Mt. Whitney summit video
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| Guitar Lake |
Wednesday, July 18
I saw
the headlamps of some hikers getting an early start this morning at
4:00am. An and I though spent the most
of the morning fishing in Guitar Lake.
An finally had some luck and kept two of the Golden Trout that he caught
for lunch today. It must have been
around 10:00am before we even started up the trail. We had about 2000 feet of elevation and 5
miles of trail to get to the top of Mt. Whitney.
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| Looking down on Guitar Lake |
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| at about 14,000 feet now |
After 3 miles of hiking and a ton
of switch backs we made it to the T in the trail at 13,658 feet. Eventually we will go straight here which
will take us off the mountain down to Whitney Portal. For now, we dropped our packs as we would be
returning to this spot after we summit Whitney.
It would be a 4 mile round trip so I took only 1 bottle of water and a
couple of trail bars with me. It was good
to be hiking without the pack for a change as I charged up the mountain. An and I were both passing a lot of day
hikers that were not acclimatized to the altitude as we were. On young man who was resting halfway down
from the top said that it would take me at least another two hours to make it to
the top, because that’s how long it took him.
I bet him that I could make it in less than an hour and he looked at me
shocked and said I better get moving. I
looked at my watch, took off, and 45 minutes later I was at the summit.
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| 100 yards from the summit (Emergency shelter and weather equipment room built by the Sierra Club) |
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| View east from the summit of Mt. Whitney |
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| View north from the summit of Mt. Whitney |
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| View west from the summit of Mt. Whitney |
It was exhilarating to be on top of
the peak of the highest mountain in the lower 48 and to be at the terminus of
the JMT. I was thankful thinking back to
all that I had been allowed to accomplish, to experience and how well it all went. I had also met many wonderful people along
the way and was grateful for what each one had brought to my life. These journeys always add to my appreciation
of how beautifully complex and interconnected this Earth that God created is and
I am overwhelmingly thankful for these opportunities to learn more about it all and share
with others what I find.
Out here and in
life ...
every day is the best day.
The End
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| We are in the book! Look at entry #21; Danny Westgrand, Badwater finisher. |
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| Sunset from Trail Camp on the way back down (Those colors were not exaggerated or altered with Photoshop) |
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