 11 miles each way. That's the route I did last year with my friends, Rebecca and Alysha.
This year, I went with some friends from Huntington Beach. The guys in my group wanted to take the Mountaineer's Route, which is a more direct route to the top! We covered the same elevation gain in 4.7 miles! It was so much fun!!! When I signed up to do it, I wasn't sure exactly what this technical route entailed, but I've always had this attitude that if other people can do it, so can I!
We've been planning this climb since February when Jared and Kevin got the passes. To train for this, some of us hiked Mt. San Jacinto out by Palm Springs in July. We are all in pretty good shape, though. I've been doing lots of trail running and just started cycling, and all of us were well prepared.
The trip started Thursday morning when I met up with my friends, Kevin, Maryann, and Rhett. We drove up to Lone Pine, a small town which Highway 395 passes through. Most people recognize this as the road to Mammoth. I remember looking out the car window on the drive and seeing the massive granite peaks of the Sierra's rising to the west. They are stunning to look at! And I was headed to the top!

You can see Keeler's Needles and the Whitney summit very faintly in the center background.

After a delicious Mexican lunch (chocolate banana chimichangas anyone?), we ran into a local grocery store to get a few more last-minute food items, and then we headed up the 13 mile road to the Whitney Portal! For a little motivation we blasted Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" as we headed up that steep, winding road towards the mountains.
Once we arrived, we parked the car and gathered all our gear. The daytime weather was in the 60's at the Portal and no rain was in the forecast. We were anticipating nighttime lows in the 30's to 40's, and we all had warm sleeping bags, so we decided to leave the tent in the car. That also took about 15 pounds off Rhett's backpack, which I'm sure he appreciated! I've become a huge fan of sleeping out under the stars anyway. And every August at this time is the Perseids meteor shower, so I didn't want to miss the show!
So we took off on the hike, first weighing our packs. I had the lightest with a pack of 24 lbs! And Rhett, despite leaving the tent in the car, still had the heaviest at 35 lbs. He was carrying the bear canister with all of our food. We were hiking up in bear country, so our permits require us to carry bear-proof containers. All food and anything else smelly has to go inside overnight--toothpaste, deodorant, lotions, etc. I've heard that bear sightings are pretty rare around there now since they know they can't get into the canisters. But we want to keep it that way, so everyone continues to bring their bear canisters!
We started off on the Climber's Route at the far west end of the campgrounds, which met up with the Main Trail for a few hundred feet. We then crossed a little stream and then found our route, which immediately got steeper! The Mountaineer's Route was kind of hard to follow. Kevin had some instructions that he'd printed off the internet which said to basically follow the path of least resistance. We knew which direction we needed to go, so we took off bushwhacking our way through the woods! Occasionally we'd see little orange ties on the trees, and try to follow those, but the trail was not always that obvious! There was a huge granite wall we tried to follow, but often found ourselves back in the trees, crossing streams, and climbing up some rocks. It was a blast trying to navigate those trees with my huge backpack on my back! It was really pretty in there, too! There were lots of flowers and waterfalls.
After a while, we climbed onto some rocks and I immediately recognized where we were from some pictures I'd seen of the Mountaineer's Route. We were on the Ledges. They look a lot scarier than they actually are. The ledges take you up along this granite wall with a pretty steep drop to the bushes and trees below. It didn't take us long to clear the ledges before we were back on some more trails. The trees were starting to thin out and we stayed on the trail by looking for cairns. As we climbed higher, we could see another mountain range far to the east and Lone Pine in the valley below. It was beautiful!
At about 10,000 feet, we came upon Lower Boy Scout Lake. A good thing about hiking up there is the plentiful water sources. We had a water filter to keep refilling our Camelbacks. Fresh mountain water is some of the best water I've ever tasted! We continued up the mountain and at about 7 p.m., we met up with Jared and his friend, Brad, and Upper Boy Scout Lake. This is where we planned to camp for the night at 11,300 feet.
We found a nice flat spot with lots of rocks to block the wind and set up camp. We were able to refill our bladders with fresh purified water from the lake and had a delicious dinner of Stove Top stuffing and tuna! For dessert was a raspberry crumble. It really hit the spot. Even though we had only hiked 2.7 miles, it still took us 4 hours to do being on the steep trail and navigating through the bushes, so we were exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep. We laid out our sleeping bags and went to bed, but no one slept too well! One of the effects of high altitude is insomnia. This happened to me last year when we slept at 12,000 feet. My heart rate was really high, too, since my body was not used to the lack of oxygen. No one really slept all that well for the first few hours, maybe dozing off for 20 minutes or so. Around 1:00 a.m., Kevin, Maryann, and I got up to watch the stars. The meteor shower was supposed to be best in the pre-dawn hours, but we couldn't sleep, so we got up for stargazing. We only saw a few shooting stars and Mars. It was actually a perfect night to look at the stars since there was no moon. The Milky Way was perfectly clear and I don't think I've ever seen so many stars in my life! In Huntington Beach, I think I can only see about six stars!
After about 20 minutes, I took an Advil PM and went back to bed. I fell asleep quite easily and didn't wake up until about 7:00 a.m.
We got up and had oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. The we packed up camp and hit the trails. From Upper Boy Scout Lake to the summit was a much steeper climb. We had only two miles to go, but a climb of over 3,000 feet! The first part of that climb was not too bad. I would say the route became much more difficult after we passed Iceberg Lake at 12,200 feet.
Suddenly we were walking on a bunch of loose rocks. The rocks were big enough we could walk on them, but we still had to watch our balance because they would occasionally slip. There really was no more trail. Everyone just had to find their own way at this point. It was so steep, we were often climbing on all fours to keep our balance. We were all moving at a pretty slow pace now, since the rocks beneath us kept sliding out and occasionally falling below.
Mt. Whitney was right there in front of us. We came to a long scree slope of about a 45 degree angle to the right of the peak. Looking up, we could see some people rock climbing the face of the mountain, taking an even more direct route than us! The scree slowed us down even more. There were some large granite rocks off to the side which we tried climbing. I had never rock climbed before. It was a lot of fun, but I also had to remain focused because if I slipped and fell, I would land on the loose rocks below and probably slide a little ways down the slope. Thankfully, there were lots of sweet hand holds and foot holds. And my trail running shoes had some serious grip! The guys were all real helpful in showing me where to climb and where to place my feet an hands. After a while, we reached the top of the slope. We were at a notch where we could see the next mountain range to the west. The Mt. Whitney summit was only a few hundred more feet up!
But now we had a climb at about a 70 degree angle! There was another trail that from there met up with the Main Route. Maryann and I looked at each other and considered meeting up with the guys at the summit, while they took this more vertical route. But they talked us into climbing up the more vertical route with them. I liked the rock climbing and bouldering a lot, but I have to admit, it was a little scary. We didn't have any special equipment. Each rock we climbed brought us to a spot where we could stop and sit an put our backpacks down if we had to. Anyway, we continued up the steep rocks and a short time later, we reached the top! I knew I was there when I could see the hut! We all went and signed the register. I wrote, "My greatest adventure yet!"
The six of us celebrated, with some Henry Weinhard's root beer we carried all the way up with us. We sat around for a while, basking in our achievement and reflecting on the journey. We took lots of pictures, and then decided it was time to get going. Kevin asked that we all do him a huge favor--or I should say, do his mom a huge favor. She asked that we sing, "How Great Thou Art" at the summit. He had the words printed out, so before we began our descent, we sang the hymn. It was so appropriate, as I looked at the beautiful scenery around us. Then we began the 11 mile trek down the Main Route. Maryann, Kevin, Rhett and I split from Jared and Brad at that point, since they were going to take their time and spend another night on the mountain, so we said our goodbyes and took off. It was Friday afternoon and we were down off the mountain and drove back to Huntington Beach that night.
The tallest mountain in the lower 48 states is literally in our backyard. It's funny that I never knew that until about a year ago. The only thing I don't like about hiking Mt. Whitney is that the trip is so short. It seems like I should be gone a week to do something like this. Oh well, I guess I should just consider it training for my next mountain! Knowing me, I'll probably look back at this someday and laugh and say, "And I thought I was so tough!"