Triumph Hurts!!

I made it to the top and back!!!!! We went up to Mt Whitney on Wednesday, played around on Thursday to try and get acclimated. Friday morning, well middle of the night, at 1:45AM the alarm went off and that meant go time! We got up and ate some food and then hit the trail. We made our first steps at 2:52AM. With headlamps hiking in the dark is actually very fun. My body was not used to functioning, let alone hiking at such early hours of the morning, but after about an hour I was really beginning to get into the groove. We set up a timeline for goals to reach certain areas. We were ahead of schedule by about 15-20 minutes each time, which was great considering what were attempting to accomplish. At 4AM we were hiking up some switchbacks toward Mirror Lake when we came across a group of people on their way down. They had not made into the top, and were trying to get down. They still had 4 more miles to go though. We heard later on that there had been massive snow fall from 10,000 feet on up to the summit on Thursday. Lucky for us we had great weather all day. We made it up to Trail Camp, which is at about 12,000 feet, where most people who can get a camping pass camp the first night before going for the summit. People were just getting up and around to getting some breakfast when we cruised on through. Directly in front of Trail Camp are the 96 switchbacks. These switchbacks take you from 12,000 feet to 13,600 in around 2 miles. They are actually not too terribly steep, just never never never never ending! We made it to the top, Trail Crest, at 13,600 feet. Just 2.3 miles to go and we will have made it to the top. First you drop around 500 feet though, which is completely demoralizing as you have worked so hard climbing, just to drop 500 feet. The trail between the summit and trail camp is not very maintained. It is full of rocks and boulders. Pretty tough going. I learned that the key to keep it slow and steady. We only stopped a couple of times between Trail Camp and the summit since we didn't try and overdo it. We summited at 10:45AM. A couple had just gotten married right before we walked up to the building that is on the top of the summit. The views go on forever. Making sure that I was fully hydrated helped keep the altitude sickness at bay. The summit is 14,497.61 feet above sea level, the highest mountain point in the 48 states. We left to head down about an hour later. The way down hurt much more than going up. Knees are screaming at you to please stop the pounding. Your toes begin to hurt as you try to soften the blows by landing on the balls of your feet. It is pretty tough to breath up that high, but maintaining a steady pace helps keep you from over exerting yourself. We made it down at 5:25PM, 14.5 hours after we started. The Whitney Portal Store serves food until 7:30PM, so we ordered up some killer cheese burgers and fries to relish in our accomplishment. My body hurt so bad it was truly tough just to walk. Lifting my legs to get into the car really seemed impossible. The Portal Store also has 1 shower available. It costs $3 dollars and is only open until 7:15PM. I was the last one to take a shower that day, staying for 20 minutes. Best $3 dollars I spent on the whole trip. All in all it was a great trip. We spent the night in the Whitney Portal campground again, took lots of ibuprofin, and woke up the next morning and cleaned up camp. It takes around 5-6 hours to drive back, so trying to drive back right off the mountain is something that I'm really glad we didn't attempt. We were all so incredibly exhausted. I'm really glad I made the trek and pushed my body to it's max. It was a blast. I read that only about 33% of people who try to hike Whitney actually make it to the summit. I'm really happy that I was able to make it up and back safely. My wife would have killed me if I had died up on that mountain.