Whitney or Bust

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

We returned to Outpost and quickly took down the tents and packed up camp. Our hike down to the Portal was a lot harder than I had anticipated. Our backpacks seemed to have gotten heavier as our bodies were pretty worn out by this time.

We made it back down to the parking lot in a few hours and enjoyed a much needed cold Corona!

6 women, 2 days, 1 Mountain.... AMAZING!!!!

Day 2 AKA: Bust Day

AT 4:00AM we set out for Trail Camp.... headlamps on, crampons and ice axes in hand. As the elevation increased so did the snow, making it difficult to see the trail. We arrived at Trail Camp just before 7:30am to find it buried in snow. We spoke with a few campers that had made the decision not to continue and watched a few groups struggle up the switch backs (97 in all). Clouds were moving in from both directions and snow was beginning to fall.

At this point we made the decision to turn back, a very difficult decision but in the end the right one. The hike back down to Outpost was bittersweet. Although we all were proud of what we accomplished, deep down we were so sad to have been shut out by Mother Nature!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Day 1 PART 3: Outpost Camp

After a few hours on the trail we arrived at Outpost, our camp for the night. WOW! We were surrounded by mountains, a waterfall and a creek that provided us with fresh drinking water. We quickly set up our tents and turned our attention on to the important things: food and entertainment!

We enjoyed a meal of salami, ramen noodles and trail mix. (if I never see another bag of trail mix it will be too soon!)

Due to the lack of alcohol, I will have to blame the laughter on the a-a-a-a-a-a-litiude! or we could blame it on the group of campers next to us that didn't understand the meaning of "personal space" (clearly not "real men of genius")

Knowing we had to wake up by 3:00am to hit the trail by 4:00am we called it a night at 7:00pm

Into thin air

The trail to our camp was AMAZING! I cannot begin to describe the feeling of being out there in the wilderness with no ability to communicate with the outside world. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, it was so serene to be able to leave "home" behind for a while and reconnect with myself.

We laughed, sang, and learned a little bit more about each other (some of us would rather be blind than obese, wear a permanent sombrero rather than moon boots and have 2 left feet rather than wear ortho head gear). All in all the time passed quickly and before long we were at our camp.

Day 1 continued: Hitting the trail

After a 5 hour car ride we arrived in Lone Pine. We made a quick stop to pick up our permits and bear canisters and to check in on the weather conditions.We were told that few had been able to summit in the past two weeks but we decided to push on. After a quick lunch in town (our last "real meal" for 24 hours) we headed up to the Whitney Portal, where the hike begins...