Mt Whitney (14,496 ft) & Mt Muir (14,012) from Whitney Portal by Brian Schultz Saturday June 28, 2003
We'd talked of climbing Mt Whitney for a long time and finally agreed last year to get the ball rolling. Some advance planning was necessary because we wanted to hike the popular Mt Whitney Trail and it required entering a lottery. It entailed listing preferred hiking dates and whether we'd be dayhiking or backpacking- we submitted as dayhikers to better our odds because more permits are issued to them. Tim entered us in the February lottery ($15.00/person for a climbing permit); we listed five dates to climb, waited until March for our notification and surprisingly got our first pick. Not too bad, considering we were vying for a weekend slot. Tim, Jason, Connie, and I would be climbing as a foursome.
We met up in Lone Pine on Friday evening. Jason and Connie drove in from Colorado, Tim flew in to Las Vegas, as did I, but with Tim's flight two hours ahead of mine, he drove on ahead to secure our hiking permits. Horror stories on the forum at http://whitneyportalstore.com prompted us to make sure we had our permits the day before our hike. Coincidentally, all of us had driven through Death Valley (temperature around 115 degrees F) on the way to Lone Pine and I was happy to arrive without falling asleep at the wheel, for I worked all night with zero sleep and managed only 45 minutes of shut-eye on the plane before driving the 250 miles.
After dinner and agreeing to a 3:30 AM wake-up, Tim and I turned in at 10:00. I awoke at 2:00 and couldn't fall back asleep because I started thinking about the hike. Always disconcerting to me is coming in from an elevation of 857 feet in Minnesota and climbing above 14,000 feet and wondering if the altitude will be a problem. And the 7,000 feet gain from trailhead to summit would also be more than I've ever done in a day. Thoughts of that, the weather, grizzly bears, and many other things kept me wide awake until the alarm rang.
Tim and I picked up Jason and Connie at their motel at 4:00 AM. We were mostly quiet as we drove up the thirteen mile Whitney Portal road in the dark. Our hike started at 4:44 on a wonderful sand and dirt trail and we only needed flashlights and headlamps briefly. Sunrise greeted us shortly as we set a good pace up the trail, and with clear skies forecast to last the entire day, we were in good spirits. The scenery along the route had us stopping for pictures early and often.
Outpost Camp for the backpackers was reached after 4 miles and we took a long break there. The weather was already warm and sunny with no clouds- a perfect morning- as we continued along to the next camp, Trail Camp, where the famous 97 switchbacks lead up to Trail Crest and deliver hikers to the ridge. This is near the intersection of the Whitney trail and John Muir trail and it took us exactly 6 hours to get there from the Whitney Portal. But it was discouraging to find out we still had 2.5 miles yet to reach the summit. The trail loses elevation as it drops down but remains excellent while weaving around the towers and obstacles of the ridge.
When we reached the gullies below Mt Muir, I built a small cairn to mark one of them because on the return we planned to climb Mt Muir as well. Eventually we closed in on the summit of Whitney and my tired legs finally stepped on top at 12:42, almost 8 hours after starting. The summit is large and broad and we stayed on the highest point of the contiguous 48 states for nearly an hour, enjoying the beautiful weather, taking photos, and watching many other hikers come and go. We finally left at 1:40.
We reached the gully for Muir at 2:19 and headed up while Connie proceeded on. She had ankle surgery last year, leaving her with two permanent pins in her foot and some bones fused together, and wasn't pushing her luck. Actually, I'm amazed she could even hike at all, let alone tackle the long route on Whitney.
From the Whitney trail it's only 250 feet to Muir's summit but the ascent is on loose rock and the lack of sleep was catching up to me. Every step up was an effort until reaching the slabs and blocks at the top, but I was rejuvenated at seeing bona fide climbing ahead and found my second wind scrambling up the class 4 rock behind Tim and Jason. Actually, Jason scooted ahead, reached the top, and waited for us as we squeezed through a narrow passage, climbed up a chimney and stepped across a crack to pull ourselves up to the summit. There was only room for two on top at a time. The exposed summit was thrilling and the views were outstanding. It was a wonderful bonus after climbing Mt Whitney and we reveled at achieving the tiny summit. We couldn't think of a single Colorado fourteener with a summit as small as this one with the exception of Sunlight Peak and it only took 20 minutes to climb it from the main trail.
We stayed 10 minutes and left at 2:49, passing by two ascending climbers who were nearing the summit. Back on the main trail, our uneventful descent at least offered good views of Mt Muir and the lake near Trail Camp but it seemed to never end. We took lots of rest and food stops and finally pulled in to the parking lot at 7:56. My legs were totally sore and I felt like I just climbed the hardest fourteener in my life. And it was only a class 1 walkup! We barely made it back to Lone Pine before the restaurants closed but found a decent Mexican place to eat at.
I set three personal records on this hike: length of route- 22 miles, most elevation gain- 7,000 feet, and total time- 15 hours and 12 minutes. What a day!
Trailhead to Mt Whitney- 7 hours 58 minutes
Mt Whitney to Mt Muir- 59 minutes
Mt Muir to trailhead- 5 hours 7 minutes
Total hiking time including all breaks and time on summit- 15 hours 12 minutes