Day 59: Guitar Lake - My. Whitney - ⛺ @ mile 774.7

Day: 05.06.2018 Miles hiked today: +/- 22 miles (inlcuding climbing Mt. Whitney) Total mileage: Mile 774.7 I dream that I didn't hear my alarm clock and only woke up in the morning when everybody comes back from their climb of Mt. Whitney! Of course I didn't. I guess I hardly slept. Around 1am the first hikers pass our camp site already. Joanne, Peter and me are starting with our climb shortly after 2am. The trail starts to climbs up immediately and shortly after we started hiking we lost the trail already. Trying to find our way back in the dark was somehow difficult. Thanks god some other hikers passed, showing us where the trail would be! We make sure to hike close behind them as snow fields, and little streams of melted snow on the path make it hard to see where the trail actually is. Also because it is pitch dark. But the darkness has its advantages also. One can't see the trail and how steep it is. You are just hiking, still kind of sleeping and suddendly you are on top of the mountain! Well nearly that easy but I find it easier than in the daylight, where I can see the path and know how steeo it really is. So we hike on and as we cross the first snow field I can see that Peter is rather scared. There area couple of small snow fields to cross, but nothing bad. Only later on, I would use my microspikes where there was one or two sketchy sections, the rest of the trail was very easy hikeable. As Peter took a long time to hike I moved on and would wait. The last mile and half I hiked on. It's nearly time for the sunrise, the sky is starting to change colour and I want to be on top before the sun is out. And Joanne is with him so he is not hiking alone. The last 0.5 miles took forever. I could not see the top, you kind of walked up the back of the mountain and it was never ending! But I just made it on time. The views are epic, breathtaking up here! Stuck-on-the-ground and Gadget are there too. Joanne and Peter make it to the top about 30 minutes later. I brought all my clothes and my sleeping bag with me, but left anything else behind in my tent. It's cold up there but thankfully not windy. I put all my clothes on and get into my sleeping bag, as close to stuck-on-the-ground as possible to keep warm and watch the sun rise. Joanne and Peter join and all 4 of us are lying close next to each other for a while. I was soooo cold! About an hour later I was ready to leave my sleeping bag. Many hikers started with the descend already. We have to make the obligatory naked shot up there! It's so cold so hurry up quickly! Out of your clothes and it's picture time! It was really funny :) but it helped, I was not that cold afterwards anymore. Thereafter we started with our descend, while day hikers are starting to arrive on the top now. I hiked down on my own speed, enjoying the views we missed on the uphill hike. I'm already back in my tent and sleeping bag, ready for a nap when Joanne and Peter arrive too. I was tired but somehow could not fall asleep. Still we rested for 2 hours before we moved on again. Tomorrow we would like to hike Forester Pass. Forester pass is the highest pass to climb on our journey and is just slightly higher than 4'000m. As the passes are still snow covered, specially the north side of the passes (downhill for us), one should be on top as early as possible to avoid postholing. But the closest campground to the pass is more than 12 miles to from here. And this after already hiking Mt. Whitney. Most people actually are resting for the day at Guitar Lake and hike the 12 miles the next day. But 12 miles for one day is such a small hiking day (you don't want to do the pass after 9am!), we would like to hike it today. And off we go. Just before we arrive at the camp we had to cross quite a wild river. All went smooth but now I'm really done with the day. Just want to eat and sleep. It was a very loong and hard yet amazing and breathtaking day! Good night y'all!!