Mount Whitney Update Day One

I had a plan to complete a trifecta of the highest mountains in North America (Denali), South America (Aconcagua) and Continental US (Whitney).  The first two were completed and summited in 2008 and Whitney at 14, 505′ could have easily been climbed in the summer – without attempting a winter assault.  But that would have been too easy.

On Thursday March 6th, morning, under the guiding leadership of SMI, we as a group left the climbing town of Lone Pine, California for the short drive to the trail head and the start of the climb.  We drove as far as we could up the closed road, around rocks and ice and snow.  (I did not notice until we came down that a rock had hit my windshield and opened up a 2 foot crack on one side and a one foot crack on the other side – which I now have to get fixed tomorrow.)

On the side of the road, we took out our backpacks and put on plastic climbing boots – which were rated to 0 or -10f.  We then walked without problem to the real start of the trail where we weighed our packs.  Mine was one of the heaviest, at 61lbs, almost half of my weight, and it definitely strained my back already.

The first part was not bad, just going up a trail of dirt and rock that eventually turned to snow.  It was ok enough that I was able to listen to some needed music from my iPod.  After a while though, we were climbing on woods and through a section I called the Zombie Trees.  We had to go through some birch trees blocking the trail that no matter how steep you bent down, the tree branches grabbed the pack and yourself and did not want to let us go on, but we of course did.

After a while, I learned the term “postholing”. This is when you take a step and plunge in up to your knees or waist and have to pull yourself out and take another step.  After leaving the trailhead around 10am, we eventually got to the first camp just before dark at around 5pm- so around 6-7 hours of hella climbing.

The guides were great that they set up the tents while we gathered water and got our gear together.  Just then the wind picked up, and with the sun below the mountain already, it was literally freezing, probably getting to the teens or twenties during the night.

It was one of the coldest nights that I had experienced, and I had been through a lot on the other mountains.   And it was only going to get worse.