In 2022, I climbed Mount Marcy, the highest peak in New York State, with my son. That weekend, excited, we sought out another adventure. A few Google searches revealed that Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48, is out of reach for novices like us. I announced that he and I, along with my daughter, would climb it in 2023. In the end, none of them would make it. Lucy didn’t need to convince me to join me. Hiking has brought new challenges and triumphs – and Mount Whitney promises those on a larger scale.
But just a short way, my lofty ambition met the snowy reality.
We were told to expect a lot of snow up there, but we didn’t expect it this low. I packed an ice ax and crampons, at the urging of the owners of a tackle shop in Lone Pine, the unassuming town at the foot of the mountain where most prepare to climb, but I don’t want to use them. very early It would take me forever — and we don’t have forever. We have less than 24 hours.
I accept your challenge
Until I researched the trip, I had never heard of naturalist John Muir and his wonderful line “The mountains are calling and I must go,” or known much of the water for Los Angeles. , about 200 miles to the south, originates in this part. of the Sierra Nevada.
Mount Whitney, with an elevation of 14,494 feet, was named for Josiah Dwight Whitney, a Northeasterner and Harvard professor who headed the California Geological Survey, and its first recorded ascent, by three Lone Pine residents, was in 1873. It is dwarfed by Denali, in Alaska , the highest peak in the United States, at over 20,000 feet. But Mount Whitney offers something Denali doesn’t: It’s possible to hike up and down in one day. The round-trip trek, that is mountain guides describe as a challenge — more than snow and ice — it’s about 22 miles in total, most of it at high altitude.
Operated by the US Forest Service a lottery each February for both day-use and overnight permits to climb Mount Whitney from May 1 to Nov. 1. The agency limits the number of day hikers to 100 for each midnight to midnight to avoid overcrowding the trail.
