After
procuring the permits needed, my partner and I, headed again to Eastern
Sierra. First stop was to pick up the permit at Lone Pine Visitor
Center. Car camped
near Whitney Portal TH and by 5AM we started the run. I met several
hikers along the way, they are so friendly and not once I requested to
pass. The hikers were simply eager to gave way if someone is faster to
go up. Alas, my third visit to Mt. Whitney is another
summit success – this time though was in running style. Going back to
the Portal was a great cruising downhill but one should be careful, if
you take a fall, its either small injury or a heli-ride to the ER.
I
completed the run in under 8 hours to a deserving burger sold at
Whitney Portal Store. Apparently, records have not yet been broken for
the fastest runner "portal-to-portal".
Indeed some humans are made of machine. You can view the record holder
here
My
Mt. Whitney run though is to acclimate myself. I collect 14er and that
my next destination is another 14er, an elusive Split Mountain (or known
as the South Palisade).
We
left the Portal to collect an overnight permit. In our plan, we were
supposed to overnight near Taboose Pass but when we arrived at the
trailhead, it was gusty
and worse at higher altitude. We instead car camped and changed our
plan. This time with 24 hours left to approach the Split Mountain, we
left the trailhead in our fastpack gear just after 5AM.
The
Taboose trail was not a joke. I dont allow myself to whine but the
trail is sandy at the start, followed by a teasing cool alpine forest in
the middle of the desert.
Soon this forest slowly turned to "gravel/boulder/rocky" Pass, all the
way to Taboose Pass - 11414'. It was an 8 miles of uphilling from the
elevation of 5400', which gave us vertical gain of over 6000'. It was
then followed by JMT, a 1500' drop in 3 miles
and slightly up towards Upper Basin - the base of Split Mountain.
Taboose Pass is not totally that bad. I think this trail is meant for
strong backpackers who wanted less crowd in the trail and more
challenges.
Although
this approach to Split Mountain does not require to look for cairns or
route-finding, but it is a long trail. The estimated round-trip was 36
miles with
close to 11000' of gain. It was too much effort for a day's endeavour.
At
Upper Basin, I kept telling my partner that we should follow the
published backpackers route but my partner went ahead prefering the
boulder hopping route to Split
Mountain. On an already long miles of trek, adding bouldering can easily
get one's energy spent. This bouldering to Split was almost similar to
"Williamson Bowl" but that was shorter. Towards the end of the
bouldering, we saw the clear backpackers route, the
Upper Basin Lake. It was an easy C-2 climb to Split.
It
was supposedly an easy C-2 climb to Split. It was easier estimate than
done. At 13000, my energy level got so low. I was moving very slow. Part
of the issue was,
I had not fuel that much. My breakfast was less than 2 muffins, 2
trailmix bars and trail mix in between which equates to maybe less than
600 calories, far too short from energy required to summit a fourteener.
I was in bad condition and felt no energy left
to even continue the last 1000' of climb. I broke in tears.........
With
encouragement from my partner, I kept going one step forward until I
saw the summit and the summit log. Signing the Split Mountain register
gave me that energy
boost for whatever reason. We did not stay at the summit long enough to
enjoy the view. The next thing is to descend, refill water at the nearby
lake and find JMT before it gets dark. We found the JMT and it was an
easy trek. It would have been great to run
it but that I told my partner, that if we are going to run, its not a
good idea due to darkness, either one of us could tripped or break an
ankle, and we are still too far away from the "safe zone" (or close of
trailhead).
Surprizingly
we did not get lost. We were able to identify the cairns at Taboose
Pass easily. Descending from Taboose Pass was not fun at all. It was so
rocky, it
pains your feet from touching the ground. Our estimate that we would
move faster but........ I did not expect to be of so much rocks on the
trail, although I did made a joke to call the trail "gravel/boulder"
pass. Few times I thought we were close to our landmark,
only to be disappointed. We reached the trailhead around 4:30AM ......
