Tuesday June 24, 2008

Summit climb to Mt. Whitney

On 22nd June 2008, we (four of us) were able to summit the heights of Mt. Whitney which is the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states of the United States (US) and falls under Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range of Sequoia National Park.

The day hike which is 22 miles round-trip was started at 1.40 am as there were thunder storms predicted by rangers. We somehow got up at 1.00 am but didn't get any sleep. From the fact that we were suppose to climb Mt Whitney in a day with 6000 feet altitude gain/loss, it kept us awake whole night. In order to gain some ground, we did a practice hike in the near-by area of Mt.Whitney and scaled 11,000 feet & 8 miles round-trip on 21st June. That turned out to be a good warm-up.

Since we got an early start, I was expecting to reach by 8-9 am but I was struggling. I'm yet to figure out why I struggled at high-altitude which delayed the summit climb by more than two hours. Its not that I have never hiked on higher altitudes but it seems I 'm slowly losing the moment. I  finally reached the top of Mt. Whitney mountain at 10.35 am which were below my expectation and it did disappoint me a lot. The hike in a day is a very-very strenuous and it took everything out of me. On a strenuous hike like this you must have lot of patience to climb since it can take longer than you expect.

Anyway...time to share photographs and the camera added extra 4 pounds on the pack.