j****a
发帖数: 47 | 1 My friend and I got the permit for a day hike on Mt. Whitney on July 1st,
2011. We drove from LA to lone pine in the morning of June 30th. Arrived at
around 12:30pm, checked in at Dow Villa Motel, had lunch at a Mexican
restaurant, walked around town, and went to sleep around 6pm.
We got up at 1:30am, had breakfast, packed our stuff and drove to Mt.Whitney
Portal. Arrived at 3:10am. Another group of people (2 men 1 woman) arrived
around the same time. Before the trip I was afraid of walking in the dark,
but now that there were other people, my fear disappeared.
The sun rose at around 5am so we didn't spend much time in the dark.Before
Mirror Lake it was pretty easy. There were patches of snow but no crampons
needed. Somewhere after mirror lake we encountered a slope covered with snow
(I named it "little chute"), I decided to put on my crampons and use ice
axe - the first time for me. My friend was brave enough not to put on
crampons. It was difficult to get up the slope, and I kept wondering whether
I could deal with the real chute -much longer and steeper.
We arrived at trail camp at around 8am. A fat marmot jumped around us and I
was excited to see the real thing.We rested for about 25 minutes then began
the hardest part of the hike: climbing up the chute covered in snow - the
switchbacks are not yet usable.
I had to be careful with my every step in the snow, and it was slippery even
with crampons. We stopped frequently. The chute seemed endless. Couldn't
believe we spent 3 hours to reach the top of the chute and arrived at trail
crest around 11:30am. I felt relief. The last part should be easier. People
had told us that we could leave our backpacks at trail crest. We did exactly
that, though most other people didn't. I kind of regretted that decision as
I felt thirsty and hungry on my way to the summit, and was struck by some
altitude sickness. Before reaching the top the trail was covered in snow
again. I didn't use crampons but it was scary walking on the ridge of the
mountain in snow. If I fall anything could happen. We finally reached the
top around 1:50pm and began going down at 2:10pm. We tried to follow a
group of people led by a ranger as we wanted to get some instructions about
how to get down the chute - neither of us had down glissading before.
We rested a while at the chute, then the ranger asked people in his group to
put on crampons and begin descending. He said it's not safe to slide down
the first half as there were many rocks not deep under the snow. Sliding
down the second half should be doable. I moved very slowly getting down the
chute and didn't try sliding till the very end of the chute, afraid of
losing control. Many people, however, did slide down shortly after walking
down the first one third of the chute. With crampons and ice axes, it was
actually not difficult to slide down slowly and self-arrest.
After we reached the bottom of the chute, most other people had disappeared
further down. Beginning at trail camp, we frequently lost the trail - it
was so obvious when we went up, but now there seemed many possibilities but
none was real. At that moment I just wish I had brought a GPS. Time passed
by quickly and it got darker. After we walked down the "little chute", we
thought the rest would be pretty easy but we somehow got lost again. At 9pm
it was almost completely dark. We were still trying to find the trail when a
lady not faraway flashed her headlamp and told us to walk toward them. We
were excited, thinking we finally found the trail. It turned out they were
kind of lost too and they decided to camp there. Now it seemed the only
feasible option for us is to stay and continue next morning. We didn't bring
any camping gear with us. She was very kind to loan us the rain cover for
her tent, that would kept us from the wind. They didn't have enough bear
cannisters for all our food. My friend came up an idea of burying the food
in the snow. That's our only option though we were not sure whether that
really works.
We were unlucky to get lost, but lucky to meet some good people and also,
the weather was not very cold. The night passed by so slowly. The next
morning at 5am we couldn't wait starting to look for trail again. We were
both pretty weak now, having slept little. The kind lady again helped us and
she found the trail down. We were finally on our back to Whitney portal and
the rest of the journey was just a matter of time, and enduring the fatigue
and pain in the legs. My friend was one of the few people who didn't ever
use crampons. But she someone hurt her knees and going down rocks and stairs
became very difficult for her. On the way down mosquitoes were relentless.
Bears seemed active. We met a group of people, one of them had the backpack
taken away by a bear when they were in the parking lot at the Portal early
in the morning. More amazingly they chased the bear down and got the
backpack, though the sandwich inside it was gone.
Things didn't go exactly as we planned. For me, I definitely need more
exercise, and need to improve my skills of finding directions, and I
probably should get a GPS. Also we should have brought with us some
emergency items, like thermal blanket. I never thought I could summit
Whitney, as the most difficult mountain I did before was Mt. Baldy and I
never hiked in snow. After the trip, I also realized that there are real
life-threatening events for a trip like this, and we should make good
preparations and never take it lightly - we won't be lucky every time in
crisis.
Anyway, after much emotional ups and downs, we were very glad we did make it
to the summit! and proved you don't need to be superman/superwoman to
achieve this :-) | s**********k
发帖数: 934 | 2 赞！
几月份爬Whitney才彻底没雪啊？
at
Whitney
arrived
【在 j****a 的大作中提到】
: My friend and I got the permit for a day hike on Mt. Whitney on July 1st,
: 2011. We drove from LA to lone pine in the morning of June 30th. Arrived at
: around 12:30pm, checked in at Dow Villa Motel, had lunch at a Mexican
: restaurant, walked around town, and went to sleep around 6pm.
: We got up at 1:30am, had breakfast, packed our stuff and drove to Mt.Whitney
: Portal. Arrived at 3:10am. Another group of people (2 men 1 woman) arrived
: around the same time. Before the trip I was afraid of walking in the dark,
: but now that there were other people, my fear disappeared.
: The sun rose at around 5am so we didn't spend much time in the dark.Before
: Mirror Lake it was pretty easy. There were patches of snow but no crampons
| T*********e
发帖数: 39815 | 3 先恭喜登顶惠特尼，照片不错。
夸完了，需要拍两句：
1.你们明显准备不足，以前没用过crampons,事先不做练习，直接用于实战？crampons
使用不当很容易伤到自己。另外，trail上有雪覆盖的时候，找路会有些难度，你们显
然没有这方面的准备。如果不是遇到好心人收留你们过夜，结果恐怕就不会这么愉快了
2.穿着crampons坐滑？ 不知道是你说的那个guide group这么做了，还是你们也跟着
学了。 以前我在这个版也说过无数次了，坐滑的时候不能穿crampons, snowshoes，
很容易脚踝骨折，这样的事故每年都有若干
估计你自己也总结了不少经验教训了，希望以后出行之前能计划更周密，准备更充分一
些，也是对自己的安全负责。
at
Whitney
arrived
【在 j****a 的大作中提到】
: My friend and I got the permit for a day hike on Mt. Whitney on July 1st,
: 2011. We drove from LA to lone pine in the morning of June 30th. Arrived at
: around 12:30pm, checked in at Dow Villa Motel, had lunch at a Mexican
: restaurant, walked around town, and went to sleep around 6pm.
: We got up at 1:30am, had breakfast, packed our stuff and drove to Mt.Whitney
: Portal. Arrived at 3:10am. Another group of people (2 men 1 woman) arrived
: around the same time. Before the trip I was afraid of walking in the dark,
: but now that there were other people, my fear disappeared.
: The sun rose at around 5am so we didn't spend much time in the dark.Before
: Mirror Lake it was pretty easy. There were patches of snow but no crampons
| j****a
发帖数: 47 | 4 说得很在理！ ！
crampons
【在 T*********e 的大作中提到】
: 先恭喜登顶惠特尼，照片不错。
: 夸完了，需要拍两句：
: 1.你们明显准备不足，以前没用过crampons,事先不做练习，直接用于实战？crampons
: 使用不当很容易伤到自己。另外，trail上有雪覆盖的时候，找路会有些难度，你们显
: 然没有这方面的准备。如果不是遇到好心人收留你们过夜，结果恐怕就不会这么愉快了
: 2.穿着crampons坐滑？ 不知道是你说的那个guide group这么做了，还是你们也跟着
: 学了。 以前我在这个版也说过无数次了，坐滑的时候不能穿crampons, snowshoes，
: 很容易脚踝骨折，这样的事故每年都有若干
: 估计你自己也总结了不少经验教训了，希望以后出行之前能计划更周密，准备更充分一
: 些，也是对自己的安全负责。
| j****a
发帖数: 47 | 5 雪况每天在变，得打电话去问，还有就是看最新的攻略。
【在 s**********k 的大作中提到】
: 赞！
: 几月份爬Whitney才彻底没雪啊？
:
: at
: Whitney
: arrived
| q*n
发帖数: 1203 | 6 congrats on surviving the epic. :)
you guys were lucky that the weather was warm enough that day, if there were
snows/rains like a few days later it would be much more unpleasant.
at
Whitney
arrived
【在 j****a 的大作中提到】
: My friend and I got the permit for a day hike on Mt. Whitney on July 1st,
: 2011. We drove from LA to lone pine in the morning of June 30th. Arrived at
: around 12:30pm, checked in at Dow Villa Motel, had lunch at a Mexican
: restaurant, walked around town, and went to sleep around 6pm.
: We got up at 1:30am, had breakfast, packed our stuff and drove to Mt.Whitney
: Portal. Arrived at 3:10am. Another group of people (2 men 1 woman) arrived
: around the same time. Before the trip I was afraid of walking in the dark,
: but now that there were other people, my fear disappeared.
: The sun rose at around 5am so we didn't spend much time in the dark.Before
: Mirror Lake it was pretty easy. There were patches of snow but no crampons
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