Day 50 – Monte Whitney

«That’s what forests are for:

For those moments in the forest …
Oh, if life were made of moments,
Even from time to time a bad one!
But if life were just moments,
Then you would never know that you had one. «
The Bakero’s wife of «Into The Woods» by Stephen Sondheim

The group of us, several of the party bus and me, began to walk at 00:50. I almost got to the summit before dawn, but it arrived 6 minutes late. But the landscape was still beautiful. I loved seeing the pre-Sunrise red sky through the windows along the top of the summit. I enjoyed looking forward and back during the night walk and seeing where people were. At least I could see where they were when their flashlights were on. The moon was bright enough so that we could often turn off our lights.

We had cell service at Whitney’s top, so I called a family and friends on the east coast (where it was not ridiculously early).

Night hiking

Looking at this pre-Sunrise

Looking at this pre-Sunrise

Looking at this pre-Sunrise

Whitney Summit

Final approach in Whitney

I arrived at the summit 5 minutes after dawn, but it was still incredible

Mary found a place mainly out of the wind

Playing «oat tea» at the summit

The path is here, the upper left

Photos

Marmot

On the way, my foot had an encounter with my ice ax. I tried to push the ice ax in the snow (through the upper inches hardened to the softer things). But the snow hard diverted the ax at the top of my foot. He felt as if I bruised him, but I moved on. On the way down, he began to hurt more. Hunter and Mary took some weight to the camp. I tried to bandage and support my foot so as not to have to worry a lot to step badly.

Mark my smart water bottle to match my template

Marked smart bottle period and ready to cut to match my template. I inserted this under my template as a rock guard.

After returning to the camp, I decided that if my foot did not feel better in the morning, I needed to walk to check it. If I was broken, I didn’t want to get worse in the field. It was not evident at the moment it happened, but my ice ax and my foot encounter definitely seems like a «moment.»

I am well behind publishing blog posts, and it is not likely to improve in the next few days.

In summary, my foot was not broken, but it was infected. The antibiotics, keeping it clean until he is cured, and then joining my troop of explorers in the summer camp they took me out of the way for more than two weeks.

I have been on the road again for 10 days (no cell connection). Scott’s camp was quite close to the PCT, so I continued from there.

I will complete more details when I have time.

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