Mt. Whitney Pushes Us to New Heights

I never finished this post back when I started it... so I decided to just get it up now... This is old, but here it is:

Nearly a year ago my friend MJ asked me if we wanted to hike Mt. Whitney with them the following year.

"Umm... OK, sure," I said, figuring it was no big deal. I have run marathons after all, what's a little hike.

What I didn't know then:

• At an elevation of 14,494 feet, Mt. Whitney is the tallest peak in the contiguous United States The hike is about 22 miles (35 km) round trip with an elevation gain of over 6,100 feet (1,900 m).


• Most people start the hike in the dark -- often as early as 3 a.m. We were scheduled to start at 5 a.m.


• It generally takes between 14 and 20 hours to complete the hike in one day, according to http://www.visitusa.com/whitney/mountwhitney-facts.htm


• Many people, including myself, experience altitude sickness during the higher elevation parts of the hike... the effects -- which feel a little like being drunk -- lasted until I was all the way down the mountain.


• The hike is so popular you have to apply for a permit to be on the trail months in advance... but even still there are very few people nutty enough to be on the trail. I think a majority of people do the hike over 2 or 3 days, but it might be more evenly divided... I'm not too sure.


• If you need to poop while on the trail... you have to do it in a specially designed "human waste kit" and pack it out. Ewwwwwwww!!!


• The only mammals you are likely to see other than humans are marmots -- and we saw one!


• It's incredibly beautiful.

This is apparently where my first draft ended. Was there more to the list? I can't remember!

Anyway, after several weeks of training the time had come. WE went up north spending a few days in Mammoth and a day in Yosemite in an effort to "acclimate" to at least a slightly higher elevation. The evening before the big day we went to Lone Pine and checked into a horrible little room with our preschooler and baby in tow. We needed to get up at something like 4 a.m. in order to get on the trail around 5.

Long story short: we never slept. Mia fell out of the bed and cracked her head. She had a purple golf-ball sized ball lump on her head and I am pretty sure she passed out. We, obviously, decided not to go. Then, around 8 or 9 in the morning... we changed our mind... we decided to leave Mia with our friend and just hike up a little ways, since there was no way we could make it all the way to the top.

Leaving about 5 hours after we planned to, we scrambled up the mountain and made it nearly to the top -- we were about a mile shy of the summit, but that last mile and the return would have taken too long and we were anxious to get back and check on Mia.

We didn't summit, but we did more than we expected and we had a great time.. and thanks to altitude sickness I basically caught a buzz for free -- and with no hangover... i was sober by the time we reached the parking lot. Cool! and I cannot wait to try it again!