Mount Whitney

Allen Roberts, Molly Roberts, David Fenning, Greg Murphy, Phil Cory and I climbed Mount Whitney on September 9th. Mount Whitney (14,505 or 14,497 feet, depending on the survey) is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States and is located west of the town of Lone Pine, CA. The climb is not difficult technically (there is a well maintained trail to the summit), but it is long: 22 miles round trip, with 6000 feet of vertical gain.

We started the evening of September 8th by hiking 3.8 miles from Whitney Portal to Outpost Camp, at an altitude of 10,300′. Outpost is a nice spot – below timberline and along a creek – but the popularity of climbing Whitney soon becomes apparent. Our campsite was passed periodically for most of the night either by parties getting very early starts or suffering very late finishes. It is not uncommon for “day” hikers to start at midnight and walk all night in order to finish before afternoon thunderstorms make conditions hazardous.

This population pressure has forced a recent change on Whitney: all solid human waste must be packed out (here is a recent New York Times article on the subject). The Forest Service provides portable sanitation kits for this purpose, and has removed the outhouses that formerly dotted the route (including the summit). Unfortunately, we found ample evidence that not everyone follows this rule.

We left camp at 3:15am, reaching the trail crest (13,600′) at 6:15, just before dawn. Slogging the remaining 2.8 miles and 900 vertical feet got us to the summit by 7:45. With a stop to pack our gear on the way out, we got back to the trailhead at about 3:15pm.