October 28, 2006 on 5:23 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments
I survived, barely. Andy Joe and I hiked Mt. Whitney last Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. It was by far the most difficult physical activity I have tried. Andy compared it to running a marathon by saying that climbing Whitney was harder. There was a lot of snow and we definitely needed crampons and ice axes (we didn’t have). It was really cold! I’ll give the condensed version here and possibly a more detailed version later on.
Day 1
Arrived Whitney Portal @ 2pm. Camped at “Upper Boy scout Lake” @ 6pm.
Start Elevation: 8200ft
End Elevation: 11200ft
Distance Hiked: 3.2 miles
Altitude Climbed: 3000ft
Day 2
Hiked to “Iceberg Lake” then up and over “Whitney-Col Pass.” Camped at “Guitar Lake” @ 3pm
Start Elevation: 11200ft
End Elevation: 11200ft
Distance Hiked: 4.4 miles
Altitude Climbed: 2100ft
Day 3
Hiked on “John Muir Trail” to junction with “Whitney Trail.” Summit Whitney. Hiked back to parking lot and then drove home after some pizza and beer in Lone Pine.
Start Elevation: 11200ft
End Elevation: 14491ft
Distance Hiked: 16 miles
Altitude Climbed: 3291ft
October 4, 2006 on 6:24 pm | In Uncategorized | 1 Comment
This last weekend I had an unusual experience. Mike and I skipped out on the Parkfield mountain bike race and took a day trip down to LA to visit Jackson and REI. Jackson took us out to the “crazy dim sum” restaurant for lunch. The place was huge…Capacity for at least 200 people. The tables were crammed together with aisles in between for the mobile food carts to travel. My first thought was “hectic.” People everywhere talking loudly in different languages while the waiters aggressively ask if you want the platter of mystery meat sitting on their cart. It took a while just to get my bearings. Jackson didn’t dabble and proceeded to order chicken feet from one of the carts whisking by. The psychological factor was difficult to get overcome but I finally relented and bit off a toe. Not bad but very, very weird. Later I nawed on the ankle a little but the novelty was gone by then.
Afterwards we all went to REI and spent about three hours looking over supplies for the Jackson Hole ski trip this upcoming January. Possible -36 degrees at night…Hurray for down!