Mauna Kea and Mount Whitney

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Puma concolor

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I know there's a small but dedicated group of state highpointers on VFTT so I figured I'd post a link to my most recent trip report on Summit Post. Awesome trip to the top of Hawaii and California for my 44th and 45th state HPs, leaving me with Hood, Rainier, Denali, Gannett and Granite. Ya know, the easy ones. :D

Anyway, here it is:

Westward Journey to Mauna Kea and Mount Whitney
 
Enjoyed your tr's, especially of Whitney.

I now live just south of Whitney, and try to get up there a couple of times of year - the last time was a few days ago on Sept 28th.

FWIW - as intricate as the permit system is, there are nearly always "no-shows" and you can get a walk-in permit for an overnight or dayhike anytime after 11AM on the day before the hike, especially if you avoid Friday and Saturday.
 
Thanks for checking it out, Kevin. It really is a spectacular mountain and area in general.

I'm glad I was out of there before all the mini-quakes started rumbling in the middle of last week. Might have spooked me a bit!
 
I'm glad I was out of there before all the mini-quakes started rumbling in the middle of last week. Might have spooked me a bit!

There were lots of quakes last week - I think the experts call it a "swarm" but mostly close to the surface which apparently is unusual. The epicenter was on the eastern side of Owens Lake, which is that big (mostly) dry lake south of Lone Pine. Nobody lives there now, and they weren't felt very far. We are only about 40 miles south and never felt any of them. The area is very active anyway, which is OK with me - much safer to the near-daily small quakes than one huge one every 10 years or so.

Last summer there was a swarm just north of Reno which lasted for weeks - hundreds of quakes everyday - and those did minor damage because it was in a residential area.
 
Great stuff. Nice pictures. This was my favorite line of your trip report: "...My pace was slow to moderate and I took a few breaks simply to linger..."
 
Great trip report I printed it out for future references. I am on 26 Highpoints and why I'm doing these is beyond me. I hope to have them done in the next few years. Just started about 5 years ago so well on my way. Good luck with your final five.
 
Thanks for the comments, Billy and hikem'all. For me, the ultimate compliment is when someone tells me that they've used or plan to use one of my TRs as reference. :)
 
Enjoyed your Whitney report and pictures. The stone summit building celebrated its 100th birthday this year and was originally an astronomical observatory building. I wished I had known more of the history when we were there a year ago. (My pictures are on Facebook, as I didn't know how to post them here.)
 
Nice stuff. Brings back memories of Hawaii. Pretty cool up on Mauna Kea..

Aloha

- darren
 
Thanks erugs and darren. If I had to decide which peak I enjoyed more, it would be a tough call but I would probably have to go with Whitney. It is just so spectacular from start to finish. I was very pleased when I found I had taken a quality shot of the stone shelter with a rugged backdrop. I usually just snap pictures like an idiot and then go through them later to figure out what is good and what is crap.

Mauna Kea was certainly special as well ... the landscape is just so wild and unique. I doubt I'll ever get a chance to climb/hike a peak quite like it again. I do hope to get back to Hawaii when the kids are a little older, but I'm sure we'll be doing all the tourist/beach type activities when we go. Aloha! :D
 
The other point I was going to note but I hit "send" too quickly, was the common theme in both of your highpoint hikes that each of them held astronomical research centers (one inactive, the other not).

You do the right thing by clicking "like an idiot" to take lots of pictures. I err in the opposite direction and am usually sorry, thinking "Oh, one should be enough."
 
Great T.R.

Thanks for the great T.R. especially the pics. We were on Whitney in Sept. 08 and your report and pictures brought back wonderful memories of a very rewarding hike, altitude included. Seems like you had no trouble with the altitude good going
 
Thanks Trailwright! I've had a big learning curve when it comes to altitude. My first time above 12K, I had to turn around. Since then, I've combined Diamox (another subject entirely!) with appropriate amounts of time at elevation. It's all about learning your own chemistry.

Glad I helped bring back memories. September is certainly a beautiful time out there.
 
Thanks Trailwright! I've had a big learning curve when it comes to altitude. My first time above 12K, I had to turn around. Since then, I've combined Diamox (another subject entirely!) with appropriate amounts of time at elevation. It's all about learning your own chemistry.

I understand. My first time was on Wheeler at 13,000 ft. Had to sit down to keep my head from spinning. I was fine after that just had to SLOOOW down. I have had no problems since but still slow down to a crawl after 12,500 but I feel great. Of course age may have a part.
BTW I liked your picture on Boundary that also brought back some memories but my wife will not ever go back there, but I would love to.
 
Funny about that. That turn-around I mentioned was actually on none other than Wheeler while hiking along the Bull-of-the-Woods route. After turning around, I hung out in Taos for a couple of days (not a bad punishment!), got acclimated and then scooted up the Williams Lake route with little difficulty.

The upside of this, of course, is that now when people ask which route I took on Wheeler, I get to tell them "well ... both." :eek:
 
Boundary. We enjoyed that hike, too. We went up towards the left, came down along the ridge and the drainage on the right. On the way up we followed a group who seemed to know where they were going, but they were slip-sliding through the screw until they saw us making good time to their left and boulder hopping, New England style. ;)

The other thing about altitude the few people think about, I believe, is once you've experienced the effects you understand why you are feeling supposedly "ill" and that it is altitude, and not illness. Somehow that knowledge allows me to feel okay. (Bloating, with gas and a headache? Fatigued and short of breath? Oh, wait, I'm at 11,500 feet and feeling great about that!)
 
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I was fortunate on Boundary as I hiked it with someone from California who had already visited the summit. It seems a lot of folks wait too long to break left and wind up getting caught up in the scree. The path I followed was very feint and you really had to look for where it broke off the main footpath. And even once on it, the blinding morning sunlight made it difficult to follow for a bit. Fun, fun peak. One of my favorites!

Nice pic, BTW.
 
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