There and Back Again Part 3: The battle for the summit!

The Mount Whitney Quest

Last time on There and Back Again: My sister and I were named after mountains. Ever since we were little, we talked of climbing our namesake mountains together. The stars must have aligned because we got the chance to climb Mt Whitney on my sister's birthday. With the years of expectation behind this lofty goal, it is no surprise that it was difficult and full of emotion. I've been struggling with a small knee injury from Antarctica ever since my return in February. With it sometimes hurting on trips to get groceries in Edinburgh, I didn't have high hopes of a real summit attempt and I hoped to just be able to make it to the base camp - although I was going to try for the summit I got the chance! Here's my best attempt to walk you through our quest for the summit. We've now made it up to Trail Camp (4000 ft out of 6000 ft up, and 6 out of 11 miles towards the summit), spent the night, and we're headed to the summit.

If you want to check this out in Google Earth, click here to download the kmz file or use the embedded viewer below to fly around our hiking path in 3D with the satellite images. If you click on the placemarks, you can see the photos from the blog in context. If the viewer below isn't working, you might need to download the Google Earth plugin, but the file above also works in Google Maps without a plugin.



18 July 2014
After a relatively decent night's sleep (for us, anyway), we tried to force ourselves to eat breakfast on stomachs that were not really in the mood so we would be ready to try for the summit. We headed up first thing in the morning, already on the trail by 07:15.

Heading out first thing in the morning. Here we go! (Photo by Ruth)

 At least the 97 switchbacks (that's the official tally, but we counted more than 100 - yes, we counted) are first thing in the morning when you're fresh, although the same cannot be said on the way back down...

Another view of the switchbacks, camp, and beautiful moraines on the left. (Photo by Nico)

Looking back towards camp and down at the switchbacks
There are people on several of the >10 switchbacks visible in the photo. (Photo by Whitney)

Switchback number 33, our 'birthday switchback' now that Nico is the same age as me again :) 

Nico and his brief love affair with the snow bank. He loved his cold hug :)

Gavin & Whitney at 'the Cables' - a part of the trail along a section of solid rock (not scree or moraine material) that commonly has ice and snow and can be dangerous well into the hiking season. When we went through, it had water trickling across the rock surfaces, but no snow or ice.

Looking back towards Trail Camp and all the landmarks we saw on the trail up the day before. The big blue lake on the right is Consultation Lake. The little green/brown lake in the middle is the tarn at Trail Camp. Further towards the valley from Consultation Lake, you can just see Lone Pine Lake. 

 About 2/3 of the way up the switchbacks, my knee started to hurt for the first time. Uh-oh. I sat down on a rock and had a long, M&M filled break to contemplate turning around. I had known it was possible, but I felt so incredible when we got to Trail Camp the night before! My mom was already in camp, so turning around wouldn't have been a lone venture. My choices were to keep going and potentially risk hurting my knee more and have trouble getting off the mountain or to turn around when this is likely my only chance to summit Mount Whitney with my sister. This time was the hardest for me because it was filled with so many emotions. Turning around from a dream is a hard decision to make. Despite the fact that I had been trying to mentally cope with the possibility for weeks, I still was heartbroken by the thought of not making it to the summit with Whitney.

Contemplation of my knee pain...up or down?

Nico, normally my cautionary voice, recommended pushing ahead after taking a couple of ibuprofen (I hadn't taken any at all). I finished my chocolate, took 2 ibuprofen, and decided to do a few more switchbacks and reevaluate. If it hurt more at that point, I'd turn around. If it hurt the same or less, I would keep going. We hit the evaluation point - and my knee didn't hurt any more than it had before, so we kept going to the top of the switchbacks. Mentally, that was the hardest part for me. We kept stopping and reevaluating for my knee periodically along the rest of the trail.

Took two ibuprofen and headed up the hill. We'll see how it goes!

 Trail Crest! Breathtaking views of the other side of the range open up for the first time and it is simply amazing! It was worth hiking up the switchbacks just for this view.

We made it to Trail Crest! Nico's bandana had a dumbo thing going on from the wind

The view opens up at Trail Crest and shows the first glimpse of the other side. 
(Photo by Whitney)

 The trail after Trail Crest actually starts to go back down and winds around the back of the ridge. It's a very cool trail that clings along the cliff (or it kind of looks that way until you're on it - it feels very stable). And it was in the shade :) We had heard that this next section was a relatively easy grade but that it was the elevation that made it difficult (above 13000 feet essentially for the rest of the climb). We decided to keep going since my knee wasn't hurting any worse (it was only hurting occasionally).

This area is called the Windows for good reason. As you walk along, there are places where you can see out over the valley on both sides (and it drops off steeply on both sides!). The trail winds along the side of the cliff and climbs over little cutouts on rocky points, but it also starts to get harder, with the rocks and steps getting bigger and more difficult to navigate (or we were more tired?).

A view of the rocky trail. (Photo by Whitney)

Standing in one of the trail cutouts. 

Standing on one of the 'windows,' a bridge where it drops off on either side, but it comes with a beautiful view. 

We didn't know how far we had come and we had no idea how long it would take us to reach the summit, so we just kept trudging along, not too fast and not too slow (well, slower than Whitney and Gavin, but we weren't passed by too many people). When we reached the junction with the John Muir Trail, the sign said 1.9 miles and this cheered us up - we thought we had already gone more than half way there!

Us pointing our way up the trail towards the summit. The sign says: Mt Whitney 1.9 miles. So close and yet so far. 

The junction with the John Muir Trail is used as a bag drop. People hiking through come back this way, so they leave the bag while they summit. We decided that we could leave quite a bit of our stuff behind as well to lighten the load and increase our chances of making it to the top. I dropped off my bag completely and Nico just took food, water, and warm clothing in his.

This looks representative of the trail on this section. Lots of bigger rocks and slow hiking. In some of the biggest cases, I had to sit on my butt and slide down!

Near the summit, the trail changed to a boulder field. It looked like this on the summit as well. This is Whitney (my sister, not the mountain) for scale and the summit is on the peak off to the right. These blocks made for more difficult hiking. (Photo by Rod)

Whitney in view of the summit.

So incredibly happy that she got to celebrate her birthday on the summit! 

We weren't sure how far behind Whitney, Gavin, and Rod we were, so I started asking people who were coming off the summit about our group since they're pretty distinctive: "Have you seen a guy with one arm and a girl with a blue bandana?" Just about everyone remembered them :) We found out that they hadn't reached the summit yet. As we got closer and closer, we started asking more people until we finally got this answer: "The girl blowing out her birthday cake on the summit?" It felt great to hear that they made it! It also gave us hope that we might get there before they left...

Shasta on the trail that is right before the summit. Almost there!

We weren't too far from the top, but it still took us a while. Since we hadn't seen them, Nico pushed a little harder to make it to the top faster and catch them before they left. Good thing - just as he arrived they had been putting on packs to leave. If this wasn't already so long, I'd include the photos that Rod got of Whitney pointing to something on the trail, then Nico arriving at the summit. They waited and took photos with us. We missed the birthday cupcake and singing, but making it to the top while they were still there was AMAZING!!!!!

Summit!!!!!!!!!! 

14,508 ft (4422 m) ~11:45am (about 4.5 hours up)

I'm so incredibly happy that my sister got to celebrate her birthday on the summit! And even happier that we were able to be there with her!!!!

View from the summit (Photo by Whitney)

View from summit (Photo by Nico). Note that the mountain on the right side of this panoramic overlaps with the left side of the previous photo. It's a great 360 degree view. 

We made it! 

The benchmark on the top of the mountain. You can tell which one is Nico's foot!

Whitney, Gavin, and Rod spent almost an hour on the top, soaking up the amazing views (and baking in the sun - not as cold and windy on the top as expected). We only spent about 15 minutes at the summit - just long enough to take some photos, celebrate with Whitney, and breathe the very fresh mountain air.

The top is only halfway there - we still had to go back down! And the trip back down was what I was worried about. I made it to the top, but I hadn't been able to do much hiking on my knee and I wasn't sure how it would feel downhill - sometimes knees are much worse on the downhill than the up. So we cautiously started back down. We took it slow and planned to make it just down to Trail Camp for the night.

To put the whole trip in context, here are the elevation profiles for the two days of our trip:

Day 1: Mileage along bottom, with each stripe indicating 100 ft of elevation. This represents 6 h, 45 min of hiking up (for us), approximately 6 miles of trail, and a total of just under 4000 ft. On the way down, it took us about 4 hours in total. 

Day 2: Elevation profile for trail camp to the summit. Note the fact that this second hike does not have the nice, steady elevation gain that the previous day did! This represents 4h, 30 min up and 3 hours down, about 4 or 5 miles each way, and about 2500 ft of elevation gain. 

We felt pretty good when we arrived back at the top of the switchbacks. We had enjoyed the hike back to them and we were even cracking jokes as we started down, but somewhere around 60 switchbacks in (out of the 100), they really started to become tedious and uncomfortable. The good news: My knee was not hurting in the already injured spot at all. The bad news: Both my knees were sore and tired from use and exhaustion (not to mention lots of other muscles at this point!). We were coming up on 10 miles for the day...

My mom hiked partway up the switchbacks to meet each group as they came off the mountain. Luckily, a few of us had very bright, distinctive shirts on so you could see us high up on the switchbacks. (Photo by Whitney)

We made it back to Trail Camp about an hour after Whitney and Gavin (about 3pm after leaving the summit at noon). With our knees, feet, and legs all hurting, we were concerned that it would hurt more (and not less) the next morning. We decided that it would be best to take a quick break and then get the worst part of the trail out of the way today (down to Outpost Camp) while we were still capable of walking. Whitney, Gavin, and Rod had already packed up and started their way off the mountain completely. We rested, packed up camp, filtered water at Trail Camp, and headed out at about 4:30pm.

After the rest at Trail Camp, things felt better... for a while. Eventually, the soreness kicked back in with a vengeance and my hiking poles became pseudo-crutches for the last little bit to Outpost Camp. There was still good news: The injured spot in my knee still didn't hurt...although everything else did!

Outpost camp - feeling the aches and pains and tired again by the time we reached this point. Check out the waterfall at the far end! Amazing!

We made it to Outpost Camp about 18:30 after two hours of additional hiking. Total mileage for the day: ~12.2 (ish) miles. About a half hour after we stopped for the night, Whitney, Gavin, and Rod made it to Whitney Portal and drove off the mountain.

We had camp set up quickly and we divided up the camp tasks so we could have dinner going quickly. We were in bed and asleep shortly after that.

Slap happy from exhaustion and filtering water for dinner that night. Trying to include some 'everyday life' pictures, but we were pretty tired by this point...

Look between the toes - that's a HUGE blister! It actually goes all the way around on the bottom of his big toe (and there's a matching one on the other foot!). We had to clean it up and lance it so he could put his shoes on the next day. We found later that this blister had a blister of its own inside it.

 19 July 2014

We were on the trail by 07:15 in the morning (although that's not early on a trail that has day hikers starting at midnight and hiking for 20 hours!). It was, however, morning for wildlife families: We saw a mom & baby deer and mom & several baby mountain grouse on the trail (literally, the mom and her baby grouse walked past us on the trail!).

Our mountain grouse family - we had to step to the side of the trail while they walked around us. So cute!

Back down to where we took our first break! Almost back!

We made it off the mountain! With nobody truly broken! 

 Only 48 hours (almost to the minute!) after we started up the trail, we reached the bottom again. It happened so quickly that it felt surreal. We kept asking ourselves 'Did we really just do that?' We reweighed our packs they were remarkably smaller - mine was 18lbs and Nico's down in the low 20's.

We reached Bakersfield by 1pm, and were sitting in a diner with lunch and milkshakes by 2. It was completely surreal. The mountain seemed a world away when we had only been off the trail for a couple of hours. The whole experience was over in less than 48 hours - we were all very happy for the second night on the mountain because it helped us appreciate the trip a bit longer (not to mention the knees were much happier going downhill after a bit of a break!). We didn't get very much further down the road before we decided to spend the night and take a very well-earned shower!

My childhood bucket list is quickly disappearing and I'm not sure what to do next. After so much traveling recently, I'm really looking forward to traveling around Scotland with friends and family this year (hint, hint!). Scotland is a beautiful place and it would be a shame to live here and not take full advantage of it. Although I don't promise there won't be a quick trip to Morocco to check off my seventh continent ;)

Interesting facts for the trip 
(Note: all hiking times apply to Shasta, Nico, and Ruth - subtract one hour of hiking time for each section of trail for Whitney and Gavin, and a little bit more for Rod!)

Total mileage: 22 miles
Total elevation gain (and loss): 6148 ft
Heaviest Pack: Nico - 33 lbs
Total Time on the Trail (includes breaks, photo stops, etc.): 18.25 hours
Average speed: 1.2 mph; uphill speed: 0.98 mph; downhill speed: 1.6 mph
Total number of blisters for the group: 4 (5 if you include Nico's blisterception blister)
Record for largest blister: Nico (>1 inch long!)
Fastest hiker: Rod (by far!)