Whitney 10 Peak Dayhike Carillon, Russell, Whitney, Keeler, Crooks, Muir, Discovery Pinnacle, Marsh, McAdie, Irvine Sierra Challenge Day 9 8/11/07 - 20th time on Mount Whitney and first time up the West Slope - Ascended North Fork - Descended via Meysan Lakes - Three 14ers (Whitney, Russell, Muir) - Four 13ers (Carillon, Marsh, McAdie, Irvine) - Three minor peaks (Keeler, Crooks, Discovery Pinnacle) - Five passes (Russell/Carillon, Whitney/Russell, Trail Crest, Crabtree Pass, Arc Pass) It was day 9 of the 2007 Sierra Challenge. The assigned challenge peak for the day was Mount Hale. Having already completed this peak and the associated bonus peak (Mount Young) the year before I didn't have much interest in doing it again. My agenda wasn't set in stone but I decided I'd give the Whitney Loop (a hike I've been perfecting over the years) another go. This wasn't an attempt to capture the polka dot jersey or anything. My participation in the Sierra Challenge was only a personal goal and I was not attempting to compete with anyone except myself. The loop just seemed to be the only thing I could think of to do. Two weeks earlier I had attempted the loop but with less than ideal weather and a lack of energy I didn't even succeed in summitting Mount Whitney. This stinging defeat had broken my confidence and left me depressed. I wanted to give it another try but after the last time I was a bit concerned I wouldn't have enough energy to pull it off. At a minimum after 8 days of the Challenge I should at least be acclimated. My minimal goal was to summit Carillon, Russell, Whitney, and Muir. To make things more interesting I was considering doing Whitney via the seldem attempted West Slope. That would be something new and something I had never done. This wasn't the only "unknown" of the day. I arrived at the Whitney Portal around 4:30am and was forced to park well down the road because the parking lots were full. Little did I know this would prove fortuitous. I had intended to get an earlier start but lacking sleep for the past 8 days it was hard to get going. Bob Burd was waiting for others at the trailhead for the hike to Mount Hale. Since I was doing my own thing for the day I didn't have any reason to wait until the 5am start time. At 4:48am I bid farewell and declared that I had no fixed agenda. While not setting a particularly blistering pace I proceeded up the trail and the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek. Near the bottom of the North Fork I came upon the headlamps of at least four climbers looking for the route up the right side of the canyon. I too was intending to use the right side of the canyon. One asked if I had been here before. I said yes I've been here many times. Then he asked if I knew the way. I said yes but warned that the right side had a narrow boot ledge and that a more defined trail existed up the left side. For whatever reason they all wanted to go up the right side. Near the boot ledge (a thin ledge barely wide enough for a boot) it became apparent that the first two were a separate group. These two had climbing gear and were intending to do the East Buttress. Even with heavy packs they kept right up with me and had no problem with the boot ledge. Looking back a few minutes later I saw that the other headlamps were stopped at the ledge. I suspect they may have had second thoughts given the exposure on the ledge. Continuing on I and the two other climbers reached Lower Boy Scout Lake at 5:48am. Having reached this point exactly 1 hour from the trailhead I was reasonably satisfied with my time so far. At LBSL I came upon Tom B and Rachel. We talked for about 10 minutes before I continued on. Stopping at the creek crossing at Clyde Meadow I filled up my water bottles for what would be the last time of the day (and it was only 6:20am). I filled up about 32oz of water which supplemented my two 16oz cans of Sobe No Fear (an energy drink). Water bottles filled I then started up the sandy slope to the Russell/Carillon saddle. Near the bottom I pulled up behind another familiar face. It was Kathy Wing (wingding). We talked for a few minutes. This was her first attempt at Russell's East Ridge. After taking each other's photos I continued up the slope. I reached the saddle at 8:05am followed by the summit of Mount Carillon at 8:19am. At the time it felt like it had taken forever to reach Carillon's summit. I had no idea that it had taken only 14 minutes. Returning to the Russell/Carillon saddle I then proceeded up Russell's East Ridge. Having been on the ridge 8 or so times I've become rather familiar with it and hardly noticed the exposure. Along the way I met a fellow summitposter (Gary Plett). Like the climbers I had met earlier he had no problem keeping up. By now I felt I must have been going pretty slow but in actuality my time was fairly reasonable and in fact likely faster than I had ever been. At 9:22am Gary and I reached the West summit followed 11 minutes later by the East Summit. So far so good. Gary and I talked for some time before leaving the summit. I was particularly interested in the fact that he worked for JPL. Partway back to the West summit we parted ways since I was descending via the South Slope. I carefully dropped down the chimney and then began the tedious descent down the loose slope. Two days earlier on the descent from West Vidette I had pulled my left achilles which now was not happy about jumping around on loose rocks. I began to wonder how much of a problem this would be. At the bottom of Russell's south slope (not far from the Russell/Whitney pass) I passed over to Whitney's lower North Slope and began to contour toward the West Side. I knew there would be loose rock here and as I expected it wasn't too pleasant. My achilles was even less pleased by this loose side-hilling route. I considered aborting the West slope plan and just going up the North Face. Afterall, I could always do the West Slope some other time. Certainly it was going to be extra effort and would cost me some time. I was lured however by the mysterious West slope and proceeded on despite the trouble. Above Arctic Lake the West Slope began to come into view. From this vantage point I couldn't get the best view. I knew that the West Slope consisted of a series of chutes seperated by rocky ribs. What I didn't know was which one to use. I skipped the first chute and began climbing up the second. About halfway up the 2nd chute it split and both forks appeared to be blocked by headwalls (possibly class 4 or greater). I crossed over a notch into the first chute and followed this one up further until it too was blocked by a headwall. At this point I crossed back over into a much broader 3rd chute. This one clearly went all the way to the top without further obstructions. All this jumping around took time and was a bit tedious but there was some fun scrambling to be had. It did seem to take absolutely forever to reach the hut though. Finally at 1:11pm I reached the summit of Mount Whitney. The usual crowd was there. I picked a spot to rest and have lunch. I drank my 2nd energy drink. After signing the summit register I felt good and decided there was no reason not to tag the next easy peaks. Keeler, Crooks, and Muir went quickly and easily. I eyed a few of the interesting towers such as S'brutal Tower but decided my time might be better spent elsewhere. Along the way I met Richard Piotrowski and Mike Mellin. This would be Richard's 12th consecutive monthly Whitney summit and likely a Whitney first. Richard and I have had a few remarkable winter Whitney climbs over the past couple of years including spending the night in the hut last December. I too had wanted to attempt 12 consecutive months but after missing out on a February summit I dropped that goal (at least for now). After congradulating Richard in advance and continuing on I reached Trail Crest at 3:15pm. I stopped only for a moment and then proceeded on to Discovery Pinnacle. Having now finished off the trivial stuff and with adequate time to work with I continued on to Mount Marsh. Previously the last peak in my loop had ended with Discovery Pinnacle. Mount Marsh would be a new addition and it would also be the first time I had attempted this summit. Marsh seemed a bit further away than I expected and to get to it I had to drop off the crest to bypass some problems. I wasn't happy about giving up the elevation. I was also now beginning to get an idea of what it would take to reach McAdie if I decided to go that far. It obviously wasn't going to be an easy scamble along the crest. At 4:22pm I reached Marsh's summit (class 3). No register was present. From this vantage point McAdie was quite impressive. Between Marsh and McAdie was a deep notch and likely some class 5 climbing. I already knew this so I reversed course and backtracked down off Marsh back the way I came. I now had a big decision to make. In fact it was the biggest decision of the day. At this point the safe decision would be to proceed back to Trail Crest and take the Whitney Trail back out. Ah, but then again, could I continue on and tag McAdie and Irvine? This was a tough decision. The next step was to descend down off the crest losing about 1000 feet down a sandy slope before progressing to Crabtree Pass. If this didn't work I would have 1000 feet of sand to reclimb. Also, if I continued on I couldn't be sure I would reach my intended exit point before dark. What to do? I decided to go for it. It was now 4:37pm. I still felt good. Where was this energy coming from? I rapidly descended the sandy slope down toward upper Crabtree Lake. It was almost appalling how rapidly I bled off such hard earned elevation. Closer to the bottom of the slope things got a little tricky. The bottom part of the slope contains a band of cliffy slabs and it wasn't immediately obvious I'd be able to get down. Fortunately with a little route finding I finally worked it out and began contouring around and over to Crabtree Pass. After some bouldering I reached a point slightly above Crabtree Pass at 5:12pm and then began the ascent up the chute to the notch between McAdie's summits. I would have about 1300 feet of gain to reach the highest summit. This ascent was a bit tedious and took time but I managed to avoid most of the loose stuff. After finally reaching the notch I continued on up to McAdie's summit which I reached at precisely 6pm. The sun was now low in the sky and I was definitely feeling pressured by the pending sunset. I signed in and listed the peaks I had done thus far hoping someone doing the Sierra Challenge the following day might pass over this peak on the way to Mount Newcomb. Perhaps they would be amused? I would later learn that Michael Graupe saw my entry and fearing that he would lose the polka dot jersey he so rightly earned he was compelled to tag all the high points on the crest between Muir and Whitney on his way out. Way to go Michael! I climbed the fun, steep class 3 from the notch and then descended down to Arc Pass which was now in the shade of the Sierra Crest. Here I had another decision to make. I could exit here and descend to the Whitney Trail or continue on to Mount Irvine. My planned exit route was a sandy chute off the ridge between Irvine and Candlelight which would hopefully drop me rapidly down to near Lone Pine Lake. I had never been there before however and I really wanted to see what it looked like before dropping down in the dark. After only seconds of contemplation I continued on to Irvine. From Arc Pass I climbed up another chute which put me between Mallory & Irvine. I briefly considered tagging Mallory but with sunset rapidly approaching I knew I didn't have time. I now raced up to Mount Irvine. Along the way I noticed unusual bands and swirls of smoke over the Owens Valley. Apparently the smoke from some fire had been blown some distance and created an interesting display. I reached the summit of Mount Irvine at 7:22pm which was slightly sooner than I expected. I felt good. This was my last peak of the day and all I had left to do was to descend back down to the Portal -- if only it could have been so easy. To this point everything had gone quite well except for some lost time on Whitney's West Slope. I now began my final descent. Following the ridge to the east I soon noticed another ridge to the North. Oops. Wrong ridge. I backtracked and then looked down the North ridge which would take me to my descent chute. Hmmmm. It wasn't as smooth as I was hoping. In fact the ridge was loaded with rocky outcrops and suddenly it became clear getting to my exit chute would be problematic. Wonderful. The obvious descent at this point was to follow a chute down between Irvine's North and East ridges. Thus I started down the chute and unfortunately into pure hell. Ok, I've been through worse but this chute was pretty horrendous. There was all manor of loose broken rock. In some places it was a steep hard dirt surface with gravel on top. In other places it was fine scree and I could ride a landslide down for short distances. Most of the time however it consisted of larger fractured rocks and unstable boulders often with gravel on top which made hopping from rock to rock treacherous. There was no escape. I had hoped to be able to contour out of the chute half way down and then over to my exit chute on the North ridge. It soon proved clear that this too would be problematic so following the current chute to its termination seemed the reasonable option. This wasn't entirely a bad thing because I could see that once out of the chute I would be close to Meysan Lake and could take that trail back out. This would add more mileage but at least it would be on a descent trail. So be it. Nearing the bottom of the chute I ran out of light and had to power up my headlamp. Shortly before 9pm I found the Meysan Lakes trail and could breathe a sigh of relief. Now all I needed to do was follow it out. Further down I was reminded why I don't particularly like this trail. Like the Whitney Trail the Meysan Lakes trail is loaded with what seems an overabundance of switchbacks. Every time you think you're getting closer to the end the trail turns around and goes the opposite direction. I cursed every switchback but knew it was just a matter of time before it all came to an end. At 10:33pm I finally came to the end of the trail. One final task remained -- to hike up the Whitney Portal road back to the Portal. Fortunately since I had to park so low this wouldn't be all that far. None-the-less my muscles protested the uphill hike on hard pavement. At 10:50pm I finally reached my 4runner and the marathon was finally over. I was beat and knew it would be a miserable night. Down in Lone Pine I ate at the only place open at midnight -- the High Sierra Cafe. Afterwards I drove up to a secluded spot near the Lone Pine Campground for the night. As expected I was in terrible pain all night. Both ibuprofin and aspirin failed to have any effect. My leg muscles were in constant pain and cramping. I had asked too much of them and was now paying the price. Constantly tossing and turning I was unable to find any relief. For nearly an hour I moaned and cried out in pain. Occaisionally I'd get a few minutes of sleep but overall it was a hellish night. Fortunately I had the satisfaction of knowing I had accomplished a substantial personal goal (having eclipsed all my prior Whitney Loop hikes). I even amused myself thinking about my first Whitney dayhike. Back then the Main Trail of Mount Whitney was the hardest thing I had ever done and on my way out I swore never again! Little could I have known. Log 04:44a - Car 04:48a - Whitney Trailhead 05:04a - North Fork Trail Junction 05:29a - E Ledges 05:48a - LBSL 06:20a - Creek crossing at Clyde Meadow 08:05a - Russell/Carillon saddle 08:19a - Summit Carillon 08:37a - Russell/Carillon saddle 09:22a - Russell East summit 09:33a - Russell West summit 01:11p - Summit Whitney 01:49p - Summit Keeler 02:08p - Summit Crooks Peak 02:37p - Left trail for Muir 02:48p - Summit Muir 03:01p - Back on trail 03:10p - JMT junction 03:15p - Trail Crest 03:23p - Summit Discovery Pinnacle 04:22p - Summit Mount Marsh 05:12p - Crabtree Pass 05:51p - McAdie col 06:00p - Summit McAdie 06:36p - Arc Pass 07:22p - Summit Irvine 09:03p - Grass/Camp Lake sign 10:33p - Meysan Lakes trail start 10:50p - Car