Speechless (Mt. Whitney Summit) - 6/27

So how does one feel the morning of climbing the highest mountain in the continental US: VERY worried! It wasn't the altitude, it wasn't the climb, it was waking up with a pain in my chest when taking a full breath. I tried breathing fully but it hurt and "Oh shit! how do I climb to 14,505 feet without being able to fully breathe" repeated in my head. After a few minutes and some stretching it went away, thank god. I started hiking up taking only my pack, some food and water, and my jacket while leaving the test of my gear in my tent down at the basecamp.

The first few miles had a gradual elevation gain passing two lakes, one being Guitar Lake shaped like...you guessed it, a guitar. I spent some time hanging around this neat spot watching the marmots scurry around. After Guitar Lake and two smaller lakes the serious hiking started. The first set of switchbacks might as well have been strait the hell up covering over 1000 feet in a little under a mile. That took a bit of wind out of me and I stopped at the Whitney Portal/Summit junction for a breather and some food. I was high at this point, around 12-13 thousand feet and had two miles more of up to get to the top. The climb after those hellish switchbacks wasn't to terrible but the altitude sure made me work for those last two miles. Being the afternoon, most of the dayhikers were heading down and talking to plenty of them provided a chance to catch my breath heading up but after I reached 14,000 feet my legs were spent as well as my lungs. I could see the stone shelter on the summit but had to stop every few hundred yards to catch my breath...torture. It's like when someone takes a $100 bill and ties it to a string, as you walk close and think you're going to get it, it gets pulled away tormenting you. I wanted the top but my lungs wouldn't get me there in one breakless stretch. So I stopped a few times and had to stare at the top as I caught my breath.

When I finally summited, there were two people puking, a group of people reading scripture, and a guys sending texts on his phone...what?!?! It seemed like nobody was taking in the view surrounding them; we're on top of the freaking United States people!

Personally I could care less about those around me, I was plenty distracted by the 360 degree view of everything as far as I could see. I got as close to the edge of multiple corners and looked down all the way down... If you fell you'd be dead before you hit the ground. I went behind the shelter and looked over the edge to see climbers heading up. Well shit I thought hiking up Whitney was badass and there are a group climbing strait up the opposite side. They made it up and we chatted for a bit. I was impressed by their feat and they were just, if not more, impressed of my journey. It was a cool moment.

I started my decent down Whitney and took in the view as I got closer down towards Guitar Lake. At Guitar Lake I ran into two former PCT'ers from 2010 and they said to camp by Bullfrog Lake and to hit the hot springs by Muir Ranch, check and check. This 16 mile round trip off the PCT to do Whitney was something that will be burned into my brain as long as I live. I was quite proud of myself and went to sleep with ease. Tomorrow I climb over Forester Pass, the highest point on the PCT, one milestone after another!