On July 26, 2007 a group of San Luis Obispo County residents will be attempting to climb the highest peak in the continental United States; Mt. Whitney.

Our team of five will depart from the Central Coast of California early the morning of Thursday, July 26th headed for Whitney Portal. Once we check in at the ranger station, we will trek to Base Camp at 12,000 ft. There, we will make camp for the night, eat and rest up for the early morning summit.

Friday, July 27th at about 4:00 a.m., we put on our headlamps and depart Base Camp for the Whitney Summit at 14,505 ft. After traversing the famous 99 switchbacks to Trail Crest, we will sign our names in the climber's book located on the peak and begin the grueling 11 mile decent back to Whitney Portal.

The Mountain

Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states, rises like the phoenix from the western rim of the Great Basin Desert of California. At an elevation of 14, 505 feet, Whitney looms high above Death Valley, the lowest point in North America at 262 feet below sea level, less than 100 miles to the east.

Located within the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range of Sequoia National Park, Mt. Whitney is situated on the east side of the Great Western Divide, a chain of mountains that runs north/south through the center of the park, and is therefore not visible from any of the roads to the west.

The Gear

Putting together my gear for this climb has probably been the most enjoyable part of preparing for this trip, other than the physical training which I will discuss in the next post.

I purchased most of my gear from two places: Big 5 Sporting Goods in San Luis Obispo, California, which had the best prices of the several places I price checked. I also went to a local Army Surplus store to get some hard to find items not available elsewhere, like glove shells, a "combat grade" waterproof bag for my sleeping bag, earplugs and a canteen cup.

Here is a list of gear specifically for Mt. Whitney that I pieced together from several sources, including rei.com:

The Training

Training hikes were probably the most important part of my preparation. I started back in February climbing local hills solely in the San Luis Obispo area.

I would train on Tuesday and Saturday for the most part. Tuesday would be a short hike (4 miles) with rapid elevation gain, and Saturday would be a long hike of 10 miles with less elevation gain. I carried a full pack, often with bricks, to get my back muscles in shape for the 16 miles I knew we would have to hike on Summit Day.

Below are the hikes I took with directions to the trailheads:

The Bishop Peak Trail, 2.2 miles (One Way) to the summit from the Patricia Drive trailhead, is now complete to the top. In a joint effort by government agencies and volunteers, this trail was constructed by the Sierra Club, California Conservation Corps (CCC), and California Department of Forestry (CDF).

The Climb

On Thursday July 26, 2007 I woke up after a restless sleep at 2:20 a.m. I was too excited to eat, so just got dressed and jumped in the car for the drive to Atascadero, California to meet the rest of our team.

Our group consisted of me, David Michaelis, Nepal Plummer, Roy Plummer, Greg Slane and Fred Platou.

I worked with David and Nepal at Arrival Communications, where we originally hatched this plan after seeing the U.S. Geological Survey Marker for Mt. Whitney on Nepal’s desk. He had climbed the West Face a year earlier and picked up the marker as a memento. Greg and Fred were friends of Roy from their church. Greg, I was happy to find out, was a former Marine like me. He was in the Corps. about 20 years before I was, yet we spoke the same language as Marines never change all that much. It’s an organization steeped in tradition.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Having had a couple of days to rest and think about things, I wanted to write down a few thoughts about what worked and what didn’t for me on this climb.

I will climb Whitney again. It was challenging, and I enjoyed training and shopping for the gear. As Jack London once wrote: “A man meets himself on a mountain”. I now know what that really means, and the trip was worth it for that alone.

When I climb Whitney again, I would stay at Outpost Camp the first night, then leave at 4:00 a.m. the next morning for the 7.2 mile hike to the summit. This is because at Trail Camp, at 12,000 ft, I was just miserable with every movement. Outpost Camp looked beautiful and it was before AMS hits. I would then return to Outpost Camp for the night and then have a leisurely hike back to the Portal on the third day, stopping at Lone Pine Lake for lunch.