Day 45 – Saturday, July 8

Mount Whitney
Day Total: 17 Miles

The top of Mount Whitney is exposed, and the last five or six miles of trail to the summit are all above tree line. We knew there was a chance of afternoon storms so we wanted to get to the summit – and off the summit – as early as possible.

We woke up at 5:30 and quickly packed up just what we needed for the day – warm clothes, rain gear, crampons and ice axes, and snacks. We left our tent set up at Crabtree Meadows with the rest of our stuff inside and were hiking by 6 a.m. with our light backpacks.

The trail climbed gradually from the beginning up to the beautiful Timberline Lake. We hit a few small snow fields in the next mile before reaching Guitar Lake. It really is shaped like a huge guitar!


There were lots of marmots marming around in the talus near the lake.

We walked over a few more snow fields, none more than about 150 yards, and then started to climb switchbacks up, and up, and up. We were slowed a little by the altitude, but kept chugging up to the junction with the Whitney Portal trail. The majority of people who climb Whitney come from the east side, Whitney Portal. The west side, where we came from, is accessible only to backpackers.

It was 1.9 miles to the summit and suddenly there was suddenly a lot of traffic on the trail. We cruised the first mile and a half, and then had to do some rock scrambling to avoid the last snow field before the summit.

We reconnected with the trail, crested a little rise, and saw the emergency shelter at the top! Woohoo! We'd made it!

We signed the register, took several photos, and ate lunch while enjoying the expansive views in every direction. So many mountains!

We also took advantage of the cell phone service, the first we'd had in about 10 days, to call home, and download updated information about the snow and creeks we'll hike through in the next several days.

After about and hour-and-a-half on the sunny summit, we started our descent. The trip down was much quicker and we made it back to Guitar Lake by early afternoon.

We enjoyed a snack and filtered some water before descending the last couple miles back to our tent at Crabtree Meadows.

Today made me realize we're in pretty good shape after hiking for 45 days. We crushed the tallest mountain in the contiguous U.S. We enjoyed a big dinner of rice with re-hydrated chicken and went to bed early.

It was an awesome day!