In early September 2024 my brothers and I summited Mt Whitney on a 2-day overnight trip. How we did this trip was
- Drive up to Lone Pine, check in to a hotel, rent a bear cannister, and then drive up to the portal for an hour or two. We hiked up the trail enough to where we got a little winded and turned around. This kills some time but my hope is this helped at least a little with acclimating. We chose the better sleep of a hotel in lone pine vs the advantage of camping a night at Whitney Portal. My advice for anyone would be to opt to camp at Whitney Portal or something like Cottonwood Lakes if you can for the better acclimating.
- We woke up, had breakfast, grabbed a sandwich for the trail (in addition to our snacks etc we brought), and started the hike around 10:30. We got to consultation lake around 3 taking our time and camped here for the night.
- Woke up for summit day, filled up water, started walking around 7:00am. Summit at 11. Back to camp to pack up then the portal at around 4:30pm.
It was absolutely grueling, even with training this was an extremely difficult hike, but also very rewarding. I had two new gear purchases for this trip. One was the Katadyn Befree Filter, the big advantage with this one is the flow rate is SO much better. The downside seems to be from what I’ve read is the bladder part isn’t super durable, so I’ll just be careful with it. Also bought a NU25 headlamp. Not exactly budget but definitely affordable and lightweight.
This will probably be the last backpacking trip for awhile! but have some ideas for other trips in the future.
