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<\/a>Mt. Whitney at dawn<\/p><\/div>\n
It was not a great night’s sleep, thinking about making sure we’d wake up on time, and hoping all conditions would be right for our assault on Whitney.<\/p>\n
Three-thirty a.m.<\/strong> found us getting dressed for the day’s hike, putting on our headlamps, eating a small breakfast of an apple, some nuts and some trail mix, going to the trail-head, where there was a scale to weigh our packs (about 25 pounds – mostly water), then heading up the mountain.<\/p>\n We hiked about two hours in total darkness, before we witnessed a beautiful sunrise behind us exposing our goal for the day – the top of Mt. Whitney.\u00a0 We were fortunate that we had a perfect day, not too hot, no rain, no lightning, no bears and no altitude sickness . . . so far.<\/p>\n Hiking to Trail Crest<\/p><\/div>\n We knew from our training that we hiked at different paces, with Mark ‘Rabbit’ Johnson, being the fastest.\u00a0 It was hard for him to slow his pace down, so he ended up joining another group of hikers that were ahead of us and hiking more at his pace.\u00a0 Sullivan, Michael, Pacelli and I stayed together until we reached Consultation Lake <\/strong>at Trail Camp<\/strong>\u00a0where we filled our water containers, put in some water-purifying pills and left them by the lake to pick up on our return trip.\u00a0 It was here that Bob ‘Bobby MacD’ Pacelli<\/strong>, a diabetic, said that his blood sugar was not responding well to the altitude and decided that he would not go any further.\u00a0 Since we did not want anyone hiking the trail alone, Patrick said that since he had already done the hike, he would hike back down with MacD.\u00a0 Mark was ahead of us, so after a short rest, Rick and I looked at each other, then at the switchbacks ahead of us and said, “Let’s do this!”<\/strong><\/p>\n The ’99 Switchbacks’<\/strong> are probably the hardest part of the hike.\u00a0 You’re over 11,000 feet, you’ve been hiking for 4-5 hours and it’s back and forth until you reach ‘Trail Crest’<\/strong> at 13,600 feet<\/strong>.\u00a0 Rick and I are about half way up the switchbacks and Rick says to me, “I’m feeling a little dizzy”<\/strong>.\u00a0 We stop and sit down.\u00a0 I know Rick is not fatigued, he is in the best shape of any of us; he runs marathons, works out regularly and has ‘zero’ body fat.\u00a0 We sit down at the end of one of the switchbacks and realize that he may be suffering from ‘altitude sickness’<\/strong> and we need to make the tough decision to either head back down the mountain or continue the hike.<\/p>\n Guitar Lake<\/p><\/div>\n After a few minutes, Rick says, “I want to go on; I’ll be fine if we go slow – you lead and I’ll follow.” We take our time getting to the end of the switchbacks at Trail Crest. <\/strong> We have reached the crest of the range and can now see Guitar Lake <\/strong>on the western side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range<\/strong>.\u00a0 Rick is doing OK, but we take a short rest at Trail Crest then continue along the ridge, running into Mark on his way back down.\u00a0 We hit a little snow, but soon reach the summit.\u00a0 Rick says he feels fine, but he looks a little pale.\u00a0 \u00a0We sit down, exhausted, on a large, flat granite boulder at the summit of Mt. Whitney and pull out our lunch and start to eat as we enjoy the spectacular view, but realize that we’re only half way through the hike – it was the hardest part, but even so it’s a long time on your feet.<\/p>\n I’m two bites into my sandwich and Rick says, “We gotta get out of here”<\/strong>.\u00a0 The altitude sickness had returned at 14,505 feet<\/strong>.\u00a0 So we throw everything into our packs and head down the mountain – rather quickly.\u00a0 As we descend, Rick’s stride quickens and color returns to his face.<\/p>\n The Greeter & Avalanche at the Smithsonian building at the summit<\/p><\/div>\n We’re about half way down the mountain when we run across a high school-aged boy sitting on the side of the trail.\u00a0 We stop to ask if he is OK and he says he is just exhausted and his group left him there.\u00a0 Rick, now feeling better than ever, puts the kid’s pack on top of his and tell the kid to get up and we’ll escort him down the rest of the way.\u00a0 The three of us finish the hike around 4:30 in the afternoon –13 hours after we started<\/strong>.\u00a0 We get the kid back to his group, and we find ours, who have packed up our campsite and loaded the van.<\/p>\n ‘Wheels’ Affentranger, takes our packs and loads them into the van as we head down Highway 395 for home.\u00a0 Bobby MacD insists we stop at a McDonald’s for dinner on our way back.<\/p>\n We were exhausted, so not much lively conversation on the way home, just a great feeling of accomplishment with great friends.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow It was not a great night’s sleep, thinking about making sure we’d wake up on time, and hoping all conditions would be right for our assault on Whitney. Three-thirty a.m. found us getting dressed for the day’s … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Whitney-rail-snow-199x300.jpg\")
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