Day 1:

We pulled an all night drive from Cannon Beach, OR to secure a permit for climbing Mt. Whitney. Our original plans where to hike in on Tuesday Oct 3, but since we got there so early on Monday we pushed to hike in on Monday. At the time it seemed like a good idea.

We started at the Whitney portal trail around 1pm and planned on making it to Iceberg Lake for camp. The elevation at the trailhead is 8400, and coming from sea level, it put us at a slow pace. We ended up making it up to Lower Boy Scout Lake for camp. With a shadow coming off Mt. Whitney, there was a chill in the air that made us make camp for the night. We laid out our bivi bags behind boulders to protect us from the chilly wind.

The trail heading up

The first view of Mt Whitney

Looking back down the Trail

The initial plans were to leave at 6am to make up for the time it would take us to reach Iceberg Lake. But our alarms were not cooperating and we got a late start. One in our group was feeling the altitude and decided he was going to head down, instead of up that day. With 2 remaining we felt confident about the route since we would save time with only one rope to deal with. We were finding that the altitude was playing with us also. I expect it to take 1 hour to make it up the remaining 1000 feet to Iceberg Lake. That 1hour ended up being 2. The plan of making it to the start of the climb at 8am quickly came….and went. We finally got to the Tower Traverse at 10am.

We roped up and I lead the first pitch in my boots, wishing I had brought shoes (it’s only a 5.4). The traverse gets your heart pumping and not to mention the lack of Pro. I found the 2 pitons that protected the pitch. I gave a quick look for other pro, but gave up instantly. I didn’t even check the fixed piece, because that was all there was. At the end of the traverse there is a 10 foot chimney with little pro. Since there was only 2 fixed pieces in, I decided to use natural pro that was in the chimney. I just didn’t put a long enough sling on it. It eventually caused huge rope drag that caused me to cuss at myself. But wait, I can blame it on the altitude.

After belaying in my partner, I told him to start leading the next pitch. The Washboard. It’s a couple hundred feet of a slab climb. It turned out to be a grueling slab. For every couple of steps, it’s a couple of breaths. There was a long rest at the top.

The next pitch takes over a 40 foot rib, and drops you down on the other side about 30 feet. You can then traverse along a ledge and gain back some elevation as it leads you to the fresh air traverse. Once through the traverse, there is a long wide chimney to climb that leads to the Grand staircase.

The Grand staircase is a section of Large Blocks with a winding route that leads through it. It is an interesting area with only a couple of technical climbing moves on it. The only downfall was that the late afternoon sun was behind a large outcropping that put us in the shadow.

With a couple hundred feet of the Grand Staircase under us, you come to the last obstacle. A 15 foot, off-width chimney. The climbing wasn’t that hard, but it gets interesting with a pack. There is also a slight bulge at the top to add some fun.

Once on top we had some route finding problems trying to find the scramble route. After many different scouting attempts, we found the correct route that lead off to the right after exiting the chimney. There is still a couple hundred feet of exposed scrambling till you reach the summit. When you pull over the last block, it puts you right on top. A well deserved victory. A few snapshots, and pit stops and it’s time to get the hell out of there. We had a late, late summit, 5pm.

After our pit stops, it was time to start moving. We had talked to some hikers who pointed to what they thought was the decent route. They were right, the first gully you can scramble. With it late in the season, we were able to avoid all the ice and make a quick escape. We reached the cutoff to the mountaineers gully, waved an OK to the hikers and started our descent. About 3\4 the way down, the light had finally dwindled to darkness. The rest by headlamp. We were lucky enough get on a scrambling path that lead us straight to our ditched pack. Hey things are looking good now. Easy sailing. We packed up and continued down the trail. Or what we thought was a trail. When walking through a boulder field, everything looks like a trail. Somehow we lost the trail and spend hours looking for it. I don’t know how many times I though I found the trail only to be stopped by a black bottomless ledge. At one point my hopes were raised as I saw a headlamp far below. Then I noticed a lake next to it. Only then did I realize that I traveled about ½ mile along the cliffs and I was looking down upon Lower Boy Scout Lake, and camp. I retreated back to our starting point only to accept the decision that we were stuck there. Another unplanned bivi.

We settled down behind a rock and brought out our emergency blanks and every piece of clothing we could find. I had a space pouch that I climbed into. I read the instructions twice. And it said to get in it fully. So I did. My breath kept the pouch warm, but also wet. Whenever I shifted and let air in, it was cold instantly. It was a long night. I eventually got up and did jumping jacks to warm back up and then crawl back inside the pouch. During one of my shifts, I poked my feet through the bottom of the pouch. It was now useless. I don’t remember the time, but I could see the sun rising on the horizon. I just sat and shivered for a couple of hours as the sun slowly, I mean really slowly, rise. Finally I had to get up and climb a small ridge to get into the sun and warm up, no more waiting. Once I hit the sun and started to feel the warmth return, I turned back at camp. With enough light now, I made out the faint trail that we were looking for last night. 50 Feet!! 50 Feet from where we slept.

The East Face

Looking up the Climbing route

The Tower Traverse

The Washboard

The Grand Staircase

Summit Marker

The Summit Pose

Day 3

We packed up camp and headed down, picking up our real camp along the way. The sun was now in full swing and it looked like it was going to be a great day. Nothing like the night with partially frozen water bottles.