At 14,505 feet Mt. Whitney is the highest peak in the contiguous United States. It also requires a permit to hike and for a single person to get a hiking permit in July for an overnight hike the odds were about 8%. For our group of five the odds were even lower. We missed out on the initial lottery and after some diligence in waiting until they released the canceled and unclaimed permits we were able to secure enough permits for the group! We were officially locked in for an overnight hike of Mt. Whitney in July!
Day 1:
I woke up at 3:45am in Arizona and got myself to the airport. I landed early in Las Vegas, where the majority of the crew was meeting up, early at about 7am. Chad picked me up in our rental and I headed to Brad’s in-law’s house where Brad, Nathanael, and Chad had stayed the night last night. Pretty convenient to have that connection out there!
I went and woke up Nathanael and Brad and we had breakfast, which I had some burritos packed by Emily. Later we went for a coffee run and then to REI and a grocery store for last minutes supplies. Most of the day was spent on the road just driving and having awesome conversations. It’s so good to be back with some of the boys!
We went to Death Valley and it was 118 degrees out. We walked out into some salt flats and to the lowest point in the western hemisphere. Then we got to the campsite a little before 6 and met up with the last member of the crew, Joe. Then a couple of us when to get our bear canister, which is required for an overnight hike to store food. Then we ate some dinner, and did some gear prep after setting up our tents. Eventually we all hung out and played some card games. Joe crushed us all in most of the games. We went to bed early with plenty of time for a good sleep in.
Day 2:
We woke up at 7am and then got our tents torn down and gear packed. After some adjustments, my water bladder was leaking with holes so I had to adjust on the fly and figure out a new plan. Luckily, between everyone we had enough extra supplies to come up with a solution. Eventually we all took our backpacks up to the shop where we got breakfast. I got the famous giant pancake and eggs and bacon. It was really good!
We started the hike and at the entrance they have a scale to weigh everyone’s backpack. Everyone’s backpack was between 34-37 pounds so not bad. We started and Nathanael led us out to fast that we decided to put Chad, as the slowest, as the pace setter in the lead. Just for everyone reading this’s information, Chad was a last minute fill in. He got in as good of shape as he could in the short amount of time we gave him, but Chad really struggled towards the end and we were taking so many breaks. We got to trail camp a little before 6pm.
On the way we saw a ton of beautiful lakes and I filtered some water from a stream and from a lake which was cool to do for the first time. I and pretty much everyone else probably should have drank a lot more water, but we all made it. Chad is convinced he isn’t going to summit tomorrow, but we will try to convince him.
We hung out at the trail camp and filtered more water. Then we ate dinner together and headed to bed around 8pm. We will be waking up at 4am to eat breakfast and begin our trek to the summit. It was pretty chilly up there and I was a little worried I might be too cold at night. Heck of a day!! What a good challenge to be sleeping at 12000ft.
Day 3:
I was decently comfortable weather wise sleeping in my sleeping bag despite my worries. A bunch of groups were up as early as 2am making noise getting ready to start their ascent. We got up at 4am and I got changed into my hiking clothes and ate some breakfast and then went and filtered some water for the hike. We were each planning just to take a daypack with water and snacks which was a welcome break leaving our heavier camping gear at the trail camp. The plan for me was just carry two water bottles with no extra backpack or gear since my bladder broke. I did have some snacks in my pocket. Chad officially decided not to come despite out cajoling. We started our ascent around 5am. It was decently chilly but not as bad as I was worried about. We started on the 99 switch backs and made pretty decent time on the way up. It felt so good without the big heavy backpack!
Nathanael struggled a bit on the way up and ended up with an absolutely hilarious poop situation. He had to poop on a tight trail with really no hidden space from the trail. He pooped quick, but it was too windy to drop it in the wag bag so he had to pick it up and it was a complete mess… I stood there and warned hikers going past about the smell 😂 Nathanael had a huge poop streak across his pants 😂😂 I was literally rolling laughing. I laughed so hard I was tearing up! We reached the summit around 9:40am and a bunch of high school kids from a mountain biking team were sprinting up past us racing each other which made us realize how old and physically inferior we were really were!
We spent about 45 minutes chilling at the summit. Brad let me borrow his phone and I FaceTimed Emily quick which was really cool to do from the highest point in the lower 48! We began our journey down and got back to trail camp at about 1pm. I ate lunch and packed up and then filtered a bunch of water for everyone.
Then we, Chad now included, headed down the mountain. Nathanael led and we made pretty decent time. It was cool to get back to the tree line and see all the other beautiful sights from the way up. We made it down at about 5:40pm. We dropped our backpacks at the car and Brad and I returned our bear canisters. Then the majority of us got giant double bacon cheeseburgers which were $23.50, but worth the special meal.
After that Nathanael said he hustled wanted a hotel with a jacuzzi and I said, “Why don’t we just go back to MGM Grand?” mostly as a joke. However, everyone was interested in not sleeping in our tents again at the very least. Joe said he was just going to crash and then leave early in the morning. So as a group we decided to go back to Brad’s in-laws and sleep there.
We hit the road and drove the 4 or so hours back to their house. I got a king bed to myself! We all showered and did a load of laundry which was nice. Heck of a day!! I logged over 46,000 steps and that’s with so much elevation gain and loss. God is good!
Day 4:
We all woke up around 9am and I put the laundry into the dryer. We ate some breakfast and got our day started. We headed out of the house and went to the Hall of Excellence, which is a cool sports memorabilia collection nearby. It was $30 and we got an ipod with headphones and the app had Morgan Freeman narrating the exhibits. We saw all of Tom Brady’s Super Bowl rings. We saw Charles Woodson’s heisman and so many other awesome sports memorabilia. It was really cool.
After we walked the casino floor and Nathanael lost $20 in a matter of minutes. I played a slot machine with a $15 limit I gave myself. It was $1 spins and with $3 left I hit for $60 which was cool. I immediately cashed out and we went back to Brad’s in-laws. Brad started cooking some salmon his father-in-law had for us. It took some time so we had to drop Nathanael off for his early flight. We came back and ate and it was some of the best salmon I’ve ever had actually! It was already smoked and man it was so good.
After eating we sat on the couch and watched the Lions preseason football game which was cool. I got an email saying my flight was delayed. I went on time anyways. The long story is that Frontier continually delayed by an hour or so at a time and we eventaully left 6 hours late at 2:20am. I killed time eating with the $15 food voucher they gave me and I lost $3 on a slot machine, which they have in the Las Vegas airport.
I finally landed in Phoenix and took the shuttle to airport parking. I got in my truck and drove home getting there at 4:30am. I dropped my stuff in the living room and then crawled into bed next to Emily. It was a long day, but thankfully the flight didn’t get cancelled and I made it home for work. God is good!
Overall, it was another incredible trip and really a lot of fun to do some difficult things shoulder to shoulder with some really good friends. The views were amazing and they left me in awe of God’s beautiful creation! Just catching up with everyone and hanging out alone made it worth it. I’m so blessed to be able to have such a great group of friends and to be able to hike the tallest mountain in the lower 48! God is good!