Day 7 of the High Sierra Trail: Guitar Lake to Whitney Portal

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by meghikes
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DAY STATS:
Date: Sunday, August 8, 2021
Mileage: 15.5 miles

After about seven hours of on and off sleep, our alarms rang at 3:00am. As soon as our alarms rang, I immediately “popped” my sleeping pad so that it would deflate (hot tip if you need to get up and out early – make yourself uncomfortable). We knew that we wanted to get up and out this morning so we had prepped as much as we could the night before, making our prep time in the morning only 38 minutes. Of course, it was only made faster by watching the bobble of headlamps going up the switchbacks and getting more and more excited. This included getting up and dressed, breaking down camp, and choking down as much of a Clif Bar as we could. By 3:38am, we were ready to hike!

We had a new moon that night, meaning that the moon was 0% illuminated for our march up to Whitney. As our luck would have it, Laura’s headlamp had completely died and mine was on its last leg (and of course we didn’t bring extra batteries, experienced backpackers, who?), so we put me up front with my dim headlamp, Laura in the middle with tent light, and Erin in the back to light up the path for us the best she could. It turned into a pretty dark hike, but I suppose it made it that more adventurous!

I don’t know what it is about hiking in the dark, but I always seem to hike my fastest during the night! We seemed to zoom up the mountain, passing all of the friends that we had made over the past seven days. Everyone was so excited to finally be making it up Whitney. We hurriedly wished eachother a hushed good luck and congratulations – something about being underneath the Sierra stars makes you want to stay quiet. Even as I write this back at home, I can still feel the energy that I felt that morning. I wish I could describe it in a way that could give it justice, but I really can’t. Truly unforgettable. I can’t wait for you to experience the magic for yourself.

The early morning was spent on the switchbacks, watching rock formations get clearer in the dawn light. The sky turned a beautiful pastel blue + pink, and we could see exactly where we had come up over Kaweah Gap only a few days before. Around 5:30am, we hit Trail Crest, where the side trail to Whitney peels off. We threw down our packs and pulled out all of our layers (for how hot it had been that week, it was COLD up at 13,000+ feet). I had been using a daypack as my sleeping bag stuff sack all week, so we were able to pack up our snacks and water for the ~4 mile out-and-back up to Whitney.

For how fast we (felt like) we were coming up the switchbacks, that quickness quickly came to a halt once we hit Trail Crest. Past Trail Crest, the trail gets super technical, plus a combination of allowing people to pass going up and down + the elevation, we were going pretty slow.

We had all mentally prepared ourselves to feel pretty miserable above 13,000 feet, but aside from slight headaches, we were feeling pretty okay. We knew that we weren’t going to make sunrise from the summit, so once we could tell the sun was coming up over the Inyos, we parked ourselves between two of the pinnacles and watched the sunrise around 6:15am. Every mountain in sight glowed a beautiful, warm gold. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of the sun saying hello to you on top of the tallest peak in lower 48!

Before long, the trail maneuvered up and over to the summit of Mount Whitney! After seven days, six nights, and 72 miles, we made it!! We had hiked the High Sierra Trail! We were standing on the tallest peak in the contiguous United States!

There were lots of congratulations in order, as we were sharing the summit with other HSTers, JMTers, and overall Whitney summiters! Everyone on the peak had their own celebrations to attend to, and not one was left behind. We were surrounded by the hikers that we had been hiking with all week, and it was so fun to finish the trail together.

We took some time on the summit to take photos, sign the logbook, and text our families that we had made it! The summit of Whitney is so fun – aside from the energy itself, there are a bunch of little geographical landmarks (let me know if there is a better name for them?) on multiple rocks of where people thought was the highest point, there is the summit cabin to explore, and there are peaks and views in every direction for you to check out. We didn’t want to leave! … Especially knowing the long climb down we had before we officially finished.

We eventually said goodbye to the summit and started the long climb down. The trail back to Trail Crest is so beautiful though – you are still on your high from the summit, and the peaks remind me of a scene out of the Dolomites. You finally get a bit of gradual downhill that you have been craving all morning, and everyone coming up congratulates you for your summit. All around an enjoyable hike back to Trail Crest.

There is a second after you hit Trail Crest and before you get to the 97 switchbacks where the trail gets in one last jab and you have to hike uphill for what feels like entirely too long for the accomplishment that you just completed. Fortunately, it doesn’t last too long (keep telling yourself that when you are there – it seriously sucks), and you soon hit the 97 switchbacks and start your long, long descent down to Whitney Portal and the Owens Valley.

Not surprisingly, I took zero photos of the trail between the above photo, taken at 9:26am somewhere on the 97 switchbacks, and the below photo, taken at 2:12pm when we were done. The 97 switchbacks were exciting, as we had beautiful views of Whitney and the pinnacles. As we had our backpacks on, hikers coming up could tell that we had come up from the backside, and we received lots of questions about our trips. Lots of people congratulated us for both our summit and the end of our thruhike – the energy was buzzing coming down the 97 switchbacks! And if you’ve ever wondered, yes, there are 97 of them. Laura counted.

As soon as we made it down to Trail Camp, our energy quickly depleted. It was starting to get super hot, and the reality of our long day really started to hit. I also completely forgot how rocky the Whitney trail is – it is definitely not a trail that you can fly down. You have to make sure to watch your steps, especially as you get more and more tired. Our trek between Trail Camp and Lone Pine Lake took us past Consultation Creek (where we filled up our water – would highly recommend, this is probably the cleanest water in the Whitney zone since it flows from Consultation Lake); past Mirror Lake, and past Outpost Camp. To be totally honest, this stretch was just miserable. We were all ready to be done, and it took every ounce of strength we had to force ourselves to take care of our bodies – eat snacks, drink water, and try to slow ourselves down before all the rolled ankles we were getting turned into something 10x worse. For how beautiful the Whitney zone is, so much of it is wasted on misery at the end of a 16-mile day. If you ever get the chance, I would highly recommend taking a trip up to Consultation Lake – it allows you to enjoy the Whitney zone without such a grueling trek!

Once we reached Lone Pine Lake and knew that we only had 3 1/2 more miles to go, we definitely perked up a bit. This is also where the trail calms down a bit – instead of rocks and technical footing, it turns into dirt-packed gradual switchbacks, which makes for faster hiking! The one bad part about this section is that you can see (and smell the burgers at) Whitney Portal, so even though you still have about three miles to go, it feels like you are so much closer than you are. Again, we forced ourselves to slow down a bit after the 15th rolled ankle, so we were definitely moving a bit slower than we’d like to have been, but it was a bit more pleasant than the trail had been earlier in the day.

After about an hour and a half, we finally rounded the last, extremely long switchback (if you know, you know), and arrived at the destination we had been working towards all week – Whitney Portal!!

Our 72-mile-long trek was complete, we had crossed the Range of Light!! What an accomplishment! We relished with burgers and beers, and got to tell our sweet trail angels (my mom and her bff – you’ll remember from Day 1) all of the stories that we had been saving up all week. We got to put on our comfy birkenstocks, eat hot food that we didn’t have to cook ourselves, and SIT ON CHAIRS (literally you never know how much you take a chair for granted until you have to sit in dirt for a full week – I remember this feeling during my JMT hike too). We had the warmest welcome back we could have ever asked for!

After enjoying the comforts of Whitney Portal, we eventually made our way back down to the Owens Valley and down the 395 to Los Angeles. We had the best High Sierra Trail thruhike we could have ever asked for. We saw a portion of the Sierra that only thruhikers get to see, made new friends in our fellow hikers, and overcame the challenges and relished in the accomplishments of the HST. There really is nothing like a high of finishing a thruhike.

To finish us off, I’d like to share a quote from John Muir, one that describes exactly how we were all feeling after our thruhike of the High Sierra Trail:

I have crossed the Range of Light, surely the brightest and best of all the Lord has built. And, rejoicing in its glory, I gladly, gratefully, hopefully pray I may see it again.

John Muir

Day-by-day Journal:
Day 1: Crescent Meadow to Bearpaw Meadow
Day 2: Bearpaw Meadow to Precipice Lake
Day 3: Precipice Lake to Moraine Lake
Day 4: Moraine Lake to Junction Meadow
Day 5: Junction Meadow to Crabtree Ranger Station
Day 6: Crabtree Ranger Station to Guitar Lake
Day 7: Guitar Lake to Whitney Portal

Planning:
Your Quick and Dirty Guide to the High Sierra Trail
My Complete Packing List for the High Sierra Trail
The High Sierra Trail on Film
Getting To and From the High Sierra Trail
Tips and Tricks for the High Sierra Trail