There and Back Again Part 2: The Desolation of Trail Camp

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.

17 July 2014

And we begin! Early morning drive from Onion Valley over to the trailhead at Whitney Portal.

Our goal - as seen from the road to Whitney Portal. (Photo by Whitney)

The entire trail is 11 miles, but this summary still doesn't quite capture the scale necessary to reach the top (6000 ft of elevation gain!). I had no idea how ambitious a climb this would be until we were on the trail... 

09:15 - All smiles as we head up the mountain. Elevation: 8360 ft/ 2548 m

Weighing packs. We were all between 27-33 lbs
(really good considering one of the other groups in front of us had a 45 lb pack!). (Photo by Rod)

Our first stream crossing of the trip. 

The first of MANY short breaks on the hike up. At least this one had nice seats in the shade :)  (Photo by Nico)

Another fun stream crossing! The bridges were all quite nice. (Photo by Nico)

Some of the amazing views on the trail. And in many cases like this, the comment was: "The trail goes up there?" (Photo by Whitney)

Lone Pine Lake - Looks like the lake is on the edge of the world! 2.8 miles from the start. (Photo by Whitney)

Lone Pine Lake was our initial stopping point. Whitney & Gavin & Rod all walk much faster than me and Nico and Ruth, so we naturally broke into two groups for the longer hikes. We met up with Whitney and Gavin at Lone Pine Lake (the only time on the hike up to Trail Camp) to have lunch and make sure that everything was going ok. At this point, we were feeling great and doing much better than the 1 mile per hour that we had hoped to make on the trail.

Hiking up from Lone Pine Lake. (Photo by Nico)

Ruth & Nico taking a nice break in the shade with a beautiful view of Lone pine Lake.

A view of part of the trail. This was a relatively easy section. (Photo by Rod)

The meadow that hosts Outpost camp. 3.8 miles from the start.

Outpost Camp was a nice break as we walked across the beautiful meadow. The little streams were everywhere and at one point, we even saw a little spring pop out from beneath some rocks. Later, a ranger told us that this was a pure stream of spring water and it's so clean that they don't even filter it!

Now to share some of our trail fun: 

Nico: We should call that stream Bruce. 

Me & mom: Why? 

Nico: It's Bruce SpringStream. 

Groan...

A first aid break at Outpost Camp to take care of some hot spots (more developments on that later!)

Nico called this area "like New Mexico, but with water!". Another stream crossing backs this up :)

Mirror Lake from lake level.

We made it to Mirror Lake, still making reasonable time, although the climb between Outpost Camp and Mirror Lake was the first big push of the day. We were definitely over halfway at this point and we enjoyed the shade at the lake. However, it looked like darker clouds might be coming in, so we ate a quick snack and headed out relatively quickly. 

The view of Mirror Lake from above. Mirror Lake is only 4.3 miles from the trail head.

Another view of the trail. It was harder to follow here, but it is well worn and generally you only have a choice between the trail or off a cliff. 

Trailside Meadow at last! Only 1 mile to Trail Camp!!!!!!! (But we musn't get ahead of ourselves...) (Photo by Nico)

After Trailside Meadow, the trail was rough. Lots of big rocks to walk over, lots of up, and we were already tired after hours of hiking. Every time the trail went over a ridge or around the bend, we hoped to see Trail Camp. Instead, we came around a corner and chatted with several people headed the other direction and they told us this:

"I'd love to tell you that you're almost there, but you're really not. And the trail is miserable."

We appreciated his honesty. Time to just focus on the trail and put one foot in front of another...

We've been walking forever...a very grueling mile... (Photo by Nico)

Are we there yet? No? Really?!?!

Consultation Lake - We had to be getting close! We know there's a lake at Trail Camp (but not this one).

TRAIL CAMP! First view of 'home' at 12,000 ft / 3658 m. 6 hours 45 minutes total time (includes breaks). 

Peeking over the top of the hill and seeing tents was the most beautiful sight! We had made it to Trail Camp, only an hour behind Whitney and Gavin (and 2 hours behind Rod - he's a machine!). Trail Camp is at 12,000 ft / 3658 m and the 6 miles of trail took us 6 hours, 45 minutes total time (includes breaks). That last mile took much longer than it's fair share considering it was 6 miles to Trail Camp and we felt pretty good until mile 5. But we made it!

Our friend at Trail Camp (a marmot). Unfortunately, he had LOTS of friends of his own trying to steal all our food and chirp at us while we set up our tents. (Photo by Whitney)

Our tents at Trail camp. All the tents were nestled behind rock walls to protect from the wind
(which we never really felt). 

The tarn at Trail Camp. We came up from the right and Mt Whitney is hidden from Trail Camp, but it's off to the left.

Icing knee and filtering water at camp (Shasta, Rod, and Gavin)

Cooking dinner at camp. Nice to get rid of all that extra weight! Although the altitude made it more difficult to eat for some people. Gavin, Nico, Whitney, and Ruth.

Beautiful sunrise photos at Trail Camp. (Photo by Whitney)

Another sunrise photo of our tent in Trail Camp. 

We all made it to Trail Camp with minimal hardship. Other than a slight lack of appetite, everyone did relatively well with the elevation. Our 4 nights at Onion Valley must have been worth it! For me, it was a relief to make it to Trail Camp, which was my short-term goal. With a knee injury, making it this far with a fully-loaded pack was almost miraculous. Two weeks before, I hadn't been able to make it to the top of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, but I made it 2/3 of the way up Mt Whitney (in terms of elevation). In fact, I felt better than I had in a very long time.

Trail Camp is a very desolate place. There are no trees and not many other plants. The greenish color of the tarn is bright color in the all-gray landscape. There's very little privacy and there is always someone awake and moving through camp. Given that day hikers can sometimes take up to 20 hours to complete the trail, there is no real 'down time' for the trail. Everyone was friendly, but there were obviously a few there who did not share our respect for the wilderness (given the amount of garbage and leftover WAG bags we saw lying around!). WAG bags to be discussed in the next post.

We didn't spend too much time awake after dinner as we prepped for the big day tomorrow and headed to bed early after an already-long day.