My alarm went off at midnight. I had kinda already been awake because the JMT couple in the tent next to us was up around 11 getting ready to go. At midnight I begrudgingly got out of bed and went to make some Cinnamon oatmeal - not my favorite breakfast by far but something simple and easy to prepare. The moon wasn’t up but it was so bright it was already starting to cast its own moonrise glow. Amanda dawdled for a while, really not wanting to get out of bed but eventually I heard her stir and start getting things together.
Today’s morning festivities were easy because we were leaving everything at basecamp and coming back. I was only taking a small summit bag with some snacks, ice axe, GoPro, Fitbit charger, 3 liters of water, sunscreen/lip balm and sunglasses - pretty standard set-up for a summit bid. About 20 minutes after I started making oatmeal Amanda was up and the JMT couple left, heading towards Whitney with their whole load. “Must be going out Whitney Portal,” I said to Amanda, nodding at their empty site.
We finished eating and shouldered our prepared summit packs, relishing how light they were compared to our normal loads. As we were doing our last mental run-through, a red light came on in Wildfire’s tent signaling that he was also preparing to leave. We made our way out of the camp site and onto the JMT heading east towards Mount Whitney. The moon had finally risen and was casting lunar vibes throughout the forest. The trail went on for about a mile before we lost it in the snow. A massive avalanche had ripped through the Whitney creek area and loads of trees were down as well as excess snow. I followed the route on Gaia, my map app, and was able to navigate a way through the trees and snow. Every once in a while a snippet of the trail would show up signaling we were on the right path but, other than that, it was early morning route finding.
The JMT wound its way along some beautiful alpine lakes. PCT hikers were not allowed to camp east of the Crabtree ranger station, but JMT hikers could as this was the JMT and I was a little jealous of that because, wow, what an amazing view. The trail eventually wound up and out of the little valley of lakes into a massive drainage basin surrounded by peaks, including Mount Young, Mount Whitney and Mount Hitchcock. With the moon casting amazing light on these peaks it was one of the most ethereal sites I have ever seen. I stopped and took some epic night shots with the GoPro.
We eventually came to an expansive snowpack where navigation became less of an issue but something else took its place - sun cups. For those who are unfamiliar with these agonizing snow features, they are essentially large, deep, unevenly spaced cups in the snow that are caused by non-uniform melting by the ground beneath. They make for the worst surface to walk on I can think of because every step must be calculated and they usually collapse on you when warmed in the sun. Collapse of sun cups was not a major issue in the frozen morning and with Microspikes on we traveled decently well, however, two miles of uneven and uniform surface was a menace. We climbed up into the basin on the cupped snow. I could see the JMT couple ahead of us but for some reason they kept turning their headlamps off. We hugged the edge of the snow at the basin, aware that large bodies of water were present in the middle. After a little bit we started navigating up a series of ledges.
On pretty much every alpine approach, navigating ledges is key as they are a common feature for most mountains. It’s not my favorite thing to do because you are often doing so in the dark without the advantage of looking down to see how they develop. It’s easy to get “cliffed out” or end up following a ledge that doesn’t go where you want.
This morning I chose a different ledge than the sporadic headlamp duo ahead of us and managed to pick correctly as it led us up to the higher section of the basin where we could access the switchbacks up to the flanks of Mt. Whitney.
For those unfamiliar with Mt. Whitney, it is the highest mountain in the lower 48 states at just shy of 14,500 feet. During the normal climbing season, it is not considered a technical mountain. The JMT drives straight to the top of the mountain and, in a typical July, fit families can walk right up it. This was not a typical year though - snow was still very much consistent on the route, which brought us to the 3rd challenge, snow covered switchbacks. On the Whitney Creek approach, which was the route we were on, the JMT accesses the main ridge of the mountain by climbing about 25-30 switchbacks wrought into the scree and granite blocks of the mountain. It is a truly remarkable trail, the likes of which are no longer built in our parks. I cannot begin to describe the amount of work and effort that went into building or maintaining it. The challenge this year was that the switchbacks were covered in snow in some sections which means that climbers have to traverse these snow patches, some of which extend a thousand vertical feet below the patch being crossed. At 4 am we arrived at the switchbacks, just behind the JMT couple. We made our way up the first few and then came to the first snow patch. All 4 of us put our Microspikes back on and traversed the first snow patch, then took the spikes off for about a quarter mile, then put them on for the next snow patch and so on and so on. After the first 4 or 5 patches, the crossing became more menacing. Large run-outs below the patches meant that not arresting in the event of a fall became serious or fatal. On one such patch, the four of us decided to just cut the switchback and go straight up to the next one. It was light by this time so we started climbing, staying out of each other's potential rock fall. The scree and granite blocks of the Sierra are a little different than at home in the North Cascades - things move. As I made my way up through the steep field of blocks, trying to work on solid pieces not based in sand, I moved across a refrigerator sized block of granite that wiggled above me as I traversed around it. I haven’t had this happen much in the climbing i have done throughout my life and i sincerely hope it never does again, it is a very unnerving feeling. “Ok, no more scrambling,” I said to Amanda as we reached the next switchback - she just nodded in agreement. Fortunately, from there, we were close to trail saddle, where the traffic from Whitney Portal joins those from our side of the mountain. Here we continued on up a spectacular stretch of the JMT which runs along the length of Whitney ridge reverse to what we did far below in the sun cups.
Whitney is a gorgeous mountain, brutal and beautiful all at the same time. It has a number of spires which lean out towards the east and make small saddles from which you can climb up to and look down over a 1000 feet - it is amazing. While the ridge up to Whitney is unique the summit itself is actually a little mundane. At the end of the ridge is a 500 foot tall lazy, flat dome composed of stacked rocks which makes up the summit. Usually the JMT makes a nice sweep up to it but, because of the snow, there is an actual boot pack which straight-lines to the peak. On our approach and way up this boot pack we ran into 2 guys on their way up as well from Whitney Portal and a French guy on his way down. We said hi to both and kept going. At around 8:30 we were on top and alone on this incredible peak with 360 views of the Sierra - it was amazing! Soon after, Wildfire showed up - I had seen his headlamp blinking below us as we finished the sun cup section. We hi-fived and took pictures. Amanda and I could have stayed up there forever - it was probably the best I have ever felt at that kind of altitude. We had cell service for the first time in about 5 days so we did a quick check-in but left soon after, wanting to get back through the sections below before the heat of the day really started destabilizing things. Actually, I discovered that my Wells Fargo account was slightly overdrawn and had to do a little banking at 14,000 feet - so that was cool. On our way down we said hi to the JMT couple and the two guys we had passed on the way up. We also signed the register at the Smithsonian Hut which stands on the summit and headed down. We didn’t see any of our friends' names on the register or the group of 7 which we thought was weird because we figured they were ahead of us.
The initial descent was largely uneventful. The Whitney Portal traffic was really picking up and we passed probably 8 groups on the way down, which made us really appreciate our alone time on the summit even more. Most of the Whitney Portal groups were talking about a group of 4 which had been stranded on the mountain all last night. Evidently they had expected there to be trees to make firewood and other amenities which are obviously not available on the mountain. One of the group had made a desperate attempt to get down early in the morning by glisading on the hard ice and had fallen a fair distance, somehow not hurting himself in the process. One group had the comment “this is the problem with having the tallest mountain in the lower 48 only 4 hours from LA.”
We got down to the trail junction where you can go to Whitney Portal or to Crabtree where we were camped. Here we said goodbye to the JMT couple and headed down the switchbacks. At the first snow covered switchback we decided not to down climb through the granite blocks because, you know, I don’t like to see something weighing a ton move when it shouldn’t, so we traversed on snow. This was just as harrowing. Amanda and I have both done a good amount of mountaineering, so we know the moves and how this kind of traverse should be done but this first traverse was over a “no-fall” zone, an area where a fall would likely be fatal. In these areas one would typically rope up but, as we had no rope, we did this using our ice axe for a self belay. It’s a good, solid technique but still very uncomfortable. It was at this moment I started remembering some of the notes I had read from other people doing this climb in FarOut. The snow covered sections were described as “sketchy,” “non-ideal,” and other Gen-Z’ish language which really made me realize not many people who had done this section had realized the inherent danger they were in while doing it. Whether it was from either the traverse itself or the free-spirited refrigerator sized granite blocks on the scramble. From there until the last ugly traverse both Amanda and I occupied ourselves with our own beta for this climb to share on FarOut.
Eventually, after about 9 more traverses of diminishing consequence we reached the bottom of the switchbacks and Wildfire joined us, also voicing his discomfort with the snow covered switchbacks. From here we made the long approach back across the now soft and less stable suncups and into the navigation zone, eventually getting back to camp around 5 pm. It had been a much longer and committed climb than expected but we were so happy to have done it.
Back at camp I was surprised to catch sight of Izzy just arriving at camp. “Izzy” I shouted and she turned around and smiled as she said hello. Also with her were push-pop, UK Sam, Aspen and ET. In addition, the group of 7 we had camped with 2 nights before had also shown up. Turns out Izzy, Push-pop, Sam and ET had gotten off at Cottonwood pass literally an hour before we had gone through. They had been worried about having enough food and resupplied in Lone Pine - so we hadn’t fallen behind as far as we thought!
After catching up for about an hour and sharing info on the route we had dinner with Wildfire, recounting the day before turning in for some much needed sleep.
