Sierra Nevada - Mount Whitney 1981

With Jim White - My Fourth Time On Whitney

On August 22-29, 1981 myself and Jim White backpacked sixty sevem miles starting at Cottonwood Lakes and exiting at Shepherd Pass (Symmes Creek). Along the way we climbed Mount Whitney (my fourth time, Jim's first).

This was supposed to be the annual Deck Trek with six people, however, John Roberts couldn't go because his football coach wouldn't let him off and Matt Hastings, Mark Budke and Larry Ellis got in trouble with the law (the Pepper Caper) and couldn't go. That left Jim White and I and we enjoyed the trip.

Friday, Jim got a call from friends down south asking for help with a car shuttle on Friday night. They finally arrived about midnight and wanted a shuttle from South Lake. Jim finally got home about 3:30 a.m. in the morning. When his alarm went off Saturday morning he rolled over and went back to sleep. He woke up about 8 a.m. - the time he was supposed to be at my house. He still had to pack so it was 9:30 by the time he got to Lone Pine.

Vincent Yoder, manager of the apartment house I lived in, rode up to Horseshoe Meadows roadhead with Jim and I and after taking a day hike brought my car down for the Jim's parents to shuttle to the Shepherd Pass trailhead.

Jim and I were on the trail about 10:15 or so. We stopped at the first creek for lunch and Jim needed a nap. I headed up the trail about 2:30 and Jim set his alarm watch to wake him up at 1:00. He woke up before the alarm went off and soon jointed me on Cottonwood Pass. His lack of sleep, etc. was beginning to tell on him so he wasn't feeling too good as we continued on the trail past Chicken Spring Lake. We arrived at the planned campsite about 5 p.m. and found water in the creek (something I wasn't sure of in this dry year). Another couple was camped nearby which also was a surprise. Jim was really wiped out so I put him to bed and fixed him some soup and vegetables. He then rested a while before fixing the rest of supper, finishing the dishes in the dark.

Sunday we got off to a slow start but hit the trail about 10:30. The trail today was mostly downhill which helped. We arrived at the Army Pass trail junction about noon and had lunch and a nice rest. We then headed down the trail to Rock Creek and continued a pleasant hike down the creek. About 3 p.m. we arrived at the Pacific Crest trail junction on Rock Creek and found a nice campsite on the nearby creek - cold pure water. We made camp, washed clothes and rested up before supper. During the evening we saw deer in the beautiful meadow our camp overlooked. We hung the food from bears.

Monday we continued down Rock Creek and up to Guyot Creek where we stopped for lunch. We continued over Guyot Saddle and after another food stop headed for Lower Crabtree Meadow where we arrived about 3 or 4 p.m. We found a campsite along the creek and set up camp. I took a bath and washed clothes in the creek and then took a nap before supper. After some difficulties we were able to hang the food from bears.

Tuesday was a layover day in preparation for the climb of Mt. Whitney. Stan and Robbie Haye who we had expected to show up Monday had not arrived. It turned out they had decided not to come and had sent a message out via packer but it never reached me. I took it easy washing clothes, burning trash, and taking a nap.

Meanwhile Jim took a hike to climb Mt. Hitchcock and visit the Crabtree Lakes. About 4 p.m. I decided to hike up to the Ranger Station to see if Stan had gone there by chance and to get some exercise myself. I returned about 5 p.m. without finding Stan and Jim returned about 6 p.m. after a good hike. After supper we hit the sack early. By the way a bird or something got into Jim's lunch cookies in the bear bag again just like on the Milestone 1981 trip.

Wednesday, August 26, 1981, Jim got on the trail for Whitney about 7:45 and I followed about 8:00. Jim made good time and was on top about noon. I stopped at the Guitar Lake creek for food about 10:00 and made the Trail Crest junction about noon where I ate lunch and headed for the peak about 1p.m.

In-route I met Jim returning and he said he was going to climb Mt. Muir and return to camp. I went on to Whitney arriving on top about 2:30. There were about 20 or 30 people on top or coming and going including some planning to spend the night. I left about 3 p.m., reached the Trail Crest junction about 4 and headed down as clouds gathered. There was lightning and thunder on Whitney but I only got a few sprinkles. I arrived back at camp, dog tired, about 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, Jim had changed his plans. After climbing Mt. Muir he headed on over to Discovery Pinnacle and then dropped down the south slope to the lake west of Mt. McAdie (below the pass over to Sky Blue Lake) and then hiked down past the Crabtree Lakes back to camp - arriving just 15 minutes before I did.

Thursday, August 27, 1981 we were both still pretty tired so we decided to layover and rest. Again we hardly left the tent. About 3 p.m. it started to rain and we discovered that the "Super Dome" tent leaked. The rainfly was not waterproof, only water repellant as was the tent floor and sidewalls. We put the emergency space blanket on the floor inside the tent and put sleeping bags, etc. in plastic bags. Jim went outside and dug ditches to promote drainage around the tent and built little dikes under the edges of the floor to keep water running down the tent walls from running under the floor. As a result we stayed dry and the rain soon stopped. We had a late supper and hit the sack after a good rest.

Friday, August 28, 1981, we got started about 9:30 or so and headed for Wallace Creek where we had lunch after a pleasant hike. We were in good shape from previous hiking and enjoying the country. After lunch we decided to stay on the John Muir Trail and camp at the lakes northwest of Tawny Point (not dropping into Tyndall Creek) instead of going up into the Wright Lake Basin. (We had used up the layover day planned for climbing Mt. Tyndall and the weather was questionable.) We made camp about 3 p.m. or so without any rain developing. I took a bath in the lakes and washed some clothing while Jim took a nap. After supper we saved some hot water so Jim took a sponge bath.

Saturday morning we got up lazily as usual. I wanted to get on the way so we could reach Anvil Camp by 3 p.m. or so to beat any rain and to have time to rest before fixing supper, etc. Jim felt lazy and didn't want to get going. I got a little upset and broke camp on top of him which made him unhappy. I hit the trail about 10:30 and he was to follow later.

Click your cursor on the map and then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll right/left to see the entire map.

I hiked over the ridge north of the lakes and soon joined the trail to Shepherd Pass. I stopped for lunch about a mile or so below the pass at noon. As I left at 1:00 I didn't see Jim with my binoculars, however, he apparently saw me. Just before reaching the pass I decided to take a side trip to the lake basin west of Mt. Williamson to see what the terrain was like.

I left my pack off the trail next to a rock but failed to leave any sign for Jim. The side hike turned out to be a 3 mile round trip and took longer than I had planned. I returned to my pack about 3 p.m. and headed over the pass. No one I talked to had seen Jim, but I wasn't sure whether he was ahead or behind me. It turned out he was ahead of me.

The net result was that Jim hiked out ahead of me and went all the way to his home covering about 21 miles. I followed late and eventually reached my car at the trailhead covering about 18 miles and spent the night, reconnecting with Jim in the morning.

Sunday was spent resting and recuperating at home instead of hiking down the hot trail in the sun. May not have been such a bad deal after all.

In retrospect the trip was a good trip. I made several mistakes the last day but we both learned from the results. I got to climb Whitney again after about 15 years and Jim got several peaks and quite a bit of cross-country experience.