Mount Whitney - Halfway to Everest

Sleeping quite close to the Sierra Highway made me waking up really early on the day I was supposed to reach my next stopover: Mount Whitney. The little bit of research I did back in Grand Junction made me find out that you actually need a permit to get on the trail further than a couple hundred of meters from the Whitney Portal Parking Lot. I also found out that from the approximately 140 permits each day (100 One-Day- and 40 Overnight-Permits) usually more than 30 people cancel their trips or don't show up at the Visitor Center before 2pm the day before getting on the trail. Every permit which hasn't been picked up in time is available for everybody walking in on a first-come first-served bases and this was my plan: Getting a day permit for the next day, cause an overnight-permit would have meant loosing another half day before continuing with my bike.

Somewhere down there I slept that night

Cause I was just 60km/37km away from Lone Pine, the town at the foot of the mountain I wasn't in a hurry at all but even cycling casually made me end up at the Visitor Center even before noon. In between I had to pump up my back tire once again because of low pressure like the two days before when I started with 65psi and ended up with less than 30 in the late afternoon (this time even earlier). Although I already assumed what I would find when I would look inside I decided to delay this procedure to the day after Mount Whitney, but honestly I knew what to expect:/

Yummy snack for everyone who likes to eat insects:D

Anyway, I just walked in and SURPRISE!: I don't know how but I got the last overnight permit available for exactly this present day, which meant that I could already start immediately, camping on one of these campsites on the trail and walking up the remaining part to the summit and down again the next day which meant a less exhausting climb (the total uphill from the Portal is almost 2000m/6600ft) and I could be on the road again already the next evening if everything would work out well. Of course the ranger in the Center told me the same "You will die if you go to the top - story" (to check out if I'm experienced enough and equipped) like the ranger did back at Grand Canyon but if you don't say anything stupid it doesn't affect your permission at all (Of course I didn't tell him that would be walking in biking-shoes instead of proper hiking boots like I did in the Grand Canyon. Because the way up promised to be apparently well maintained and full of people I didn't have to fear anything if something would happen to me). 

And I almost forgot the best thing: The permit was for free!:D

There it is, Mount Whitney from Lone Pine

My permit:)

The rest of the afternoon I spent preparing myself for my unexpected early start. I tried every weight-saving trick I knew, starting with pre-cooking my noodles (could leave the cooking equipment back down), continuing with taking all my energy bars with me and taking the chance of being close to an Outdoor-shop to buy one of these water-bags with a hose which you can drink out of while you're walking instead of stopping every time you want to drink. I just thought this might be very very helpful when I remembered how annoying it was on the canyon-walk because I had to carry the water-bottle in my hand all the time just because I would have had to take off my backpack all the time for drinking instead! I also decided to leave my tent down here cause there were just thunderstorms predicted in the afternoon but no rain during the night in the forecast so it probably would be really cold but dry at night! The second reason I've been in the shop was because I had to borrow a bear-canister for my food on the trail. Apparently it's not enough to hang it up in the trees so they made the rule that everybody on the trail (even day-hikers have to carry these 2kg-heavy cans out of which bears can't smell anything anymore. You also get two plastic bags for your personal human waste you also need to carry with you all the way out of the National Forest (because of that I waited with eating till the evening!) Nowadays there're soo many rules and restrictions for hiking (including the permits, often needed) that it's simply not the same anymore like a few years ago.
The guy in the shop also let me store my bike and all my equipment, I didn't need, in his shop so I solved three problems at once and was ready to start!

Nice idea to recycle old skies:)

Best investment ever!

My bear-can which almost didn't fit in my backpack!

For getting to the trail-head (1300m/4300ft uphill!) I really didn't want to use my bike before a walk like this so I tried hitchhiking which should be now problem, at least I hoped that most of the people, leaving the town on this road, would go to Whitney Portal anyway. I got picked up after a couple of minutes from an old couple who were really nice but unfortunately could take me just 3km up the road. Luckily they stopped at the beginning of a construction causing a one-lane road for 5km which forced the cars waiting more than 15 minutes on each side for the convoy from the other side to arrive. This made it super easy finding a ride cause now I could walk to every car and ask them if they could offer me a seat which makes it way harder for them to refuse. The third car already was success and two really nice guys from California gave me a ride, who also wanted to hike up Mount Whitney and after listening to my story one of them, Jeff, even offered me to meet up with him for a coffee in San Francisco, where he lives:)

Because we had to wait quite long at the construction it became 7:30pm when I was ready to start and despite the sun would set half an hour later I decided to walk to the first campsite 700m uphill. I also had to because when I asked the guy at the shop if I could leave my sleeping stuff here the next morning in case I would stay the night here, he just responded that everybody has problems, his for example are bad luck with hunting blablabla... such a nice guy;)

Apparently lots of inexperienced hikers on the trail (according to these dozens of warning signs which explain the most simple rules)

starting late on the trail

Although I walked quite fast and took no brakes I arrived at the site 1 1/2h later when it was dark already and had to use my headlight for the last part. Quickly pitched my footprint and sleeping equipment I went to to bed with nothing further to do and set my clock to 6am the next morning to have enough time to reach the summit before the thunderstorms would strike in the afternoon. As I expected it became insanely cold at night (something around 7℃) but with all my cloths on me, covered by my sleeping bag and no bears around it didn't feel to bad and I could sleep through most of the time.

The summit always in sight

However I woke up around 5:30am even before my alarm rang and made the experience how damn hard it is to get outta your warm and comfortable sleeping bag when it's almost freezing outside. Of course in the end the desire for standing on the top of the summit was stronger than the one for a warm bed but it took me at least half an hour so it became 6 o'clock anyway to get started for the final climb. Before start walking I had to hide my sleeping stuff somewhere which was way easier here than back down at the parking lot and way less risky because which hiker would take lots of extra weight the whole way back? Some people even left their tents pitched here so apparently that would be no danger at all.

First rays of the sun caught at Outpost Camp

Freezing cold sleeping place!

The sky in the morning was perfectly clear (as I would be used to anything else:) but cause I know this never is an indication for nice weather in the mountains I went on fast to take a brake as long as possible on the summit. The remaining 1300m uphill turned out to be less exhausting than the expected which was caused my the almost no weight I was carrying now. After I already ate half of my food and left the sleeping stuff behind, the only things I was carrying now were my water, the energy bars and my camera:) Right before I reached the very top then I passed the first and only tiny snow-field on the trail. To be honest I didn't really expected that at all and getting in touch with natural snow actually felt so weird, just a few kilometers apart from where I cycled through 44°C/111°F of heat two days before!

Pictures from the hike up:

reaching the 3500m-mark

Lone Pine Creek

Passing Trail Camp on 3800m

Snoopy marmot at the camp:)

Approaching 4000

Reached 4000!

Looking deep into the Sierra from the saddle (4200m)

Nobody wants to carry his stuff the remaining mile:D

First and only snow-field I've seen!

2minutes to the top:)

But then after 4 hours of hiking, lots of amazing views and even more nice pictures I was finally standing on the summit of Mount Whitney, 4421m/14505ft above sea level, the highest point in the Lower 48 and exactly half way up to the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest. Standing here felt incredible and the view was for sure one of the most stunning ones I had so far on this trip. On the western side you could overlook the whole Sierra Nevada with all it's peaks, valleys and lakes and on the eastern side you had the view into Owens Valley, the view from the highest mountain in the Lower 48 into one of North Americas deepest valleys. To be exact you can look down more than 3300m/10800ft which is more than twice as deep as Grand Canyon, but again cause there's barely anything to compare, you would never guess so. I have to admit that for the first time I could really feel that I was standing as high as never before, in terms of a slight headache, probably caused by not acclimating at all but it was nothing serious for sure. I was now also really glad that I did some of the way the day before cause it has turned out being not just a 2000m/6600ft-climb but also a 34km/21mi return trip which would be possible in one day but including 2000m up and down definitely not fun!! While I was taking a nap then something funny happened: a young guy called Shaw from Santa Cruz had the idea to take a picture together from everyone on the summit, what we all did. Nice idea and here it is:)

18strangers on the summit:D

Summit book, no Germans have been here for days, that's weird!

Standing on the highest point in my life so far!:)

Looking south, weather seems still nice.

Looking into Owens Valley, 3300m down is were I arrived the day before!

When I was still enjoying the view from the top for a couple more minutes then I realized that I had reached the summit just in time to be able to rest here that long cause now clouds started to develop in a remarkable short period of time. It was definitely time to go back cause the first two kilometers of the trail starting from the summit are following the summit-crest which means you're walking on pretty much the same height and same exposed as on the summit before you can walk down from a saddle. During these two kilometers towards the saddle everything speeded up way too fast. Just right after I left I could already see and hear lightning striking the next mountain ridge two or three miles to the west. I wouldn't say I was panicking in that moment but definitely hurrying up while I had to watch my feet, not to stumble over one of these countless rocks. Then a couple hundreds of meters to the saddle, again: Lightning...counting: One, two thr... BANG! Remembering the old rule we learned in school, sound travels pretty exactly 1km every three seconds so that just meant nothing but leaving the saddle as quick as possible! Now I was kinda panicking a little bit, less because of me but more because of Shaw, the guy from Santa Cruz who wanted to stay on the saddle to wait for his uncle who was still on the trail behind and not forgetting all those who were still on the summit or on the way up! I don't know how I would have decided where I would have waited if someone I know would have been still behind but now it was an easy decision to go down, the right decision...

Looking into Owens Valley just half an hour later, all the rock in front in the shade now

Clouds start to come in very fast...

Just another 20 minutes later, thunderstorms just a few miles away!

Not even five minutes after starting my descent the thunderstorm began... Lightning stroke everywhere around us (me and the guy I met while running down:) into the crest and peaks around us and definitely several times into the summit, every time not even a second between seeing the flash and hearing the thunder. It was really frightening during the following 20 minutes cause we were still really high and definitely in the danger zone so I didn't even realized that I was completely soaked cause I was just so focused on getting down. I really could hardly believe that no one got in trouble up there but apparently everyone was lucky cause during the following days I couldn't find anything in the news.
The rest of the down-hike wasn't fun at all either. Now that the lightning became less I realized that I was completely soaked and I guess that everybody can imagine that summer rain on 4000m/13000ft doesn't feel as comfortable as down at the bottom. So there's nothing much to tell about way back except of that I didn't take a single break as far as I remember to get down into the warm and comfy temperatures again:)

Walking through heavy rain...

Everything wet and slippery now!

I won't lie, when I finally reached the Whitney Portal again my knees felt like jelly and the cramps I had didn't make it feel much better. I mean I wasn't exhausted really but I guess that hiking simply strains a totally different kind of muscles or at least in a different way. However I surely had to take a break before hitchhiking back and went to the shop with the friendly man and ordered a plate of fries for 5$. At least the size of the plate was huuge and well deserved even if it didn't helped my knees really but it definitely lifted my spirit:)
Hitchhiking then went as well as last time and I got a ride from a lady who worked at the construction during the day and headed home for the weekend. She told me that the thunderstorms these days are super local and always just around the summits of the Eastern Sierra-Ridge so while the workers at Whitney Portal got super wet the ones who worked just 1km down the road stayed completely dry! That's what I mean with Mountains have their own weather, you never know when it hits where, like a lottery but you don't want the Jackpot, trust me! 5 out of 6 were enough!

Yummy!

When you use handkerchiefs against getting plisters and everything is soaked...

...

After getting all my stuff together I just cycled out of town in the evening and led down just anywhere after an super exciting day, in both ways:)

Sleeping anywhere like usually:)

Short route this time:)