August 16, 2016

From the summit (14,508') back to Whitney Portal (8,360' 11 miles), and then home.


The entire trip of today started at the Trail Camp to the summit and then descended all the way to Whitney Portal. From 2:00AM to 6:00PM, for 16 hours, it was 5-mille up and 11-mile down.

On the way down, I took pictures of the places that we passed during the night without pictures.
The photos come in reverse of what we climbed up earlier in the darkness.


The infamous 99 Switchbacks were not so bad on the way down. We climbed this section in the middle of the night under our headlamps. Some experts recommend to climb this section during the night to avoid glaring sun and not to see the boring endless switchbacks.


8:13 AM, 8-16-2016: As we were leaving the summit, two climbers from South America showed me their flags. The sun was in the eastern sky and fortunately the weather was warm with hardly any wind.


Looking back at the summit for the last time.

On the way down, the scene toward south with dark teeth-like shadows of the Whitney Needles.


9:00 AM: The Window: between two needles, The eastern slope, Owens Valley and Inyo Range.


9:04 AM: Looking back at the summit trails and the west face of the Needles. The enormous steep talus slope in the west face of the Whitney massif. You can see the trail where Sukhoon is coming down.


To the west, endlessly fracturing granite rocks covering the Western Sierra Range.


9:08 AM: The awesomeness of the eastern face of the Needle. An unknown lake to me.

The ridge behind an unknown lake is the Pinnacle Ridge, extending down from the Whitney Summit.

Behind the ridge are Mt. Russell (not visible), Mt. Carillon (not visible). Mt. Thor at center.


 9:11 AM: Minor Needles near the Trail Crest.


On the way down, now I can see the "Mt Whitney Trail / John Muir Trail Junction or JMT Junction" (13,480' 9.0 miles). We passed this spot in almost total darkness, using our headlamps, earlier this morning.


9:37 AM: The close up of the famous Whitney-Muir Junction. This is where Sequoia National Park hikers or John Muir Trail hikers join the Main Mt. Whitney Trail. Most of them arrive here very early in the dark to finish the Whitney summit trip and the long trip down to the Whitney Portal before too late.


9:38 AM: At the John Muir Trail Junction (13,480' 8.0 miles)




Backpacks left by the people from Muir Trail.  As hikers come up from the Crabtree Ranger Station on "John Muir Trail", they took their backpacks off and leave them here to take the climb to the Whitney summit. Then, they come back and put their backpacks on again to finish the "Muir Trail" by going down on the Whitney Trail to the Whitney Portal, the south end of the Muir Trail.


9:49 AM: If going down to the west, we will be entering Sequoia National Park.


9:51 AM: The western side of the Trail Crest as we climbed up from the Whitney-Muir junction.


Hitchcock Lake to the west and below the Trail Crest. Behind the lake is the Great Western Divide in Sequoia National Park. The ridge is Kaweah Peaks Ridge. Many of them are over 13,000 feet.


The Trail Crest: at 13,700' and 8.2 miles from the Portal. From the Trail Camp to this Trail Crest is 2.2 miles that is the toughest miles one has to climb through the "99 Switchbacks" over 12,000 feet altitude. Then another 2.8 miles to the summit from here. However, the last 2.8 miles is not very steep except that one travels in the thin air over 13,700 feet altitude.


9:53 AM: The Consultation Lake in the eastern slope of Whitney massif. The fore-slope is where the 99 Switchbacks are. You can see a part of it at the lower end.


The east face of Mt. Muir (14,019'), the highest peak at right. Some hikers climb Mt. Muir on the way down from the Whitney summit in order to bag one extra fourteener. From the west face, this is supposed to be an easier climb than how it appears from here. We didn't have the time or energy to do it.


10:01 AM: Mt. Muir at left edge of the picture. Northward view of the three major needles and the Whitney summit far away at right side of the picture.

10:17 AM: Looking down the beginning section of the "99 Switchbacks." You can see some faint trails.


Close up views of some of the switchbacks below my feet.


A lone climber is coming up the steep section of the zigzagging "99 Switchbacks."

Without this well-constructed switchbacks, it will be very hard and dangerous to climb this section. The trail gains 1,700 feet very quickly in 2.2 miles. We passed this section last night in the early morning in total darkness. It was a blessing that we could not see the discouraging endless switchbacks on the way up. We just kept walking up looking our feet lighted by the headlamp.


10:39 AM: Another close up view of the switchbacks.


The actual constructions of the switchback by piling up rock walls to create the level paths.


10:41 AM: Looking down the infamous Cable Section (section of steel poles and chains) of the "99 Switchbacks" to keep the climbers from falling to the steep rock slope to the left.


Looking up the same section from below after we climbed down. This section becomes very dangerous when there is snow. But without snow, it was not bad at all.


10:28 AM, 8-16-2016: In front of us, a sole climber is descending toward the Trail Camp turning down the last few switchbacks. The Trail Camp seems to be almost empty at this early hours of the day. You can see the small Trail Pond (tarn) in the center. Wotans Throne at left upper corner.

We took a brief rest of about an hour at the Trail Camp and repacked the tents and backpacks. We left Trail Camp at about 1:00 PM. Coming down was brisk and easy.


4:25 PM, 8-16-2016: We passed the sign of Whitney Zone behind our backs, meaning the Whitney trip had ended successfully. At about 6:00 PM, after a long boring gentle descent into the Whitney Portal, at the big garbage dumpster near the Portal Store, we got rid of the darn WAG Bag that was hanging at our backpack for a while.  We were pretty well tired but felt very well.

We had a dinner at a local fast food store and left Lone Pine at about 8:00PM. After happy and parting handshakings, two of us drove to Las Vegas and the other two drove to Laguna Woods 4 hours away.
After 17 hours on the trail, with 5miles of ascending and 11 miles of descending since 2:00AM, it was one of the logest day of our life. We were a bit tired but we drove back safely to our homes at 1:00 AM next day.

Blessed with a lot of good lucks, we returned just the same as we left home except we added another summit of Mount Whitney in our bag of climbing memories. It was a precious gift that I quietly gave to myself for the 76th birthday of mine.

A million thanks to Ben Choi for getting the Whitney permit and creating this climbing event. With my sincere appreciation to my climbing partners, to the kindness of Mother Whitney, and to the mysterious and enigmatic fate of mine, I am ending my Whitney photojournal of the year 2016.