AmandaOT

I would walk 500 miles....

Well maybe not 500, but it sure felt like it at the end. I hiked Mt. Whitney this weekend. Matt and I took the Tioga road through Yosemite to get there. Took 6 hours, but was a spectacular view. We arrived into Lone Pine about 7:00 Friday evening and checked into our hotel. We arrived in town with no clue where the trailhead was, or where the ranger station was to pick up our permits. However, we were hungry, so we enjoyed dinner at a diner on Main St. We talked to a couple guys that didn't make it to the top of Whitney that day, and they told us of their adventure and told us how to get the the trailhead and where the ranger station was. Thank god! We then picked up our permits and were in bed around 9. The alarm went off at 1. Blah! We found the trailhead and started hiking under the full moon at 1:55 AM. Matt was fighting the tail end of a cold and had hurt his back at work on Thursday so he wasn't feeling so swell. At the trailhead, the temperature wasn't that bad, and we were actually sweating as we hiked. However, once we started to climb a bit, we could feel the temp plummet and the wind picked up. It was terrible. My body was warm but my face and hands were freezing. My fingers were turning purple. About 5:30, Matt was too sick to continue. He had been fighting altitude sickness of nausea and vertigo for quite awhile. I told him to just turn back. He said he would be at the trailhead at 3 to pick me up. I turned around the bend and he threw up, so I'm told. So, under the full moon, I hiked by myself. I figured I would hook up with a group at some point. About 6:30 I was walking around the rock ridge below Trail Camp as the sun came up. It was pretty amazing. About 7:30, I hit Trail Camp. The backpackers there were just getting up and starting to tear down camp. I kept trudging on. The rumor on the trail was that from Trail Camp, it was 3 hours from the summit. I don't know who's clock they were going from, but it took me nearly 4 1/2 hours. The switchbacks up to Trail Crest were ridiculous. And what's worse was that I thought that was it, so when I got up there and found that I still had 2 miles to hike, I almost turned around and threw in the towel. I was beat. The altitude had zapped all my energy and I was a little lightheaded. However, It was only 9:00 and it didn't look that bad. About halfway into it I contimplated turning back again. By then it was 10:00 and I felt that I would rather die then finish. I was exhausted. However, if I had turned back that early in the day being that close I would have got an ear full from Jeanine, so I trudged on. I hooked up with this guy Todd from Orange County. We hiked the last leg together. He was behind the rest of his group because he was also getting lightheadedness that slowed him down. Finally, at the top! I made it up there a little after 11. It took me about 9 hours and 15 minutes to get there. And it was so cold! I hadn't been out of the wind for more than an hour all morning. My face, especially my lips, were raw from the wind. My lips were numb so that I had a difficult time speaking. When Todd took my picture at the top I was clenching my teeth to keep them from chattering. I spend a good portion of my time at the top sitting in a cubby in the rock to keep warm. I ate a trail mix bar up there. It was so cold that the stupid thing shattered when I bit into it. It was frozen! Around noon I headed down. I couldn't take the cold anymore. Walking down was much nicer on my body. I was actually smiling! Then I got to the portion where you walk up to Trail Crest. Not even a 1/4 of the way up I started with a headache. I hiked the remaining 4 hours with a pounding headache. Luckily, I met up with a guy from Tehachapi and we walked the last 4 miles or so together to take my mind off the pain. I made it down at 5. Matt was there thank god. It was the first time someone told me I looked like shit and I wasn't offended. My calves started cramping 10 minutes after finishing. I really didn't think I was going to able to walk today. All in all it was a great trail and I'm glad I did it despite feeling miserable most of the day. I will never do it again in one day and I don't recommend anyone do that. I would like to go again, but camp at Trail Camp next time. I didn't take a lot of pictures for a couple reasons...1)I was too cold, 2) I was too much in a hurry 3) just plain too tired to care. All my pics are from the top. Pics are here

posted by amanda @ 12:56 PM