Me 2007-06-10 Summiting Mt. Whitney
June 10th, 2007
Whooweee, what a day. I’ve hiked to the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mt. Whitney at 14,496ft. Mt. McKinley (known as Denali by the locals) in Alaska is 21,000ft but that’s a whole different sort of adventure.
The morning started early with a song for Tiki’s birthday then we set off up the mountain. I was refilling my water bottle from a nice clean stream at Guitar Lake an hour or so before the sun got to the western wall where we were switchbacking our way up the 4,000ft from our camp.
Lucky Joe, Tiki, Roswell and I rolled on as Wounded Face fell further behind. With all our gear back at camp the climb was easier than some but it was long. Even after reaching the trail that comes up from Whitney Portal on the eastern side we had over an hour to go. The elevation gain left me breathing hard at every stop and I could hear my heart pounding over my foot steps on the rocks.
From the top the view was of course amazing, and I took dozens of photos today. The Sierras stretched out beneath me like wrinkles on a sheet and to the east it dropped off dramatically to the desert. I did try to look over the edge when I first got up there but the particular large rock slab I stood on was wobbly. As I stepped forward it rocked underneath me and I felt like a dizzy spell was coming over me and I was about to faint. It was just the rock moving but it unnerved me so much I didn’t try it again.
We started down just after noon and found Wounded Face still plugging on up with maybe a mile to go. He wasn’t delirious but he was a little odd. I charged down pretty fast, convinced there were 33 miles to do before we branch off the PCT tomorrow and it wasn’t until the others rolled in maybe an hour later that they corrected my maths and I found out I could just say here the night.
So I am, but I’m worried. Wounded Face is up there without enough stuff for the night. We passed a frozen lake this morning and he only has a thin jacket and shorts. If he’s not in his tent by 3am I’m waking up Joe and going to look for him. He may stop at Guitar Lake where tomorrow’s hopefuls will be setting out from. Fingers crossed I’ll find him safe and warm in his tent when I go check.
*update*
Wounded Face walked in around 8pm, much sooner than we expected. He’s tired but happy and talking, he may never know we genuinely feared for his life. Now I can sleep well, 6am doesn’t seem that early if you’re in bed by 8.
More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Summiting Mt Whitney
Distance today: 0 miles. Total distance: 765.3 miles