Day 69 (27 June) - Mile 766.33

Crabtree Meadows Ranger Station (Ascent/Descent of Mount Whitney)

Luckily I slept really well last night since we woke up at 5:00 AM. Today is going to be a long day with climbing Mount Whitney. This climb had been on my bucket list for a while so I'm pretty excited. Plus, after hiking 767 miles to get here, I'm in pretty good shape, so it should be enjoyable instead of a grind.

We didn't have to pack up our camp since we are returning here after the climb. Plus, we decided to eat breakfast after hiking a couple of mile. But somehow it still took us 1 hour to leave camp and start our ascent just before 6:00 AM.

Ready to take this mountain.

From our camp, the summit of Whitney is 7.6 miles away. This is going to be a long climb with a gain of nearly 4,000 feet.

Sign at our camp.

The ascent was spectacular. We started out climbing in the shadow of Whitney and as the sun rose it lit up the other mountains, meadows, and lakes we hiked by.

Guitar Lake.

Share Bear and Brad climbing with Guitar Lake in background

Resting on the way up Whitney

The climb was pretty hard, but not any harder than parts of the PCT that we have already hiked.  Plus, we just had day packs on since we were able to leave all our gear back at camp. The altitude wasn't easy to deal with, but with the light bag I felt pretty good.

Just over 4 hours into our climb, the trail we were on joined with the Whitney Portal trail where most hikers climb Whitney from. We now have only 1.9 miles to go.

Almost to the summit.

At this point more people were on the trail at this point with many sitting on the side of the trail and can't go any further mostly due to altitude.

Also at this point the trail got a bit more technical with rocks and boulders making up the trail. Plus, we had a couple of snow crossings.

We finally arrived at Whitney where we have been looking at for the past 2 days, a snow covered, flat mountain top:

We are now in the view we have been seeing.

Snow crossing by Share Bear and Brad.

Finally, at 11:50 AM the summit was in view:

The top of Whitney in view.

We summited right at noon, exactly 6 hours after starting. Wow...it took us a lot longer than we thought it would take. We can blame some of the extra time on stopping and being mesmerized by the scenery, but much of the blame is in the constant climbing and the altitude...not an easy hike!

Of course at the summit I performed the mandatory celebration pose:

I did it!

We all did it!

We spent one hour on the summit taking in the view, eating lunch, and talking to fellow hikers. Two hikers we met on the trail up were Paul and his nephew Dan. They were on a 7-day backpacking trip that is ending when they descend Whitney tomorrow down Whitney Portal. When they get down, they are staying in the same hotel as Tim and said they will try to find him and buy him a beer. So cool...I hope it works out.

***NOTE:  Paul and Dan did meet up with Tim, but on the morning they were checking out, so no beer.***

Dan and Paul

I love this picture:

Self-portrait "What a view!"

The way down was hard. It was long and...down. Brad was feeling awesome and decided to run down the mountain, so it was just Share Bear and I. As we descended, clouds rolled in and there was lightening and thunder. A backpacker passed us going up and told us the park ranger said it wasn't going to rain. Five minutes later we stopped and put on our rain jackets due to drizzle.

We are so cute!

Although the descent was beautiful, I was so tired that I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few that are really cool:

Guitar Lake with storm clouds

Animal sightings on the way down:

Marmot

Deer

As Share Bear and I was approaching Guitar Lake, I remembered the creek crossing that Brad helped us with because the jump was a bit far for us. I mentioned to Share Bear that Brad wouldn't be there to help us. Then, we saw Brad. He stopped just before the crossing because he knew we could use his help. Brad is just amazing!

Finally, after a descent that felt like it would never end, we arrived back at camp total exhausted:

Our "after" faces.

The good news of the day is that Bear Bait and Max arrived at camp right when we got back. The left Kennedy Meadows about 10 hours after us with plans to meet us in Horseshoe Meadow. They didn't show and the news on the trail was that Max was sick. We now know that when they arrived at the bridge with the swallows, Max all of a sudden broke out with a fever so they pitched their tent and spent 24 hours there. It is actually amazing that they caught up to us.

The bad news is that they are going to hike Whitney tomorrow and we are going to hike onward on the PCT, so they are going to be a day behind for some unknown amount of days. Hopefully we can figure something out and begin hiking with them again.

Oh...check out this view.  Would you like to know where this view is from?

Great view.

It was taken by me sitting on this toilet in our campground:

Outdoor toilet.

It was nice to all be back together again...even if just for tonight.

Eating dinner together.

Well...I am exhausted. I don't even know how I stayed awake to complete today's blog. Tomorrow we have a hard day of river and ridge crossings. It is supposed to be one of the hardest days in the Sierra. Here's hoping that we all recover from today's climb and will be able to handle tomorrow challenges. Until then...

Same campsite as last night.