Day 60 Jimmy and Molly----Wow, what a day! We woke at 5 am and were underway by 6:20. With lightened packs, we trudged from Craptree Meadow, past Guitar Lake (why is it called that, we wondered), and onto the switchbacks that mark the start of the real climb. We carried only water, food for lunch, one stove, and all of our clothing, not knowing how cold it might get at the 14,505 ft altitude at the summit. Good thing we did...about half-way up, the biting wind forced us to don every stitch. We leapfrogged a friendly couple who were eating M&Ms and other finger trail food that we lacked. I suggested a trade for some of our substantial food that needed to be cooked. They expressed interest, but would wait until reaching the top to decide. We carried on, meeting a tall Pakistani with a camera around his neck and wearing shorts. I suggested he would be very cold if he continued to the top, but he insisted he was okay. After many cold hours and thousands of steps, we arrived at the stone hut that offers emergency shelter to those at Whitney Summit. We had done it...fulfilled a wish I have held for decades and climbed the highest peak in the lower 48 states. We paused for pictures at the tip-top, then retreated out of the cold wind to the shelter of the stone hut. Inside, we found the poor Paki, sitting on a stone bench, shivering, but surrounded by four hikers sharing their body heat. He would be okay, but risked a severe case of hypothermia. We also found our friends with the candy and finger food in the hut. Indy 500 and Horny Toad had seen and tasted the hot lunch I just cooked outside, and they were ready to trade. The Barter began, with Indy first displaying what they were willing to part with...raisins, nuts, candy, and trail bars. Molly and I gathered three meals we thought we could do without and described them. This was serious business, this barter. Hikers feel strongly about food and we wanted a fair exchange. So we asked the other hikers in the shelter if they agreed the barter was fair and, laughing, they all did. It was completed with smiles all around. After about an hour and a half at the top, it was time to drag our tired and thoroughly satisfied bodies down the great giant of a mountain, down to the warmer elevations and eventually back to Crabtree Meadows. A lot could have gone wrong with our plans to summit Mt. Whitney, but the weather behaved, the mountain forgiving, and we were in shape for the high-altitude venture. Altogether, a success and one
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 15:53:05 +0000
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