Mount Whitney

This crazy adventure all starts with a random man named Matthew who had two extra Mount Whitney permits. The biology teacher at Wasco HS, Mr. Hunter, was telling me there is a teacher on campus who loves to hike, and was sure I could join in on the fun. Mr. Hunter gave me Matthew's info, I contacted him, and he said " we're hiking Whitney next week". Since Jeremy couldn't come with me/ didn't really want to, I needed a buddy. Most of my "in shape pals" are older, and the rest of my friends around here are either pregnant or just had a baby, no joke.

So, naturally, I text Kat. My go to person for everything! She was all "I think this could work!"

I organize to catch a ride to the Whitney portal with Matthew and we met Kat there.

Yes, she drove 9 hours to hike Mount Whitney with me, and then drove 9 hours back the next day! She's a babe.

We met up at the Pizza factory in Lone Pine, along with the other members of our hiking group.

I left my phone on the table and BAM

This was my new screen saver. A nice ice-breaker with Brian over here.

After stuffing ourselves with carbs and water/Beer for some, we headed up to the Whitney Portal camp ground.

Hello Mount Whitney

Do you see the V to the right hand/middle of the picture?  Mount Whitney is to the right of that.

*missing pic

Here we are in the Whitney portal camp ground, at 8,000 feet elevation for the night, snuggling in our 1 man tent, getting no sleep at all because we are so excited and partially scared of bears.

-A quick story about bears: Daniel, who you'll meet later, one time fell asleep while eating a slice of pizza (and these hikers are so tough they sleep on the ground with no tent before the hike... we set up a tent!) well, next thing Daniel wakes up to is a black bear next to his face, eating the slice of pizza from his pillow in the night! - I have never laughed so hard and been so terrified for another person in my life.

Here are my feet at 3am, getting ready for the 22 mile journey. I've never been on a hike that long, or that I needed to carry a 15LB pack before... In fact, I think the longest hike I had been on was Angels Landing which is only like 3/4 hours and 5,000 elevation... Mount Whitney is a great starter hike #amiright ?

We started hiking in the dark with our head lamps on to get a head start.

We gained a few thousand feet to watch the sun rise over Lone Pine Lake. Do you see the lake?

Don't mind my "6AM and I've been hiking for 2 hours" face. I love love love this picture, because we are rad.

Up, Up, Up

Here, behind the trees, is Mirror lake. I hid some lemonade in a tree here for when I came back down, but someone had found it before I got back :( 

You are welcome, whoever you are.

Poor Kat got altitude sickness pretty much from the start of the hike. She was such a trooper and pushed through!

The sun is getting higher! t

Time to reapply my SPF 50...

This view is about 4 miles up, isn't it spectacular?

Kat and Brian stopping for a snack. Don't fall!!

It was warm, so the snow was starting to melt. Water was running everywhere.

Lots and lots of granite.

Here is Daniel checking out the frozen lake. Daniel is the current McFarland cross country coach! No joke you guys. (McFarland USA people) He did the hike in his Vans, and ran the entire way down!! Daniel is awesome.

All we see is rocks! 11,000 elevation.

More mountain lakes. / Trail camp.

Many people hike half way to trail camp in one day with their camp gear and stay here over night, to break up the journey. wusses! haha

7 Miles/ 11KMs.

We are finally half way up!! 

This marmot almost ate me.

hahahahahaha. hahahahahaha.

The out door toilet. You know you have a true friend, when she carries your wag bag for you. Thank you for carrying my poop, Kat.

Heading up the 99 switch backs. This is where you gain 2,000ft elevation fast! Thankfully there was a guy sharing some ginseng up there to give us an extra boost.

Poor Kat.
If you have never hiked in this elevation before, it is a wild thing, mark my words.
Oxygen is sparse and your body goes into some sort of hibernation mode. Everything is slow slow slow. I was counting the switchbacks in 10s, after 10 we would rest, but every time I stopped it was like a punch to the face and I just wanted to lay down and sleep.

We kept going.

There is that lake at Trail camp that is far away now.

Hitting some snow, and taking a rest.

I was trying to be good at taking big, deep breaths, snacking, and drinking lots. It helped me push through.. kat... not so much.

What a champ! 12,000 Ft, still smiling!

Honestly, I smiled the whole way up.

This. Is. Awesome.

Don't mind my face- I thought it would be in shadow haha

Reaching the cables.

Getting high quickly.

Guitar lake!

How did we just get up here? that skinny path of snow is the path we took... in my tennis shoes!!

Don't worry mom, it wasn't dangerous at all.

No danger here on the slick ice and cliff in my running shoes.

Through the window.

Through the wall.

'Til the sweat drop down my...

Thank goodness for hiking poles. But seriously.

This is about where I left Kat. we had just over a mile left and she was sick sick sick. The rest of our hiking group was a head of us, so I took off by myself. An incredible feeling-

It's a funny thing being up on a mountain, all by yourself (I didn't see anyone until the summit).

I put in my headphones and listened to my dads piano music he composed. It was something else. At 14,000 ft, me and the piano music in my ears, smiling, breathing, sipping, smiling. "Almost there."

"Almost there." "Almost there."

The summit hut. Seeing this was an incredible feeling. Accomplishment, hard work paying off, tears in my eyes. I would have ran there if I wasn't already trying so hard to breathe. The rest of my hiking pals had just gotten there, and we celebrated together! STILL SMILING!

Coach Daniel

I got to hold the scarf!

Feeling proud and accomplished, and I don't care if that makes me sound vain or like I'm bragging. This was hard and I did it!! YIPPEEE!!

I reached the summit in just under 8 hours and hung around on top of the world! / the tallest peak in the continental USA

Selfies at the top!

My "keep going" self motivation PB&J sandwich that tasted OH SO GOOD!

Hello USA!

Fellow summiters.

Oh look, that V from the top.

I didn't want to stay up there too long because I needed to get back to Kat. I started heading back down, down, down.

Gorgeous.

There she is! Luckily the snow had melted a little, and wasn't as icey on the way down.

It made me feel much safer on the trail cliffs??

13 miles down, 9 to go.

This is where the blisters begun. Thank you Mole skin! 

Running shoes do not keep the water out very well, and since the snow was melting, I had some soggy socks... which I should have rolled down a bit, because over a month later, I am still rocking a wicked tan line I cannot get rid of!

Heading down the cables on the 99 switch backs. This is where I started to feel some serious altitude sickness. This is the craziest feeling: trying to take slow, deep breaths, nausea, feeling like my body just won't move forward, everything super slow. This may be TMI, but I was peeing every 10 minutes- it was like my body wasn't going to retain anything and was too tired to do any digesting or absorbing. Come on, Tessa, get down this mountain!!! (still 13,000ft up)

After the switch backs, I was still feeling yucky, some of our group would hike and then wait for us, my feet were dragging. Once we got to Mirror lake, I started to get faster, because we lots altitude. A night and day difference.

There is Kat and Tom ahead of me. She perked right up on the way down.

At this point we had about two miles until we'd be back at the portal and I was feeling like a spring chicken at 10,000ft. With that last 3,000ft off my shoulders. I could breath again!! Hallelujah!

On the other hand, Kat was a spring chicken the whole way down. With our headaches going away, 20 miles under our belt and lighter packs (from having drank all our water) we were feeling good... And maybe a little like "what the crap, are we back yet?!"

See the sun setting now? 16 hours baby.

From sun up, to sun down.

Inyo forest.

In who's forest?

At this point I am literally running down the trail because I can see the parking lot, and all I want to do is take my shoes off.

Just 10 lbs now.

Cute Kat.

WE DID IT! Bruises on my shoulder bones from my pack, blisters on my feet, and an already blistering sunburn OUCH! But hey, no big deal, my muscles feel good, my heart feels strong, my spirits are high and I'm still smiling!

Literally- Bruises.

A bit out of order- me signing in at the summit. (And then pressing the "that was easy" button)

Our group at the top.

From Left bottom: Tom, me, Cody, Matthew

From Left top: Taira, Brian, Daniel, M____ (she was hilarious, I wish I remembered her name. She brought make up in her 30lb pack so she could look good for her picture!).

Tom and Daniel drove me home, and my bed was glorious! I was super jazzed that I was able to summit and get back down... No one tells you that getting back down is harder mentally than climbing up. Once you have summited, you're like "Cool, I did it, not can I take a zipline down?".... no, you have to climb back down, and it's awful!

Apart from a blistering sunburn, including sunburned eye balls, blisters on my feet, and bruises on my shoulder bones, I felt AMAZING! My legs were a little stiff the next day, but that's it. 

This is the reason I want to stay in good health and in good shape; so that I can go and hike a mountain on a whim, or not have to miss an opportunity because I am out of shape.

All in all, an A++ experience.