HST Day 6
August 20, 2019
Guitar Lake to Trail Camp: 8.8 miles
What a day! We woke up around 4:15, before our alarm, because we both needed to go to the bathroom. After that, we got ready and packed everything up for the long hike to Mt. Whitney.
Looking back on the Kaweahs, the range we crossed over a few days before
We left camp around 5:15 and started the brutal climb towards up the mountain. It was very challenging. Now I realize how fit I was on the PCT because the Whitney summit day was hard, but nowhere near as hard as it was today! I stopped frequently on the way up, many times for mom to catch up since I didn’t want to separate very far, but I also needed to stop a lot to catch my breath. And to let the faster JMTers pass, going up and down. Thankfully, just like last time, the sunrise was really beautiful, so stop breaks were filled with picture taking.
Approaching Trail Crest
Approaching Mt. Whitney Summit
We finally reached the Whitney trail junction at 9:15. Here we took some things out of our pack that we wouldn’t need for the summit, like the bear canister stuffed with miscellaneous food, toiletries, etc., the tent, and some extra water I had been carrying. My pack felt so light after taking the bear canister out! We probably spent about a half hour rearranging things, and then we were off on the last 2 miles to the summit!
Early morning light
Post-sunrise and much higher up
Mom was a little doubtful of her abilities to make it to the top, so I wanted to support her however I could. We were slow and stopped a lot, and took it slow over the (terribly cut) snow chute, but at 12:30 we reached the top! It was so gratifying to summit Whitney again, and maybe even more so this time because I got to do it with my mom.
We spent about an hour at the top, chatting with others, taking pictures, and calling dad to let him know we made it! He’s picking us up tomorrow at the portal trailhead. Once we had enough time up there, it was time to come down. We were a little faster going down, but by this point, the day was taking its toll on me. Mom seemed to be holding up a little better. We reached the trail crest area around 3:30 and chatted with a JMT hiker for a while while I filtered water and re-packed my backpack with the bear canister and tent. Now we were off to descend the eastern side! I have never been on this side of the mountain, so I was excited.
However, my excitement soon wore off as we went down the infamous 99 switchbacks. They are incredibly exhausting, and I can’t even imagine going up them. Going down was bad enough. The switchbacks took forever. We were tired, I felt myself getting a headache probably from a combination of altitude, dehydration, and not enough food, so I was really slowing down and really just wanting to be done with the day. Good thing we decided to camp at trail camp, which is right at the bottom of the switchbacks. Once we got there, I immediately scoped out a site and got our stuff set up, popped Advil and a Benadryl, while mom went to the lake to get water for dinner and got dinner started. I was so tired and was thankful that she filtered my water for me and did dinner while I got into my sleeping clothes. If I had been by myself, I probably would have just gone to bed without eating.
We scarfed down dinner as fast as possible, while discussing the hamburger we’d be getting tomorrow at Whitney Portal. After dinner, we brushed our teeth and hopped into the tent, and immediately laid down. Sleep will come easy tonight.
Some iPhone pics:
