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50 lb pack for 3 night, sometimes you learn the hard way
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Mt. Whitney from the West
June 2007
Lone Pine , CA
posted by David Segal
We left from the Cottonwood Lakes/ New Army Pass Trail trail-head. It was about 30 mile to the summit, and 11 miles to the portal.
From the trail-head we joined the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) , then John Muir to Trail Crest, and finally summit. Exiting through the portal.
This was a great experience for a novice backpacker such as myself and my group for several reasons. We have never spent more than one night out and we spent three this time. There were bear lockers scattered frequently, lots of good running water sources, flat ground, fires allowed below 10,400 ft.
Experienced PCT'ers are willing to impart crazy tips such as the Pepsi can stove or the 3/4 sleeping mat, for all your light weight needs. Rangers are super cool on the West side not that the ones one the Portal side are bad they're just cool.
Weather was awesome.
Camped at Rock Creek Lake the first night they had a bear locker. The New Army Pass was the only strenuous part aside from a heavy pack and lots of miles.
Second night camped by Crabtree ranger station, also had bear locker. Must use toilet there, all toilets should be like that. Guyot Pass and a short elevation gain a little after the Rock Creek Ranger station were the challenges of the day. Most of the PCT'ers who were summiting left everything, except water and ramen, in the bear locker here summited and came back.
Third night was spent like three bench tops above Guitar Lake. Above Guitar Lake there are these two little ponds and above that there is a little spring and some flat ground to sleep on with little wind cover. It is above the timber line, and very exposed so it gets hot in the day and cold in the night.
From here their is no more water until you come back down to either trail camp or back to the same camp. We all took no more than 2 liters of water with us and none of us finished our water until the next water source. From camp to the summit the switchbacks are well groomed and graded. On the other side, portal side, the 97 switch backs suck. The trek to the bottom is 10.4 mile from the summit. We bombed down to the portal, 3.5 hours, and the first one down hitched hiked to where we left our car. More than 30 miles away, he said he had no problem getting a ride.
We had a little confusion from the beginning. We prepared for the New Army Pass ROUTE but took the Cottonwood Lakes ROUTE to the summit, about 10 miles more but much more manageable terrain. The New Army Pass ROUTE is not a maintained trail and requires some orienteering. It cuts through the Miter Basin area and the terrain a more difficult, mostly class 1 but some parts require some hands to balance, like at Discovery Pinnacle.
The most important thing I learned on this trip is pack as light as possible. Bring Arrowhead and Aquafina bottles instead of the indestructible Nalgene. Trade all the dehydrated meals for Ramen and stuffing, leave tent stakes at home, consolidate clothing, use a stick or rock to dig a poop hole... the list is long but you get the general idea.
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