Mt. Whitney Adventure Day 5: Down and Down More

Something that most people don't consider when doing an outdoor adventure, or in life for that matter, is a simple rule of physics: what goes up must come down.  When you are on the top of the lower 49 states, it is a long way down!

Once I finally reached the peak of Mt. Whitney and was greeted by the rest of the team, the two guides had a question for me: How do you feel on a scale of 1-10? I told them I was about a 9, slight altitude headache but otherwise I felt great.  They relied with an affirmative "great" and proceeded to tell me to eat a quick lunch and get some pictures because they were sending me down with Group 1 who had been on the peak for almost and hour and a half.  So after a little fun, some pictures and a quick lunch I was headed back down off the summit.

Going down always presents itself with a new set of problems. Stability is completely different and your quads and knees are already tired. They put me second on the line right behind Jon Dorn the editor for Backpacker magazine with Nick and Anthony right behind me, and our guide Thomas at the back as the anchor. Now I had no trouble keeping up with the scrambling or the rappelling, but then we made it to the snow gulley. The first decision here was not to put our crampons back on. No big deal I'm decent on snow and ice. But there was one minor complication: Jon is 6'6" or more & and I am not!

So with the snow melting it was common to "post-hole" or for your leg to go into the snow all the way up to your waist if you step wrong. With Jon's height he would take a step down hill and it would pull me forward. I certainly couldn't step where he was stepping- my legs just weren't long enough. I can't imagine how funny it must have looked to the three guys behind me as Jon and I did a herky-jerky dance down the 45% grade.

We waited down at camp for the other team to arrive and we all rejoiced together and sat around sharing snacks and talking about the climb. Dinner was made and another early night in the tents with everyone feeling exhausted and anxious about the hike down the next day.

Thursday we woke up, packed up and headed down hill. We were moving quickly enough that we met the next team still at low camp. We hung out for a bit and told some stories. Pete Athens was on this crew, he has summited Everest 8 times, two without the aide of oxygen. We took lots of pictures and then the packs were back on and we headed down the trail.

Finally back at the Whitney Portal we were excited to have our packs off and boots off. We collected some T-shirts and other items to remember our climb and headed to a great lunch at a local Lone Pine cafe.

I had a wonderful crew that week and made some great new friends.  It's amazing how much you can get to know some people over the course of just a couple of days.  But knowing that we raised money that will influence the lives of young people may be the greatest memory we take away.  Just as our lives were forever changed by sharing a week together hiking, I pray that the lives of young people all across the country will be similarly changed. It never ceases to amaze me, how much life perspective changes when we get outside of our norm and comfort zone.

But my journey wasn't over...Matthew, Jeremy, and I were headed to the Grand Canyon on the way home!