Mt. Whitney - Main trail

[greatshaitan]

This has been a while in the making. I have had my eyes on climbing Mt. Whitney for many years now. Just some quick back story information, about 13 months ago, i was this.


299.8lbs, I was still hiking and climbing, but man was it hard. I decided enough is enough. Started hiking, climbing and canyoneering more and eating less. 13 months later I am this


223lbs before heading up to Lone Pine, I figured carrying a pack weighing 20 pounds was better then a 93 pound pack. So to the trip!

I "won" 3 permits to day hike the main trail up Whitney on 8/25. Got my buddy Josh, and my regular hiking/climbing partner "Patrick the Swede" to join me. We got to Horseshoe meadows two days before our scheduled day hike. Spent the first day reading and did a 6 mile hike to the New Army Pass/Cottonwood Lakes junction.


The next day we drove to the Portal for breakfast. YUMMY CARBS!


After picking up some supplies in Lone Pine we headed back to the campground for more acclimatization. Soon smoke started rolling in and then it started raining ash. This was from both the Yosemite fire and the "Fish" fire in Kern County. Many people left due to the smoke, we just shut the tents and enjoyed the browned skies. The smoke ended up clearing out about 7pm, bed time was at 8pm


Woke up at 2am to hit the trail early. Ended up actually starting at 3:30am. Began a nice steady pace up the trail.


We hit Trail Camp about sunrise and got to see some nice alpine glow.


Started up the 97 switchbacks... For the record I counted 100 going up, and 94 coming down.... Go figure...


Unfortunatly my buddy Josh started feeling the effects of the switchback and on #92 (Out of my 100) had to turn back. We tried to convince him to at least hit trail crest but the mountain won. We made sure he was ok, and watched him head back.


After my 100 switchbacks we hit Trail Crest, view was beautiful and you could see the smoke from the Fish fire. The smoke was not hurting our view any, but the winds were beginning to pick up


Starting the last push we could see the shelter way off in the distance.


Guitar Lake


Then at 11:15am we reached the summit. This would be Patrick's 5th summit, and my 1st.


Fat marmots trying to steal my bourbon


We started back down at 12:00 and got to see all the things we missed in the dark. Beautiful area, simply breathtaking.




We made it off the trail right at 5:00pm and rejoined with Josh for some burgers and a beer at the Portal store. 13.5 hours total round trip. Great times had by all!


More pictures can be found on my personal website.
http://www.drunkreddragon.com/images/adventures/TwodaysbeforeclimbingMtWhitney/index.html

http://www.drunkreddragon.com/images/adventures/MtWhitney14505ft/index.html

[Sally]

Congrats! Thanks for the nice pics with narrative!

[Hikin_Jim]

Nice.

And a great personal accomplishment getting to the point where you could do such a hike.

HJ

[zippetydude]

Excellent job, and what a great long term improvement you've made too! Congrats on both.

BTW, if you think that marmot was aggressive, you should see them after they've had a few shots of bourbon...

z

[Ellen]

Howdy GreatShaitan

Congratulations on multiple accomplishments

Reading your trip reports and seeing you smile always brightens my day.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[Perry]

Thanks for posting those photos, I really enjoyed them. There's been a lot of pancake discussion lately. For a moment, I thought we were on this other thread:
http://www.mtsanjacinto.info/viewtopic.php?t=4285

[greatshaitan]

BTW, if you think that marmot was aggressive, you should see them after they've had a few shots of bourbon...

That sounds like an idea

[HH8]

More pictures can be found on my personal website.
http://www.drunkreddragon.com/images/adventures/TwodaysbeforeclimbingMtWhitney/index.html

http://www.drunkreddragon.com/images/adventures/MtWhitney14505ft/index.html

Great way to succinct-ize the Trip Report and still give us all the good stuff.

[Ellen]

BTW, if you think that marmot was aggressive, you should see them after they've had a few shots of bourbon...

That sounds like an idea

Careful there, GreatShaitan, that brazen marmot looks like the perp who stole my beef jerky

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[arocknoid]

Hey there, GreatShaitan,

Congrats to you on the Whitney hike, and 100 congrats to you on the weight and health successes.

Your TR is a fun read as usual, and I always get a giggle or two with your pics.

This one, BTW (for Ellen!), makes me think of the rejoinder by Marty to Gene, "Too late!"




You see who sent word to his brethren on the summit: Scout marmot doesn't need to resort to snack-food-robbing toursits, but his cousin above the treeline? Weelllll... marmots gotta eat, same as worms.
And they stay for the bourbon.



I've always read your name as "Great Shaitan" with Shai rhyming with mai tai, but after this photo, I was struck that it may instead be pronounced as Ed Sullivan would introduce Beelzebub,
"..and now, introducing the Great Shaitan himself!"
(no offense intended, GS. just seeing dagger-peepers ;-)



Thanks again for the TR, hope Josh is A-ok.

kind regards,
arocknoid