First Day Hike (2016)
I did this hike partially solo. My hiking partner had to cancel due to work and every partner I’ve recruited after that had something come up, so I eventually gave up and decided to do the hike myself since I’m familiar with the trail. However, the day before I went, I saw this girl I met one time on a training hike post that she had a permit for the same day as me (what a coincidence, right?!) so I asked if she wanted to do it together. She’s a trail runner and fitness instructor so I naturally assumed she’d be faster than me. She also brought a friend with her on the trail (that’s never hiked before, but works out… did an alert go off in your hear too just now?)
We started the trail at 3:50 am together – they were so fast and I was so sleepy so I took 3-4 Shot Bloks to wake up and once it hit me, I was fully alert and moving. The sun rose at 5:40 am when we took our first big 10 min break, and we arrived at Trail Camp at 7:36
I made it to Trail Crest at 9:45 am and decided to move on by myself at 10 am because I was eager to finish and I know they needed a longer break (and didn’t want to rush them). I reached the summit at 11:46 am and after waiting an hour for them to arrive to celebrate together, the clouds started rolling in so I got ready to go down. They came up right before I started down at 1 pm.
I got to Trail Camp around 4 pm and planned to wait to hike down together, but it started to snow just a little bit so I took off solo. The weather got better shortly but I continued down and off the mountain and made it back to the parking lot at 7:18 pm.
I ended up waiting for them 2+ hours because I left my car in Lone Pine and came up to camp with them the night we began – there was construction this year so I didn’t want to have any issues with the road and parking. They ended up calling me from the trail after passing Lone Pine Lake and they asked me to come back up the trail to bring them water…………… my feet were killing me, I had two hours of sleep, a 4-hour drive home, and had to be up at 5 am. You can see why I was very reluctant to go back up the mountains that I was so eager to just come down from. They both experienced altitude sickness when reaching the summit (which I understand and don’t mind waiting for) but they had a water filter and I know where there’s flowing water on the trail so you can imagine my irritation when he continuously insisted I come back up the mountain after 22 miles on my feet to bring them water.
Timeline stats:
- 8 hrs up (7:15 hr moving time)
- 1:15 hr break on
summit - 6:18
hrs down
Second Day Hike (2017)
To give you a quick background, I started a new job at the beginning of 2017 and had asked my boss for permission 3x before going because I would be missing a somewhat important day of work. He was totally fine the two times I asked but the week before when I reminded him, he was unhappy about my trip. I was gone for two days – the first day, I had my laptop and worked until the evening remotely. The second day when I was on the trail, I jumped on my emails near the bottom of the trail when there’s some reception and right as I got off the mountain.
I tried my best to do both, but this stress added to my experience in the mountains. When I reached Trail Camp, I wondered if it was really worth it or if I should just turn back now and make it back to work by noon. When I reached the top of the switchbacks, it was windy and so chilly and gloomy so I again considered not summiting since I’ve been before. I was feeling very sluggish but decided to just keep walking and if my body really doesn’t feel like it, I would be ok turning around because I know that last two miles
Timeline stats:
- Started at 1 am (power napped on the trail cause I was so sleepy)
- Started up the 99 switchbacks at 4:57 am, up at 6:48 am
- 15 min break and made it to
summit at 8:46 am - 9:50 am went down,
parking lot at 4:40 pm - 7:46 hrs up (7:30 hr moving time)
- 1:05 hr break on
summit - 6:50 hrs down
Booking travel soon?
Please consider using my affiliate links below. It costs nothing additional for you but helps me maintain the ever-increasing costs of running a travel blog:
General travel through Tripadvisor here.
Book your flights here.
Book your accommodations here on Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, and VRBO.
Book your car rentals here.
Book your tours here.
Book your travel insurance here.
Thanks for reading!
Jump back to my other Whitney posts here:
Tiff, the owner and author of Follow Tiff’s Journey, is a California/ Colorado-based adventurer and outdoor connoisseur who divides her heart between the Eastern Sierra Mountains and the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Despite her fear of heights, she’s become a seasoned mountaineer, ultralight hiking and backcountry camping enthusiast, expert road trip planner, and a fervent explorer of alpine lakes, natural hot springs, and sandstone canyons.
With 10 years of experience exploring the outdoors, her blog is your go-to source for all things wilderness, offering invaluable insights and pro tips, essential gear recommendations, and awe-inspiring stories from her adventures.
Join Tiff on her quest to share the wonders of nature and inspire others to follow their own path in the great outdoors.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with Whitney!
I have an overnight scheduled for mid September. Question: would it make sense to summit Whitney first, then go to trail camp for the overnight? I know most people camp and summit the next day but I want the challenge of summitting in a day but relaxing a bit afterwards. I live at 6500 feet and haven’t had problems as high as 12-16000 so I don’t think acclimating at trail camp will be necessary.
Your thoughts On this idea?
Thanks!
Hi Brian, Aside from the purpose of acclimating, I think most people do the overnight hike where they camp and summit the next day because hiking Mt. Whitney as a full day hike is very strenuous, and although you wouldn’t be hiking all 22 miles in one day, you would still have to start as early as a day hiker so you can summit at a decent hour. It would be a nice break for your feet to camp on your way down because it’s still a long way. Either way, I feel like you’ll have time to enjoy the trail as an overnight hike, it just depends how vigorous you are I guess.
Are all California’s 14er’s on a permit basis? We don’t have that in Colorado except for 1 know of because it’s on private property. I am in Cali trying to explore and had Mt Whitney on the plan.
No, Mt. Whitney, in particular, is permit-regulated but most others in the Eastern Sierra are not!
I tried doing Whitney back in 2019 but my friend and I started to get really bad altitude sickness right around 13,500. We were both in shape but I guess needed to train a higher altitudes.
Do you think altitude sickness pills would help or maybe carry one of those small disposable oxygen canisters for a pick me up?
Hi Bill, sorry to hear about the altitude sickness. I don’t get very bad altitude sickness so I can’t personally speak to it, but I’ve heard the pills work for some people, oxygen canisters can help if you really struggle with it, and even nose strips can help just to allow more oxygen into your body… but again, I haven’t personally tested any of those. Hope you find a solution that works for you!
Pingback: Kearsarge Pass: Solo Wilderness Trip | Follow Tiff's Journey
Done it several times. this year we didn’t get picked for lottery so we (3 of us) are doing it all in one day with no permits…of the 5 times we’ve been up there we have never seen a ranger. any news of this lately?
Hi Marc, a permit is required to day hike in the Mt. Whitney zone – you will need a permit to hike beyond Lone Pine Lake.
Pingback: Pear Lake Trail in Sequoia National Park
From what I understand no permits are given out or required beyond November 1st correct?
Never-mind I see now that after November the bureaucratic mess goes away and you can just walk up to the ranger station and get your permit.
Pingback: 2021 in Review: The Year of Climbing | Follow Tiff's Journey
Pingback: Hike Iron Mountain via Heaton Flats in Angeles National Forest | Follow Tiff's Journey
Pingback: Climb the Mountaineers Route on Mount Whitney 14,505 ft
I think that, when considering whether you should climb Whitney as a dayhike or a backpack, you need to consider your strengths and weaknesses. I myself can hike Whitney decently fast. My quickest time to the summit was 6:00. And 6:30 is not too difficult. On the other hand, if you strap a 30 pound pack to my back, I would have serious doubts about my ability to even make it to Trail Camp. Especially since you need to do so on the most challenging section of the entire trail (the high rocky steps between Mirror Lake and Trail Camp).
For a person like myself, dayhiking Whitney is just FUN. And since I can get up there fairly quickly, I sleep late and forgo the whole alpine start thing. So I am well-rested and feel good. On the other hand, trying to backpack it would just be setting myself up for a miserable time and, ultimately, failure. I wouldn’t even want to TRY going up there with an overnight pack.
On the other hand, if you are used to backpacking but are less comfortable with blasting up the trail, you might be better off backpacking. Backpacking also might be worth considering if you like the idea of spending the night on the mountain. However, NEVER underestimate the difficulty of lugging a heavy pack over halfway up the mountain. If you are a ‘fast and light’ kind of person and have never strapped on an overnight pack, backpacking might be a horribly bad idea.