| This was my first hike to the Mt.Whitney. I had no luck of getting permit for last few years. Since many hikers canceled their spot at the last minutes, I could get one. But the probelem was it is next day of the '5 peaks hike'. That means, I have to hike 44 miles and 14,000 ft of elevation gain in 2 days. To tell the truth, the distance and total elevation gain is not a big problem. The biggest problem is that I have to drive down to the California right after 5 peaks hike. It is 230+ miles from Las Vegas and it takes 4.5 hours. Since we meet at Lone Pine in the 2:30AM, I really didn't have time to eat or sleep after the 5 peaks hike. Fortunately, 5 peaks hike ended in 13 hours and I could get back down the mountain by 7:30PM. Thus I stopped by the market and got fried chicken and potato for dinner. As I expected, I got sleepy after 30 minutes of drive. So, I took a nap for 1.5 hours by the road. 4 hours later, I made it to the Lone Pine. Glad that I got 1 hour to sleep. But, I didn't have time to eat the dinner. At 2:30AM, everyone meet at in front of Dow Villa and carpooled up to the trailhead. The trailhead parking was nearly full but we could few open spots for our cars. We started hiking little after 3AM. For first mile, everyone stick together, but it getting spread out little by little. I couldn't keep up with fast group, but kept hiking in steady pace in the middle of the group. The temperature is cool enough and I didn't have stop for drinking the water for first 5 miles. Once I passed the upper campground, sun comes up over the horizon. It was very beautiful moment. From there, trail goes up many switch backs until it hits the top of ridge line. At this moment, I started feeling tired. Actually, my body doesn't producing any power since I didn't eat dinner. It is in my backpack and not in my stomack. I was getting slow, but tried not to make a stop. Yet, I had to make 4 short stop until I made it to the peak. It was windy and cold up there. All after 5 hours 45 minutes from the trailhead, I made it to the peak. That was slow. I could make it 1 hour earlier if I ate the dinner prior the hike. I enjoyed the 12 hours late dinner and took a nap at the peak. I spent 2 hours before we heading down. The late dinner really gave me extra energy and I could run down the hill most of the time. It started raining when we got down to the campground, but Brian and I made back to the trailhead in 4 hour 20 minutes. After the hike, we went to pizza place to celebrate the hike. It was really good trip except driving up and back. I had to drive back to the Las Vegas on the same night since I had to work on next day. |
 Entire 3D trail map |
 lower part of the trail |
 upper part of the trail |
 ridge line traverse to the peak |
 Elevation Chart |
 Google Map |
 Google Earth |
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