Day 1 – Mt. Whitney

Guitar Lake to Mile 0 (Mt Whitney summit) to Mile 8.3

Our morning started fairly early in order to race the sunrise. The exposed Sierra afternoon sun can be the difference between hiking at 3 mph and hiking at 1 mph. We kept looking back at the lake as it got farther and farther away and more and more illuminated. The view was in startling contrast to our average days on the AT, which were heavily wooded.

The switchbacks slowly degraded into rockfalls that were vaguely trail-like as we got higher. These jagged peaks reminded us of shark teeth from below. As we plodded our way up we were repeatedly passed by returning hikers who had left at midnight to summit at sunrise and were on their way back down.

Whitney peak was amazing. Seeing as it’s literally the tallest thing around, there was very little to limit the view in any direction. The mountain was topped with a small storm shelter and a litter of plaques. The air was remarkably thin, to the point where everybody on the peak would repeatedly burst into fits of coughing.

Officially at the start of the trail!

While hiking down we could finally appreciate the rock formations we had slogged past on our way up. Various impressive pillars and archways framed the trail at its highest points. Overall it was a bit odd to repeat a section of trail (up and down Whitney), but it felt nice to be officially making progress on day 3 of hiking.