|
|
|
 |
First
"Window".
Beyond Trail Crest the hike takes you through some incredible rock formations, with
some exposure off the left side.
Periodically, you reach one of the "windows" between the pinnacles,
where the ground drops off to the right side almost 2,000' straight down.
This shot looks out through the first
"window" towards Pinnacle Ridge. |
|
 |
Guitar
Lake. The aptly named Guitar Lake lies just west of
the summit of Mt. Whitney. |
|
 |
On
the Summit.
When we passed the
last window near Keeler Needle, the clouds descended rapidly, and the trail
above 14,000' was wet with 3-4 inches of fresh snow. We picked our way up
the trail and eventually made it to the summit. No view today, so we chose
to take a photo in front of the Smithsonian Hut to prove we made it. |
|
|
Snowy
Summit. We shared the summit
that day with about 20 other idiots who walked nearly 22 miles and gained nearly
6,200 feet of elevation only to stop and get cold while eating frozen powerbars
and then turn around without having seen a damn
thing. Notice the fresh snowfall and deteriorating visibility. |
|
|
Smithsonian
Hut.
The hut looking lonely
and cold, with fresh snow on the roof. Nice view to the west of nothing! |
|
|
Time
to leave!
Sensing a downpour
coming, Griffin and I took one last congratulatory photo at the summit, and then
raced down. Along the way back to Trail Crest, we met EB and Liz on the
trail, looking determined to reach the summit. We gave them our camera for
a few summit shots and then high tailed it down the mountain. We left the
summit just after noon. |
|
|
Glissade.
Amazingly, some people were still heading up to the summit at 1:15pm in an
imminent storm. And I thought we were dumb. At Trail Crest, we
surprised some folks on the trail by downclimbing to the snow chutes and then glissading
nearly all the way back to Trail Camp, arriving at around 1:45. After
a change to dry socks, we literally ran like rabbits down the mountain, making
it to the car (and beers at the Portal
Store) at around 4pm. |
|
|
Liz
and EB on the summit. EB and Liz powered on
to the summit and had a well-earned celebration. "Harder than
Shasta", said a tired and soaked Liz at the trailhead five hours later.
After taking some photos, Liz and EB also hightailed it off
the summit, although for them, the threat of rain was real. It hailed down
on them on several occasions, and they heard distant thunder while motoring down
the switchbacks. |
|
|
Hailstorm. Liz
and EB were drenched on the way down, but made it out by
about 8pm. Griffin and I came back up to the Portal to pick them up, but
the road was a mess. Flash floods were literally sweeping down the portal
road, throwing large rocks and washing muck onto the roadway. We sweet-talked our way past the Inyo Sheriff blocking the road and made it up to
get them. A hectic end
to a very long day. |
|
|
The
next day. The next morning, the
skies were relatively clear, except for a thin band of clouds just in front of
the Sierra crest. Liz and EB had never actually seen Mt. Whitney, except
for the 100 feet or so visible from the summit. But the mountain poked its
head out for an instant so we could actually see it the next day.
(Although it looks like a cloud, the summit is just above Liz's finger.
Crooks Peak (aka Day Needle) and Keeler Needle are visible just to the left of
Mt. Whitney). |
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
BACK
