In 2022, my son and I climbed Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in New York State. That weekend we were ecstatic and looked for another adventure. A quick Google search reveals that Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48, is not out of reach for amateurs like us. I promised him, me, and his daughter that we would climb the mountain in 2023, but in the end, neither of us were able to climb it. Lucy didn't need much convincing to join me. Hiking offered exhilarating new challenges and triumphs, but Mount Whitney offered the promise on a grander scale.
However, my lofty ambitions soon met with a snowy reality.
I had heard that it snows a lot in the highlands, but I didn't expect it to snow this much. At the urging of the owner of a gear store in Lone Pine, an unassuming town at the base of the mountain where most people prepare for the climb, I had packed an ice ax and crampons, but I didn't want to use them. So fast. It would take forever, but we didn't have forever. He had less than 24 hours left.
challenge accepted
Until researching this trip, I had never heard of naturalist John Muir's great line, “The mountains are calling, I must go,” and that much of the water in Los Angeles, about 320 miles south, is in this area. I didn't even know it was coming from. of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
At 14,494 feet, Mount Whitney is named for Josiah Dwight Whitney, a Harvard professor from the Northeast who headed the California Geological Survey. The first recorded ascent was made in 1873 by three Lone Pine residents. It looks small compared to Denali. , the highest mountain in the United States over 20,000 feet above sea level, located in Alaska. But Mount Whitney has something Denali doesn't. That means you can go up and down in one day. Mountain guides describe this round-trip trek as more difficult due to the snow and ice, but much of the distance is at high altitude, and the total distance is about 35 miles.
US Forest Service conducts lottery Day-trip and overnight permits are issued each February to climb Mt. Whitney from May 1st to November 1st. Officials are limiting the number of day hikers to 100 at each hour between midnight and midnight to avoid overcrowding on the trail.