Wayfinders Adventure Co.
Mt. Whitney in a Day (Almost!)
Here are some lessons learned from a difficul trip to Mt. Whitney and why it was still worth it!
How did we get here?
It's June of 2025. I have been wanting to attempt Mt. Whitney for a few years now. A friend of mine had a plan (that he created because he's done it before and I wasn't sure where to start) and it was going to be a nice, 3-day backpacking trip, slowly approaching the summit and acclimatizing as we went. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row we could not get our schedules aligned.
Once it became clear we were going to miss another summer without climbing, on a whim I checked the permit situation and lo and behold, there was one single permit available in about 2 and half weeks. I thought "why not, let's try!" and I snagged it. But it was a day use permit, meaning I could only be on the mountain for 24 hours, midnight to midnight.* So I had about 2 and a half weeks to prepare for the climb (11 miles up and 11 miles down) in a single push.
The easier/preferred way to do the trip is to climb up to Trail Camp campsite (at about 10,000 ft elevation) and then tent camp the night to acclimatize. Then wake up early and push to the summit. Then come back down for a total trip length of two days. Again though, you need an overnight permit for this itinerary.
So in order to do a one day up and down, you have to start super early; my target start time was 2am. I did my best in the two and a half weeks to get ready…this included warm up hikes that started well before sunrise. You would think “oh I just need a headlamp” but there is a psychological challenge in walking through the wilderness in the dark. Every noise, every critter you hear, it’s pitch black so there is a little fear factor to overcome and it takes getting used to.
I did my best to build up endurance, warming up with a 7 mile hike, then resting for a few days, then a 14 mile hike, then resting for a few days and I couldn’t quite get to the 20 mile hike I wanted to but I supplemented it with a straight uphill steep quick hike. (This was maybe regret #1…I wonder what if I got to that 20-miler).
In order to handle the acclimatization challenge, I chose to sleep the night before at Onion Valley Campground. It’s at an elevation of 9,000 ft. And by sleep, I mean from 8:30pm to 1am so that I could get over to Whitney Portal by 2am (Onion Valley is an hour away). While at Onion Valley, I did a warm up hike in the area and while it was beautiful, it was steeper than I expected and I bit off more than I could chew (regret #2). I did get to discover a beautiful spot and there was not a soul in sight, so this in and of itself felt like the trip was worth it. I started on the Kearsarge Pass trail and then took the turn off to Golden Trout Lake. One of the peaks there is called "Dragon Tooth" so my goal was to get to the lake at the base of Dragon Tooth, simply beacuse the name sounded cooler. I didn't quite make it though, because my pace was slower than expected and I wanted to get back to the campsite for a little dinner and then bedtime.
In hindsight, I overdid it on that warm up hike and left myself a little worn out and I'm sure you'll understand the following conundrum: if you anticipate that you're gonna sleep poorly, that anticipation ends up making you sleep poorly. Ugh...
So I’m worn out, no sleep and about to start one heck of a long climb. Despite all this, I was excited and ready to go. Up I went and from 2am to 5am got treated to some incredible stars and even a Starlink train passed over at one point. The sunrise was glorious as the peaks go painted orange. There were plenty of people on the trail by the way so at no point did I feel like I was unsafely isolated.
By 10am I was at the infamous 99 switchbacks and my knee was starting to bother me a lot. Regreat #3 dawned: on me, my backpack was way too heavy. I carried extra water to lower the chances I would need to use my water filter but at the end of the day, there’s a reason why bringing a filter is recommended. It just means a lighter load. I was about 3 or 4 switchbacks from the final push to the ridgeline. But that final push to the ridgeline was an extra 500ft of elevation gain and then it was another 1,500ft of gain to the summit. Sad to say, I felt it best to turn around. The Mountain wasn't going anywhere, I could try again another time.
The long journey back downhill led me to regret #4: this is a very hard thing to do alone. If you go with a buddy, you can chat and motivate each other and commiserate; It’s a massive psychological challenge to keep your head in the game after 12-13 hours of such intense, repetitive hiking. Is it possible? Of course, but it’s not for the faint of heart.
Another reason why this trip was so quick was that I had an important in-person work meeting the next day back in LA. Normally I would've camped as close as possible to the mountain but that would leave me with 4 hours to drive in the morning. Also, who doesn't want a hot shower after 14 hours of hiking? I looked at accommodations in Lone Pine but the prices were way too high, most likely because the demand is high in the summer from all the hikers coming to the famed hike. About 2 hours back towards LA, in Mojave was a very reasonably priced room at the Comfort Inn & Suites. This was perfect so that I could shower, pass out, sleep amazingly and then wake up not too early and head straight to work. Not to mention a bomb breakfast burrito at The Workz as a nice reward meal.
All in all, not bad for a little solo adventure. I learned a lot, still saw some fantastic nature and now I'm just more prepared for the next attempt.