Blogs from Whitney Portal, California, United States, North America

My brother had this crazy idea about a year and a half ago. Lets go climb Mt. Whitney! Having not a clue what was involved with this kind of venture, we started doing research. Well, as luck would have it, actually "climbing" Mt. Whitney is more like a hike than a climb. No ropes & harnesses (good, because neither of us had any real exposure to climbing in the true sense of the word), but the 'hike' does start at an elevation of about 8,400 feet, and rises to the summit (11 miles later) at an altitude of 14,497 feet. That's over 6,000 feet in elevation gain over 11 miles (for those that are reaching for the calculator). Prior to this venture, the highest either of us had hiked was Baldy Mountain in New Mexico (12,441 ... read more

We wake up at 1:30AM. Pitch black. On goes the head-light, the backpack with dromedary, extra water, plenty of power-bars. We begin to hike at 2:30AM (1/2hr later than we wanted). Just dark walking, easy walking, with the moonlight and the silhouettes of foliage to guide us. We pass a few hikers taking a break for breakfast. “We’re in the lead…” Andy says. By the time the sun awakens we are t hree miles up, past Miur Lake and taking photos at a boulder. Pretty soon we pass the tree-line and I start to get a headache. The day comes up fast with no trees for shade. Before we know it Jason joins us. We quickly find that Jason is a beast of a hiker. He has come the same distance in 2 hours that ... read more

Good morning from Bishop, CA, where it is HOT! Thankfully, we spent the night in the cool, sagebrush desert of the Buttermilks, after four days in the high alpine above the Whitney Portal... and we just sent the best route of the trip so far. The Whitney Portal is the trailhead for one of the most popular hikes of the area - the Whitney Trail. After camping a quiet night there - free of bears, marmots, squirrels, and even mosquitos - we began the three hour approach to our wilderness campsite at Upper Boyscout Lake. With 50-60 pounds on our backs, we gained about 3,000 feet of elevation - yikes! After dropping our packs off and establishing camp, we humped our gear up to Iceberg Lake - another 1,300 feet of vertical gain - to ... read more