on wednesday, august 29, 2007 i climbed mount whitney. the climb to 14,497 feet above sea level was a real test for me...one i almost failed.
many of you may not have heard of mount whitney. i hadn't until last saturday at amy's cousin's place when jan peterson invited me to hike with him. i offered to check my schedule and get back to him. jumping on a computer in their office, i found wikipedia's offering on the mountain. the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states and a 22 mile round trip. i live at 1100 feet above sea level and unfortunately don't exercise much when i come home from the hospital...but how hard could it be? i accepted his offer and bought too much money's worth of gear to get me there...
the hike began at 5 am in the dark with headlamps. accounts i read on the internet gave estimates of 14-18 hours for the endeavor. water is an issue and requires carrying lots or filtering. i did both and my calves feel like falling off right now because of my 20+ lbs pack that i lugged up and back.
anyway, the first views we had as the sun came up were spectacular. the sheer rock walls are beautiful in a stark, barren way. this shot below is of thor peak that sits above mirror lake.
the first six miles of the hike were very relaxed and a lot of fun. i enjoyed getting to know amy's cousin and his friends as we walked. the miles seemed to glide by in the beauty of the surroundings...
however, my personal struggles started in around 5 1/2 miles. i read a review article in the new england journal of medicine about acute mountain sickness (ams) just prior to the trip. we decided to take aspirin every 4 hours up to three pills total as prophylaxis for headache. apparently, headache is the common first symptom of ams and is a harbinger of swellling and increased fluid in the brain. this knowledge did not sit well as a slight headache started in about 12,000 feet as we came upon the trail camp pictured below.
despite a slight headache, i felt great and didn't think much of what was to come. i was over halfway to the top in miles and 2/3's the way there in altitude gained. if you look behind me in the picture above you will see the 2nd to last peak to the far right...that is the mount whitney. getting there still required 2 miles of switch backs to the far left of the picture. the switchbacks end at 13,600 feet. from there, the hike takes you 3 miles past each of the peaks shown behind me and undulates between 13,500 and the requisite 14,497 to the peak. climbing at that altitude for that long without acclimatization proved to be far harder than i would have dreamed.
our group started with six members. at one point during the hike we lost track of three of our group. we thought they were behind us and we waited for them several times, but they didn't show--we figured they must be ahead of us. so it was that three of us started up the grueling switchbacks together. as we ascended, i soon found that i was not in the mood to charge the switchbacks at the rate my partners desired. they went on ahead and two hours later (11:30 am) i finally reached 13,600 feet. at this point i had a definite headache and was starting to feel nauseated with exertion. these two symptoms are clinically diagnosable ams and should probably have been grounds for stopping. however, the views at this altitude were breathtaking and i was feeling good about my accomplishment to that point.
the lake below shows the starting point for the switchbacks--2 miles and 1600 vertical feet away.
at the 13,600 foot trail crest, a completely new vista of peaks and terrain opened up and it's dizzying glory is seen here...
the remaining three miles turned out to be a test greater than i have experienced in a long time. there is a portion of my experience that i will not recount to you for the sake of sanity, but mount whitney requires carrying out any waste produced during the hike. i will only say that for 13 miles of the hike i experienced intestinal cramps that were often unignorable--requiring two separate stops at very exposed and inconvenient times...enough said? i'll tell you about it later if you're that interested...
here is a depiction of the desolate nature of the last 3 miles of trail.
after hiking one of the three miles left, i found i could only go 10-30 feet at a time without stopping for overwhelming headache and nausea. it was then that i found a fellow hiker, al, whom i had met earlier in the day. he was struggling with similar symptoms and we stopped to contemplate our next move. part of me felt a longing to go on, another part of me felt the irresponsible nature of allowing my brain to swell and endanger my livelihood:) (amy says all this talk of my brain and my livelihood is a bit dramatic, but my perceptions must have been more dramatic at altitude because the feelings i describe were very real.) i would have turned around soon thereafter had it not been for al. we decided we would take turns leading the other for 10-20 steps and we would stop to rest. at the end of each 10-20 foot segment the nausea would crescendo, however, with rest the nausea receded. this fact allowed me to feel a sense of responsible climbing (ie. i wasn't putting my brain in jeopardy if the nausea went away and i might still achieve my goal despite how difficult this task was shaping up to be). i left my pack along the way with one mile to go in desperation. 2 hours and 45 minutes after reaching the top of the switch backs we summited. i was more emotional than i would have thought at making it to the top. i hugged al and wrote amy and the kids' names in the register (since their faces flashed before my eyes each time my symptoms worsened:)
al and me.
the register with amy, michael, abby and bekah's name recorded for posterity.
this last picture depicts jan and me at the summit just before our descent. jan (amy's cousin) was quietly patient and a great strength on the way down. my headache began at 9:30 am, i summitted at 2:00 pm. the first three miles of the descent were not a descent but undulations at altitude. every time the trail would rise my headache and nausea would return and i would despair slightly. what had i done? i was not out of the woods and i could only walk so fast without getting sick. my emotions slid in and out of confidence and panic. yet, with jan's good nature and patience we slowly made the 3+ hour trek to the trail camp at 12,000 feet. at 12,000 feet i felt a great sense of relief and my nausea was mostly resolved. we left the trail camp at 6:15 pm and with each foot we descended i felt better and better. we walked/ran the last 6 miles in 2 hours (partly in the dark with headlamps).
if you made it this far you've heard more than you wanted about my hike, and i've probably revealed more about myself than i should have on the internet. with the struggles i experienced, this hike became a significant experience in my life that i will not soon forget...
