So Saturday morning I woke up at 315AM just as the alarm went off. I turned off the alarm, opened the door and went for a walk. Up the tallest mountain in the continental USA.

Some context...despite a lack of training, my wife, our friend and myself drove up to Whitney portal (altitude 8350 ft) on Friday night. Our friend slept in her tent, but we took the luxury route - inflated a bed which fit snugly into the back of our mini-van and then attempted to sleep for 4-5 hours before our horrible wake up time.

So at 315, we woke up, jammed down a few bagels and as much water as we could, and drove about 1/2 a mile to the trailhead. We parked, gathered our things, and set out at 415AM in complete darkness, except for our headlamps and a brilliant full moon.

This was not an easy walk. From the beginning of the walk, I could see that the mountains in front of us were REALLY big...like 7x bigger than the mountains near where I live, and they were bald and jagged and generally unfriendly. At first, the walk was through scattered pines on a very well-market trail, and then, as the sun started to glow orange, we stumbled onto a number of beautiful alpine lakes. It was windy and MUCH colder than we anticipated, but definitely still tolerable.

Now, we had planned to make this summit. Our friend had actually been on the summit before, and we all are in reasonably good shape and we'd left a ton of time to get up there and complete the 22-mile total hike in one day. However, as we passed into 11 and 12,000 foot range, we noticed snow - lots of it. Apparently that early rainstorm we had about a week ago in Los Angeles also dropped about 6 feet of snow at the top of Whitney, leaving us slipping around on packed snow as we trudged up switchbacks.  It wasn't everywhere, but it was piled up in big drifts and ice sheets at the most inconvenient places.

Then we noticed folks coming down, much earlier than I would have anticipated. Everyone was super-friendly, so we enquired what was the reason for their early decent...and found out what would become our downfall. At about 12,500 feet, the trail turns into a series of 97 switchbacks that punish you for 1,000 feet and leave you at a ridge close to the summit. The switchbacks are tough, and with snow on them, they're even tougher. However, what was really turning folks around was one section of the switchbacks where the naorrow trail slanted at a 30-degree angle, there was a 1 foot layer of snow, and other than a small series of cables, there was a 2,000 foot drop. It wasn't that it was impassable, but one slip and, well, you'd be down the mountain in about 10 seconds.

And we heard that it didn't get much better above that. So...after lots of hemming and hawing, we turned around. And headed back down.

All in, we hiked for about 12 hours and did 14 miles. Now, my legs are sore, but otherwise my compadres and I are all in decent shape.

Maybe next year...