Mt Whitney backpack

The idea of climbing Mt. Whitney was Daun's. She had space on a permit for 5 people for June 15th weekend and asked if Patsy and I would like to join her and Dave. Patsy had backpacked up from Whitney Portal over 15 years ago and said, "No way. It's a freeway". There are just too many people who head up that way each day. When I checked the maps and the NFS web site, http://www.r5.fs.fed.us/inyo/vvc/wild_permits/permits.htm, however, I read that "Quotas for the Cottonwood Pass trail in the Golden Trout Wilderness will remain the last Friday in June through September 15." So there was no quota beyond the group limit of 15 people on the June 22nd weekend. I made plans with this in mind, inviting everyone I thought might be interested. Eleven people expressed interest then Beth suggested I check with the Lone Pine ranger station. Sure enough, their web site dated "Wilderness Permit System Changes - 2002" was wrong. There have evidently been changes to the changes. The quota period for Cottonwood Pass had been changed to May 1st. Not only that, but there's also a limit of 12 people per day who come over Cottonwood Pass who are allowed to enter the Whitney Zone. I had to reserve a permit for $165. It's still not clear to me if you have to pay the $15 per person fee to enter the Whitney Zone whether or not you reserve a permit ahead of time.

In the end Daun and her daughter Shauna couldn't make the trip, but Dave still came and he drove most of our group up in their "bus".

Nancy and I left San Diego around 2.30 pm Friday afternoon and drove up to Lone Pine. Beth, driving separately from Los Angeles, met us at the Mount Whitney Restaurant at 9 pm. We drove together up to Whitney Portal where we left Beth's car. The three of us then drove to Horseshoe Meadow, the Cottonwood Pass trailhead. In the dark, despite numerous admonitions not to leave any food in the car, we could only locate one bear box and that was stuffed to capacity. We started driving back down the road, contacting Dave by cell phone to learn that he had just reached Lone Pine. Passengers in his vehicle were Patsy, Chris, T.J., Werner and Yani. Driving back down the side of the mountain I discovered a spur in the road that afforded an aerial view of Owens Valley yet was separated from Horseshoe Meadow road by a small rise. We opted to camp for the night on this spur at around 6,500 ft.

Saturday morning we awoke soon after sunrise and enjoyed our last good meal for three days, buckwheat pancakes, Peet's coffee and a ham and cheese omelet. We packed up and drove back up the mountain to the Cottonwood Pass trailhead. Hiking up Cottonwood Pass was remarkably easy, only about a thousand feet elevation gain. The trailhead sign just over the pass is a little confusing, however. In small groups, we almost all went the wrong way, heading down to Big Whitney Meadow, before realizing our mistake and heading back to the junction to discover the Rock Creek trail. The trail down to Rock Creek crossing, where it joins the Pacific Crest Trail, is fairly unremarkable by Sierra standards. However, we did meet up with a couple of PCT "thru" hikers, Kendra and Katie, both of whom Beth had met several weeks earlier in Kennedy Meadows. By mid-afternoon, Patsy wasn't feeling well. She had minor altitude sickness symptoms. I strapped her backpack on top of mine and we continued as best we could. Fortunately she began to recover as we headed down to Rock Creek crossing and I gladly returned her pack. We camped at the Rock Creek/PCT junction that night since it conveniently sports a bear box and we had only 3 Garcia bear canisters between the 9 of us. Dave went downstream and caught five Golden Trout which we shared. There were no bear encounters that night. There were, however, more than a few mosquitoes.

Sunday was a very leisurely day, the most relaxing of the trip, with some of the best scenery. We hung out at Crabtree Meadow for several hours over lunch while Dave caught some more trout. Over the course of the afternoon our group meandered in to the campsites at Guitar Lake, meeting up with an equally large group of PCT thru hikers. A battle raged between us and the marmots. No sooner would you turn your back than one of the furry critters would be investigating your pack.

Monday morning the alarm awoke us at 4.30 am and we shuffled around in the dark, preparing breakfast and packing up. Patsy left first at 5.15 am. She was hoping to reach Trail Crest and call in sick before her boss arrived at work; Patsy had a bad headache and wouldn't be in until the next day. By the time Nancy and I reached the junction, only Patsy's pack was there. We dropped off our own packs and continued on towards the summit. Patsy had reached the summit at 8.30 am. Nancy and I were not too far behind at 9.15 am. Over the course of the next hour, the rest of our group arrived at the summit. By this time, a fair crowd had assembled. All the PCT'ers and numerous other people who had come up from the east side. We started back down at 11.30 am. The trip down to Whitney Portal seemed a lot further than the advertised 11 miles. At 7 pm Beth, Dave and I left in Beth's car. Beth drove us back to Horseshoe Meadows to collect our cars. The round trip from Whitney Portal to Horseshoe Meadows and back to the Portal took exactly 90 minutes. We hurriedly drove back down the hill, hoping to find the Mount Whitney restaurant still open, which it was. After dropping Nancy off at her house, taking a shower and doing a few odd jobs I finally hit the sack at 4.30 am, my first 24 hour day in many years. Was I ever tired!

This is probably the best, and the fastest if you still want to enjoy being out there, way to climb Mt. Whitney. Sure, you can do it as a day hike from Whitney Portal but, coming from sea level, that's just asking for a very unpleasant experience. Backpacking up from the east side doesn't seem much more appealing because of the crowds (130 day-hikers plus 60 backpackers are allowed access from Whitney Portal every day). You can expect to meet a lot of people on the main drag. In contrast, coming from Horseshoe Meadows we got to see much more country and, just as importantly, we were able to acclimatize better by spending consecutive nights at 6,500', 9,500' and 11,500'. Most of us still had minor headaches, but overall we each felt pretty good. In retrospect, an extra day would have been a good idea to avoid the drive home in the wee hours of the morning. That drive was far harder than the hike up to Mt. Whitney.

Finally, a note about gear. I found that I never had to carry more than a quart of water (although I did carry two quarts to Trail Crest) and my backpack, a Lowe Alpine Walkabout 35 (2,100 cu.in. capacity, purchased in the U.K.), weighed only 30 lbs. I was carrying a Sierra Designs Orion 2 man tent, a Garcia bear canister stuffed full of food (it would be a feat to fit six days' worth of food inside one of these), a full length Thermarest strapped on top, all my clothes stuffed inside around the bear box and other odds and ends, e.g., camera, headlamp and cell phone (for Patsy). Patsy carried a single sleeping bag that we shared; her backpack weighed only 20-25 lbs. Several stoves and water filters were shared amongst the group. I wore lightweight New Balance shoes with low cut heels because I was concerned about exacerbating injuries incurred to my Achilles tendons whilst running, but the constant pounding downhill (mostly on decomposed granite) to Whitney Portal demands a heavier shoe.

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