THE MT. WHITNEY ADVENTURE CONTINUED


The alarm went off at 2:00 a.m.  THE DAY had finally arrived.  Having prepared our gear the night before 
(only a few hours earlier!) we knocked on Elisabeth’s door, ate stale doughnuts, stuffed lunches in our 
packs, and headed up to the campground to pick up John.  We hit the trail at 3:00 a.m., our headlamps 
shining. How eerie, heading up silently in the dark, seeing nothing but the trail, meeting no other 
hikers, and hearing no sounds of other living creatures.  Strange how the climb doesn’t seem so bad 
when you can’t see the slope going up!  We passed the mountaineering route and crossed on boulders 
and logs over streams, insulated from viewing the full effect of their swift waters by the black 
velvet of the predawn.  The light began in the eastern sky over the White Mountains and we took 
pictures of our silhouettes in the red, gold, and indigo of the sunrise.  With some regret at leaving 
the magical hours before sunrise, we switched off our headlamps and watched the rock walls of Mt. Thor 
illuminate with first red, then pink, then gold light, all within a period of several seconds.  Elated, 
we joined the loud “Good morning, World” chattering of awakening birds, much to the chagrin of a couple 
of hikers who had sacked out just off one of the switchbacks!

We moved quickly because we knew that, not only did we have to hike the 11 miles to the peak, but we 
needed to be below the exposed Trail Crest on the way down before noon because of predicted storms.  
Due to the darkness and the quick pace, some of the trail had been a blur.  We had not even realized 
that we had walked through sleeping campers at Outpost Camp!  Our first daytime awareness of our 
surroundings was above the tree line between Mirror Lake and Trailside Meadow, a lush green area 
with a thundering waterfall and rushing stream, about five miles up the trail.  After another mile, 
around 6:00 a.m. we reached Trail Camp where many of the campers were just rising.  (We later learned 
that Kathy and Martha, our overnight hikers, had left Trail Camp at 4:30 a.m. and reached the summit 
at 9:30.)  We didn’t stop to chat with other hikers as they sat eating breakfast at their campsites 
because the infamous 97 (or 140, depending on who’s counting!) switchbacks loomed ahead.  After a 
clear dawn, fluffy white clouds were already starting to appear in the sky.  

As we approached the switchbacks, we had our first view on the trail of the Whitney Crest.  The Crest 
had been visible at Big Horn Sheep Park earlier, but we had gone through this area in the dark.  The 
switchbacks took us two miles to the Crest and did not seem as formidable as we had expected.  We did 
cross over a couple of small snow patches and encountered snow at the cables, but the grade was mild 
and we soon neared the end of the switchbacks and had our first view of the hut on the summit.  
Finally we reached Trail Crest at 13,777 feet and the boundary to Sequoia National Park.  As promised 
in everything we had read, the views down the Great Western Divide, a range of mountains running north 
and south through the center of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, were awe-inspiring.  We snapped picture after 
picture of Hitchcock Lake below and distant mountain ranges made more dramatic by the increasing cloud 
cover.  We continued on the rocky tread past the intersection with the John Muir Trail, promising 
ourselves that some day we would approach Mt. Whitney through the backcountry from the west.

As we proceeded along Trail Crest, we were not intimidated, as we had expected, by the Windows with 
their steep drop offs on either side, but they did frame fantastic views.  As we continued to climb, 
the summit hut continued to get closer and closer.  Less than a mile from the top we met Kathy and 
Martha who were beginning their descent after a successful summit at 9:30 a.m.  We made our way 
through the last field of boulders, finally reaching the 1907 stone hut on the peak around which 
milled triumphant hikers.  In this group was a pair that we had run across repeatedly on our hike 
to White Mountain Peak and in Lone Pine!  We signed the trail register, sat in the hut, took in 
the 360-degree views, and successfully placed a phone call, giving an on-the-spot description to 
Dean and Cheryl’s son in Tucson.

Then began the distant rumbling of thunder and flashes of lightning.  All thoughts of lunch forgotten, 
50 hikers made a quick exodus off the summit, the objective being to get at least below the high 
exposure of Trail Crest 2 ½ miles down the trail.  After about two miles we made a brief pit stop 
for a quick energy bar, but the threat of a storm drove us downward.  The switchbacks seemed much 
longer on the way down than they had on the way up, but we got down through them before taking a 
brief interlude at Trail Camp.  Then the rain started.  After donning rain gear, we hiked through 
precipitation, including sleet and hail, most of the rest of the remaining five miles down without 
stopping.  We were thankful that we had hiking sticks to steady us on the slippery downward tread 
that had turned into flowing streams.  We relentlessly trekked past Mirror Lake, Outpost Camp, and 
Big Horn Sheep Park, all areas we had hoped to meander through and photograph on the way down.  
The photographers among us ruefully passed these areas, realizing that pictures taken through 
sheets of rain likely would not turn out anyway.  Thank goodness we had taken the time earlier 
(much to the chagrin of some of our fellow hikers!) to take plenty of photos at Trail Crest and 
the Summit and along the trail to Lone Pine Lake the previous day.  

The streams we had rock-hopped across that morning were swollen.  Upon reaching the last one, 
tired and mostly soaked anyway, some of us simply waded through the water rather than attempt 
to cross on slippery rocks.  What the heck!  Following a 7 ½-hour ascent, we flew down off the 
mountain, completing 11 miles in five hours.  We had completed the entire journey in 12 hours and 45 minutes.