Onion Valley to Mount Whitney: Day Five

I'm We recently completed a five day, four night backpacking trip from Onion Valley to Mount Whitney. This trip covers the southernmost section of the John Muir Trail.

Day Five: Guitar Lake to Mount Whitney, and out Whitney Portal.

Distance: 15.1 miles.
Elevation: start: 11,470 feet. Highest: 14,505 feet at Mount Whitney Summit. Finish: 8360 feet at trailhead.
Total gain/loss :  3000 feet total gain, 6000 feet total loss.  

We awoke at 3 AM on our final day knowing that the next 4 miles up/3000 the gain to the summit of Mount Whitney at 14,505 feet and 3 miles down the nearly 100 switch backs on the other over 3000 feet of descent would be through ice, sleet, and snow. This is not old snowpack left over from the witness winter. Rather, it is new precipitation deposited from the storm the day before.

This 30 second exposure shows the light from headlamps of hikers who started as early as mid night making their way up the icy switch back to Trailcrest and ultimately the mount Whitney summit. We opted to begin our hike at 4 AM knowing that this would mean we would miss the sunrise at the summit but that we would have plenty of time to get up and down before the afternoon storms. The movement of the clouds backlit by the moonlight is also evident in this photo.

This view back toward the camp shows the headlamps of the backpackers who decided to start the climb over  an hour and a half after us.  We are less than halfway through the climb at this point.

The sunrise was amazing as we slowly climed the icy switchbacks.  The combination of slick footing and exposure kept our pace down to the point that the elevation was imperceptible. Probably about 1 mile per hour. Maybe less.

Further up.

The ice became more like snow as we climbed.

Trailcrest- the remaining trip to the summit was a 2 miles each way, 1000 feet out and back, allowing us to drop out packs here. This is the location that overnight backpackers from Whitney Portal and ambitious day hikers join the route; this spot is 8.7 miles, 5000 feet from the trailhead of Whitney Portal for day hikers approaching the summit via Whitney Portal.  The traffic consequently picked up from here on in.

The view towards guitar lake.  Our camp the night before was just to the right of the body of the guitar shaped lake (Guitar Lake) on the right.  You can see how the size and shape of the granite cliffs surrounding this massive area amplified the thunder the afternoon before.

Looking back over the majority of the final stretch.

Almost there...

Made it!  Mount Whitney. At 14,505 feet, it's the highest spot in the lower 48. It was cold, icy and windy and the clouds blew in shortly after this obscureing much of the view. It was amazing but difficult to enjoy due to the relatively inhospitable conditions.

The arid California desert of the valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in the background. The distant mountains in the background are actually at the boundary of Death Valley. It was from the vantage point of telescope peak in death Valley last March that we first observed Mount Whitney and got the crazy idea to hike the Sierras.

View to the Northeast.

To the Southeast.

To the west.

On the way down, the high Sierra in the background.  6000 feet/ 10 miles to go.

The trail to the left marks the beginning of the descent from trailcrest, beyond the junction.

At 8 am, the stacking up commences.  

These 99 icy switchbacks were loaded with oncoming hikers, making this the most hazardous stretch in my opinion.

View east toward Whitney portal- essentially a giant granite runoff.

Mount Whitney is a lighter flat peak in the middle of this photo taken from the switchbacks below on Trailcrest. You can see tiny people and a tiny building on top of Whitney.  It does not obviously stand out from this vantage point.

 Working our way down.

 Consultation lake.  Guitar Lake, on the other side to the first water crossing on the Whitney portal side was the longest stretch of dry trail (almost 10 miles), which requires that extra water weight be carried on the highest stretch of the hike; up and down 3000 feet.

On the way down many inquired about conditions at the summit.  The humility of sharing the trail with super elite Pacific Crest Trail and John Muir trail hikers on the other side was quenched by the congratulatory excitement from Whitney Portal hikers on the other side.  We finally stopped when we reached the timberline.  For most of our 5 day 55 mile 12,000 foot of total ascent trip I felt physically okay (or at least better than I expected), but by the end of the 6000 foot of decent on day 5 my dogs were barking pretty bad. The dramatic elevation contrast was accompanied by climate contrast as well. Despite the cold earlier that day climbing the icy trail in the wind wearing four layers (two of which were down and wool), we were sweating in T shirts while walking around Lone Pine at 4000 feet that afternoon.