A “side hike” up Mount Whitney – tallest peak in the Contiguous United States

The long distance PCT thru-hiker permit includes the authorization to hike up Mount Whitney – the tallest peak in the Contiguous United States at 14,505 feet. The permit allows PCT hikers to make the ascent from the west side of the mountain beginning at Crabtree Meadows. Incidentally, most people hiking up Whitney do so from the east side beginning at Whitney Portal…which is currently closed due to COVID restrictions.

I got into Crabtree Meadows around 5:00 pm on Day 22. I immediately ran into Salt Lick and Mirrnda (formerly known as Justin and Miranda – who I first met the day before getting to Tehachapi) and asked them if they had already summited Whitney. I knew they had been interested in doing a sunrise summit and so was I. While they had arrived the previous day, they had not yet made the ascent. They hadn’t found anyone else interested in doing the night hike up the mountain. I told them I was in. They responded that we departed at 11:30 pm.

So I quickly set up camp, made a large backpacker meal of chili mac and then was in bed with my earplugs in by 7:00 pm.

I was up at 11:00 pm and finished getting packed. I packed all of my clothing (that I wasn’t already wearing) and also my sleeping quilt. I also brought my headlamp, ice axe, microspikes, water filter, and some energy bars. The temps starting out at Crabtree Meadows (which is at 10,600 feet) were in the low 50s when we started at 11:45 pm. I was wearing my wool leggings with my shorts over those and then a wool pullover with my normal hiking shirt over the top of that. I then put my rain jacket on over the top to act as a wind barrier.

It’s certainly an interesting experience hiking up a mountain in the dead of night. There was no illumination from the moon as it was just a sliver to the south of us. I turned on my headlamp and took up tail end Charlie position in the train behind Salt Lick and Mirrnda. Those 26-year olds put me through a workout. They set a solid pace like they were on a race to the top. It was certainly a challenge for this 41-year old to keep up with them. The odd thing about hiking up the mountain at night is that you can’t see any of the terrain. But at the same time, you don’t have to look up at an imposing, steep mountain taunting you. You just follow the tunnel of light illuminated by your headlamp directly in front of you. We walked right past several lakes which I had no idea were even there.

There were several times when we lost the trail while we were in the soggy tundra where little streams of snow runoff were running down along the trail. We had to reference the maps on our phones to regain the trail.

Around 2:45 am, we got to the final approach segment of the climb which is the intersection where the trail coming up from Whitney Portal meets the trail we were on. This stretch is the final two miles and 1,080 feet of climb. The wind started to pick up in this more exposed area and we had to stop to put on rain pants to protect from the wind. Just after adding that layer, we had to stop again to put on our microspikes (they go on your shoes to give traction on snow/ice) and get out our ice axes. We were now going across large snow fields that were on 30-45 degree mountainsides. We slowly made our way across multiple snow fields by using the imprints of previous footprints in the snow and held the ice axes in our uphill hand to steady us. If we were to ever slip and start sliding down the snow field, we would use the ice axe to arrest our slide.

Luckily we never needed to use the ice axes for a self-arrestment. It was really pretty straight forward going through the snow fields and since we couldn’t see the steep drop anyway, it counterintuitively made it less intimidating. You just followed your tunnel of light and made slow deliberate steps through the snow. The microspikes also gave me a lot of traction and confidence walking on the snow fields.

About 45 minutes before reaching the top is when we saw the UFOs. Ok, so I’ve seen a lot of things flying jets over the years in the Air Force, but I was totally stumped with what we saw then. Moving from west to east were what appeared to be 50-60 flying objects all in a line and making no noise. They were quite bright just to the naked eye. I couldn’t explain it then, but upon discussing it with my good friend Jason, we determined that it must have been one of SpaceX’s “Star Link” constellations of satellites passing overhead. It was such an eerie sight up at 13,500 feet in the middle of the night. I think the light show was made even more amazing because of how dark the night sky was where we were, our altitude and the fact that the satellites were probably getting bathed in the sunlight which was still over the horizon for us.

We got up to the top at 4:45 am – exactly five hours after starting from Crabtree Meadows. That had been great time for a night hike. We were greeted by the sky glow off to the East. We took up positions on some giant rock slabs looking off to the east – the only three people at the time on the highest peak in the contiguous U.S. We had the sunrise up there to ourselves. The colors on the horizon over the top of the mountain range to the east of us were constantly changing shades of blues, purples, yellows and oranges.

The sun started peeking above the mountains at 5:27 am and began to bathe the mountainside in deep oranges. I’ve seen sunrises up at 25,000 feet flying fighters, but there was something magical about this one. We were bundled up staying warm from the wind and chilly 35 degree temps and had a feeling that we had really earned this unique sunrise.

We took tons of photos until we had to go inside the shelter and warm up a bit. Then we came out and got some more photos. Salt Lick got good enough cell reception up there that he was able to make some FaceTime calls.

We were cold, and Mirrnda had dealt with a quick bout of altitude sickness so we started back down at 7:00 am. It was so much easier going down the mountain in the light. At the same time, we were able to see just how steep of mountainsides we had traversed on the way up. I’m glad I didn’t see any of that on the way up. I found myself constantly stopping on the way down to take photos.

We got back to Crabtree Meadows around 11:00 am and I was a walking zombie. I had done that hike on adrenaline and now I was crashing physically and emotionally. I was so exhausted. I went straight to my tent, drank a bunch of water, ate a celebratory Snickers bar and went to sleep. It had been a great day and I had accomplished an item that had always been on my bucket list.