Rockin' Robbins

Mike's Post
08/06/06
Last week Andrew, Jennifer, and I went to California for a long adventurous weekend. Andrew and I had devised a plan to summit Mt. Whitney (the tallest mountain in the lower 48). This would be my first time climbing a 14er, Andrew had already climbed Mt. Blanc (a much more difficult climb) earlier this year. He was to drive from Ft. Huachuca in Arizona and I was going to fly to LA to meet him. From there we were going to drive 4 hrs. to Lone Pine, Ca. dump our luggage in a motel, catch a few hours of sleep, and then set out on the 22 mile round trip from the Whitney portal (8000 ft) to the summit (14500ft) and back in time to have a nice dinner in Lone Pine. Perfect plan huh? That 4 hour drive didn’t account for traffic and became 6. We had set a target time to be on the trail of 4am, but we reached Lone Pine around 2:30. We caught an hour and a half of sleep and packed up and were on the trail by 5:00am. I was really worried about how the altitude would affect me but after a couple of hours I didn’t feel so bad. I think it was around 10000 ft when I started feeling crappy. And that’s when the going got slow. This trail is steadily up hill the entire way which didn’t make things easier. I know for a fact (documented in pictures) that I was feeling especially bad at 11130ft.

And that’s how I felt the rest of the day. From what we had read and been told, the latest turn around time is 2:00pm. After that there is a risk of storms and having to descend much of the trail in the dark and cold. When we reached what most people use as a base camp we were in good shape (time wise). Then we ascended the 150 or so switchbacks, which were covered in ice and snow after 12000 ft. Seeing lots of people descending and having them tell us they hadn’t reached the summit didn’t help. A group was going down because one of them was seeing crabs everywhere (never a good sign). But I had resolved to at least complete the switchbacks and reach the crest before summit ridge (13600). When we reached that point I can comfortably say that I wasn’t sad to see some ominous clouds building in the distance. We still had an hour and could probably have reached the summit but I didn’t have it in me. It is a bit weird to think about it now because I can’t exactly remember how I was feeling. I do know that it seemed like no matter how long I rested on the trail I could only exert myself for a few solid minutes. I guess that is the crux of high altitude hiking and climbing, no matter what you do (aside from acclimatization or supplemental oxygen) you can’t give your body what it really needs. I suppose it is fortunate that we can’t exactly remember pain, I’m sure not many of us would have brothers or sisters, and I wouldn’t be feeling so eager to get back to the mountains and do it all over again.