14ers in California and Washington state or any other peak in the USA
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This map is only of the section from Trail Camp to Trail Crest, which is famous for the "97 switchbacks" or 99, or however many, it feels like a lot.
climbing_rob is correct, the number of switchbacks on the whole route is closer to 8 billion...
"But it doesn't matter if your in Valdez skiing out of a helicopter, or putzing around on a flat hill somewhere in Iowa. That adrenaline rush comes when you satisfy your most basic instinct, your own search for freedom."
-Warren Miller
I almost always wear a bathing suit when I climb. If you see me say hey!
I submitted for the lottery yesterday but I never received a confirmation email from recreation.gov saying that I have submitted and that my card would charged for the 6 dollar fee. Should I have gotten any email? I am worried I didn't go through.
mts4602 wrote:I know the Mt Whitney Trail is 11 miles one way and I don't doubt that, but I can't figure out how it adds up to 11. I am looking at a national geographic map of the area and at least according to what I see from whitney portal to the summit is 8.8 miles. I could see if you hiked from Lone pine that adds. At least another 2.3, but I don't think that's it. What am I missing???
Matt
I can give you a little help on the trail length - it is endless. Well, it feels that way on the way down, I remember being able to see the cars in the parking lot when I was pretty beat, and then taking two more hours to get to the parking lot. I remember the trail distance as being 10.5 miles, 6,300 vertical feet. The missing distance, as others have said, is those 8 billion switch backs, although I'd have to say I think 8 billion is an exaggeration.
pw wrote:...although I'd have to say I think 8 billion is an exaggeration.
No way, I was being super cereal.
"Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earthbound misfit, am I." -David Gilmour, Pink Floyd
"We knocked the bastard off." Hillary, 1953
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." Hillary, 2003
Couldn't we all use 50 years of humble growth?
-Steve Gladbach
The trail is indeed approximately 11 miles. You can save about a little bit if you take the old trail from the campground. Much more enjoyable route than the ridiculous switchback that they added. The hike goes by fast and you can be at the peak in 6 hours if you are in reasonable condition and acclimization. Coming down though always seems like it takes as long as going up since the trail is not very steep and you get a wee bit tired by the end of the day. IMHO, bring microspikes and an ice ax just in-case unless you have fresh beta that says otherwise. If you have an ice ax, the conditions are good, and are comfortable with self arrest there is a slide that bypasses most of the 99 switchbacks on the decent. Keep in mind though that people who did not follow those three rules have died on the glissade.
I did a day hike of Whitney a couple years ago with my 8-year old son. He enjoyed going up the Mountaineer's trail but got bored coming down the regular trail. We left the TH at dawn and returned back to catch the last photons of daylight.
mts4602 wrote:I submitted for the lottery yesterday but I never received a confirmation email from recreation.gov saying that I have submitted and that my card would charged for the 6 dollar fee. Should I have gotten any email? I am worried I didn't go through.
My recollection is that I heard nothing at all until receiving official notification that my permit request was granted.
I submitted for the lottery yesterday but I never received a confirmation email from recreation.gov saying that I have submitted and that my card would charged for the 6 dollar fee. Should I have gotten any email? I am worried I didn't go through.
Having submitted a few permit applications myself I became quite familiar with the rules. The lottery application period ends March 15th. Between March 15th and April 1st they decide the winners and announce them via email. After April 1st you can apply for any and all unfilled times (not likely to be any).