East Face of Mt Whitney

The lake where we camped/ Brian below a glowing mount Whitney

Sunrise.

Hiking up the day before-- hot and sweaty!

Climbing shot. I look so tired. :)

Brian climbing-- over that hump was the first traverse and then another 800ft of climbing.

on the summit

Heading down the mountaineers route-- WAY steeper than it looks here. And loose! The Sierra are so gravely!

So the tallest peak in the lower 48 is conveniently located only 1hr north of Allison's (Brian's mom) house in California. I have been wanting to stand on it's summit for several years now, but we always seemed to visit Cali in the winter, which wouldn't work for the route we were hoping to do: the East Face. There is a walking trail up the entire mountain that Brian had hiked in the snow before we met the same month I was playing in Moab on Spring Summit. 

You probably know we're building a house in Moab, which means we need furniture for the house. Move in date is approaching and Allison had a sofa, beds and some other things for us to come pick up. We woke up on Friday morning and decided to make the 10 hour trip. Of course in Vegas we stop for some El Pollo Loco (best food ever) and immediately after gorging on hot mexican food, walk outside in the hot Vegas sunshine and get into our extremely hot SUV. After about 10 minutes of driving around sweating our brains out, we concluded that our AC had in fact broken and we were doomed to cross the mojave desert without it. 

Next day we got the furniture ready and put it in the trailer-- then drove up to get our permit for Whitney. Let me tell you, it was ridiculous. They really know how to create some hype. Every one standing around with their outdoor logos and nalgenes, palms sweaty worrying the person in front of them is going to steal their chance. In short, we got it.

The next day Brian and I hiked up with our packs full of climbing gear, our overnight gear and food. They were not light. 

And climbed up and up and up and up. We passed by the first alpine lake and headed up further to Upper Boyscout lake. A lame name for something so beautiful. The sierra mountains remind me of a drier Tetons. It was fun to hike with Brian. . . I felt like we laughed the whole time and it was good to have a night away from kids and responsibilities. We really don't do that enough. I actually think this was the first time we've spent the night away from the kids together. 

By the time we reached the lake, we were both ready to sit and relax on the rocks. Brian has told me several times that hanging out at an alpine lake above treeline is one of this favorite things. I have to agree. We made dinner, set up camp and crashed. 4am wake up and no other climbers were around. We were surprised and figured we were starting late. I kind of love scrambling over rock that early in the morning. My mind is turned off and I just hear breathing. I'm always a bit anxious anticipating what the climb will be like. I knew that the East Face involved 1,000ft of climbing and a few traverses. 

When we arrived at the base of the climb, I was kind of blown away. The range was bright pink/orange from the rising sun the the clouds to the south looked ominous, but thin. We decided to make a go for it after checking the weather (isn't that insane that we can do that?! this is the first time we've had a smart phone climbing). . . it said stormy weather wouldn't hit until 11am. 

So we started climbing. And climbing. The first traverse we got to- the Tower Traverse-- majorly freaked me out. The moves felt sloped and there was nothing but air below (but I was tied in and if I fell, the pendulum wouldn't be that bad). It made me more apprehensive for the Fresh Air traverse, but that ended up being no biggie-- great hands the whole time. I enjoyed the climbing and the last move we pulled brought us exactly to the summit marker at the highest point in the United States (excluding Alaska). 14,5something. 9:30am

We got back to the car at 3pm and drove back to our girls and grandma who had graciously watched them all day in the heat.