In Lone Pine – Ready to Go

In Lone Pine, which is the jumping off point for Mount Whitney.  It’s around 13m to Whitney Portal which is the starting place for Whitney climbs.  Tomorrow, have to meet with the group and guides starting at 0700 for gear check and last minute instructions and then leave immediately to start climbing.  I’ve sorted through all my food and have put together lunches for the four days of climbs including smoked salmon, beef & turkey jerkey, cheese, nuts and fruit mix, chocolate, my favorite granola bars, drink mix and some hard candies.

It’s pretty cold outside just here and supposed to be a high of 17f and a low of 3f, the winds will make the wind-chill much worse.  I think I’ve brought enough warm clothes, but we’ll go through all of that with the guides.

It’s a typical climbing town with lots of shops selling climbing, fishing and kayaking gear, and people walking around that look like they are straight out of a Berkeley community.

Tomorrow, we have to go from 6,000′ to around 10,000′, on Friday to 12,500′ and then summit day on Saturday to 14,500′ and descent all the way down on Sunday.  It’s a lot of elevation gain/loss for such a short trip and I’m thinking very similar to Mt. Rainier (July 2007) which was intense, but had huts and did not require setting up tents, that this does.

I’m pretty excited about getting going, but of course with some dread as usual.  For some reason, my hands are always cold now, and I have to keep the right combination of gloves on throughout to keep the fingers warm.

It still seems, as I sit here, like too much stuff to fit in the pack, let alone group gear such as tents, gas, cooking gear and etc.  Everything is pretty bulky and seems to get bulkier as the days go on.

The weather forecast is unsettled and the snow conditions are dodgy at best, which will make it more – er – fun, since it means being roped up, snowshoes, crampons and fixed line ropes at the end.

Oh, and just having ran the marathon on Sunday, my legs feel good right now, but once I put on the 55-60lbs, all bets are off.

I think that’s all for now, my next posts should be upon my return and hopefully including all of the good stories that come from these expeditions.  Good luck to us all and see you on the other side.