Mt Whitney Hike 2023

Charlie Witherspoon had invited me on this hike, and I was excited/apprehensive about it, given its difficulty.  Justifiably so.  Up until a couple of weeks before the hike, the prospects of getting to the summit seemed very far away.  I regularly did my early morning walks with 14 lbs of weights in my backpack, and I bought Merrill boots that fit me better.  I arrived in Whitney Portal in the afternoon on a Wednesday and spent a while walking around the area to find out where the campsite was.  Found it, drove there, and unpacked the tent (I put it in the Jeep Grand Cherokee rental car as an afterthought, since the others were supposed to bring tents that I could sleep in).  I got a couple of little naps in before Charlie and his son Connor arrived around 10:30.  I helped them unpack and get set up, then went back to sleep, waking up but not getting up when Charlie's other son Ryan and his friend Hussein Elamin showed up at 1:30.  After getting up a little late and having a big breakfast, we drove over to Horseshoe Meadows and did a 5-mile warm-up hike, starting at around 10,000' and getting an elevation gain of about 500' in an out-and-back route.  Back to the campsite, where we spent the afternoon eating an early dinner (taco fixings left over from the retirement open house) and getting our backpacks ready for the hike.  Others were in their tents by about 5:30, but I knocked around for another hour or so before getting in mine and reading for a while.  I probably got about 3 hours of off-and-on sleep before we woke up at 11:15 to break camp and drive over to the jumping-off point.  There, we met Connor's friend Sam Beilman, who had driven in from Reno after working a night shift and sleeping during the day.  We started on the trail around 12:12 and made good time.  Temperature and conditions were ideal for a night hike, including a super moon 2 days past full that allowed us at one point to hike without our headlamps.  We made the first 4 miles in under 30-minute mile pace, and these included several stream crossings that were uneventful.  The trail and switchbacks on this section were well maintained and not too strenuous, especially at this elevation.  This brought us roughly to Outpost Camp and then Mirror Lake, after which we soon hiked above the tree line.  The next stretch of 2.5 miles had us getting onto snow fields for the first time, and it was initially dicey but doable.  It was significantly steeper as well on this stretch, which slowed our pace.  This brought us past Trail Camp, where we had a break, and up to the beginning of the 99 switchbacks up to Trail Crest.  We were here before sunrise, and this made the trail a little more treacherous, due to the large amount of water runoff from the snow fields that was frozen on the rocks.  It took us about 1:40 to get up the switchbacks, which involved 4 snow field traverses, one of which required me to put on crampons.  I had a couple of slips on the icy rocks going up but negotiated things pretty well and was feeling good at the top.  I had a couple of doses of Ibuprofen up to this point and wasn't feeling any altitude sickness symptoms.  But I could definitely sense the exertion level and my shortness of breath.  From Trail Crest, at about mile 9, the trail dips down about 150' to meet up with the John Muir Trail, and got out ahead of the others for a while before waiting for them to catch up.  Then the trail tipped up for the next 2 miles along the backside of the ridge to the west of this section of the Sierras.  We got to the point in the trail where a snowfield was preventing us from continuing, at which point we bouldered up to the peak.  Me, Charlie, and Ryan were in one group that went a little farther before getting onto the bouldering field.  This was quite difficult, both physically exhausting and difficult to plot the right route up through the boulders.  Charlie was feeling the effects of the altitude at this point, and he wasn't digesting the protein bars he had eaten earlier.  Which brings me to my nutrition situation.  I didn't manage this well.  Didn't eat and drink frequently enough for the level of exertion we were putting in.  Charlie and I got up to the top around the same time, just before 10:00, as I waited for him to follow me up the boulder field.  We spent more than an hour up at the top, where I ate some food and had some fluids.  Then it was back down through the boulders, at least as difficult, maybe a little more so, on the way down.  The adrenaline of having reached the summit was wearing off, and the group was a lot quieter on the way back.  To the trail and down, which was a welcome exertion of different muscles.  On the little uphill stretches back to Trail Crest, it was arduous, no other word for it.  My climbing legs were worn out.  There was some discussion about glissading down the snow field, but calmer heads prevailed and we took the switchbacks.  Several of the hikers were out of water, so Ben, Hussein, and Connor (who were also probably chafing at the slower pace of us older hikers) hiked faster down to the lake by Trail Camp.  I had drained my water bladder, and even though I had water in bottles in my pack I wanted to keep up with Ryan and Charlie, so I didn't stop to drink.  This was a mistake, as I got to Trail Camp dehydrated.  The crossing of the snow fields on the switchbacks was also dicey, since the snow was mushy and sticky, so much so that on the stretch where I put the crampons on, the snow pulled them off my heels and it was a mess to get across.  I also slipped a couple of times, including on the traverse by the cables that was a little scary.  We had a longer rest down at the bottom, and I used Charlie's water filter pump to refill my bladder for the rest of the hike.  The next section down to the treeline was tough, steep downhill, very hard on my legs, which jolted on each step down.  I had a minor fall, nothing major but a signal that I wasn't fully functional around my balance and muscle control.  This probably helped explain how I had a misstep on one of the stream crossings and ended up with both boots in the water.  We hiked a little bit after that, then I called for a break so I could change my socks.  This was just past Outpost Camp, and it was our last stop, 3.5 miles or so out from Whitney Portal.  For a time after this, I felt pretty good, maybe some of the calories and hydration had kicked in.  It lasted for about half of the distance, then I was in survival mode, just putting one foot in front of the other and trying to keep a decent cadence.  Charlie was leading out with a 20-minute mile pace, and it was a struggle for me to match it (I did, basically).  It was a blessing with the trail not having so many steps and rough parts as well as being in the shade much of the time.  When we got to the trailhead, I was completely spent, weaving on my legs so much that the others insisted that I sit down.  Didn't take too long for me to recover enough to walk up to the store and back to the car.  Charlie was kind enough to carry my pack to the car, and I really appreciated that gesture.  After a bit, we headed back to near our campsite, picked up our coolers from the bear lockers (Ryan and Hussein carried my containers to the car, super guys!).  Then we drove down to Lone Pine and had beers and dinner at a burger restaurant, which was pretty decent.  Felt really good to be done.  I don't think I could have hiked another mile at the end, I was that close to being completely done.  Even so, this was a signature accomplishment, one I don't need to repeat ever again.