Four days before Honey Bear and I left Tom's place in Kennedy Meadows, our last resupply before our first steps into the Sierras, climbing Mt. Whitney and going over Forester Pass, we had filled our packs with some new gear: a bear canister that somehow had to fit eight days of food and extra layers to keep us warm at elevations higher than 14,000 feet. Fortunately we were able to send our micro spikes and ice axes home because of the lack of snow this year. Even though we didn't have some gear, my pack weighed 42 pounds leaving Kennedy Meadows. Some people pushing 13 days straight without a food drop in the Sierras had packs that weighed over 55 pounds. I couldn't even imagine! We left mile 702 away from great beer, entertainment, and I even ran into Matt DiCarlo (from High Trails if you know him!!), to venture into the big mountains I had been waiting for.
We didn't have any service, but I was able to call Ryan from a landline in a bathroom randomly in the trailer we were getting internet in. It was wonderful to catch up briefly through the static of the bad connection and confirm that we were still on for meeting at the base of the East Face four days later. In todays society where we can call someone and have instant connection via cell phone to confirm locations, it was strange saying, "Well, I will see you down there in four days; hope you're there and this works!" I planned on brining a tent and sleeping bag for us to share, basic things like my headlamp, toothbrush and layers, but had very minimal food because I was banking on meeting Ryan with the food, rock climbing gear, and bear canister. We knew that the hard part of this adventure would be actually meeting up and not the climb.
June 13th, Spud, Honey Bear and I set out to hike up Mt. Whiney from Crabtree Meadow on the backside or west side of the mountain on the PCT. We left around 7 am and were hoping to get the the summit 3.5 to 4 hours later. It was nice hiking with lighter packs and I was able to leave a lot of my gear in Honey Bear's tent at the base of the hike. Spud and Honey Bear would go back down to Crabtree that night but I was hiking down the Mountaineers Route solo to meet Ryan. We hiked up to the summit relatively efficiently, but I was moving slow, and actually met up with some PCT "celebrities" I had seen in the National Geographic documentary about the PCT prior to starting. We reached the summit and took a ton of photos around 11 am and Honey Bear saw a group of three walking around the crowd of people that had helmets on. She pointed them out to me and I went over to ask what technical route they were descending. They were also going down the mountaineers route and I could go with them!
I split ways from Honey Bear and Spud at 12:30 pm and two guys and a girl from Chico State and I scrambled down the route. It was free of snow but very steep considering the loose, rocky terrain. We started out by down climbing through some class 4 boulders and then switched down through a section called the notch that leads you directly to Iceburg Lake where I would be camping with Ryan. We were moving fast and I was was overwhelmed with emotions. About two-thirds of the way down I hear someone call out, "Adri!?" and there Ryan was standing at the base of the route in the middle the boulder field. He had arrived from the Whitney Portal twenty minutes before I finished descending. I raised my arms and shouted as loud as I could so excited that our plan had worked flawlessly. The three people behind me knew that I was meeting my boyfriend at the base of the climb and knew I hadn't seen him in a while so they cheered when they saw us hug. (Ya, it kind of felt cute and like a movie...)
The first time we were at this same spot at Iceburg Lake, it was 5 am and we were shivering waiting for the sun to come up. We had hiked in to the East Buttress starting at 1 am, but this time we were able to hang out, sleep the whole night and wake up with the sun to start the East Face. We did just that and geared up after scrambling up about 100 feet on boulders to reach the base of the climb the next morning of the 14th. We confirmed our location with pictures Ryan had printed out and knew we were in the right spot to start the route. I led the first pitch and we switch leads there on out. The route was 5.5 and some pitches were Class 4. We climbed for a total of 9 hours and 15 pitches til we reached the summit. Clouds had filled the sky and the summit only had two other people on it when we arrived. Two John Muir Trail hikers had just finished and were celebrating on the summit. The climb was amazing, the views from any point on Mt. Whitney are always incredible, and there always seem to be moments on that mountain where I feel completely at peace but also moments where I am challenged mentally and physically.
It was hard leaving the summit and saying goodbye knowing that I wouldn't be seeing Ryan for three months until I finished the trail, but this adventure was an amazing excuse to get to spend some time together. We split ways, Ryan descending the Mountaineers Route and I descending down to Crabtree Meadow, around 5 pm and we both made it back down to our separate sides of the mountain safely. I remember thinking as I was walking passed Guitar Lake how lucky I am and how much I have to look forward to on this trail. The Sierras had just begun!!!
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