White Mountain Summit

The alarm went off at 4 am. That’s what it needed to be so I could make the drive from Bishop and be at the White Mountain Summit trailhead when the gate opened at 6:30 am. After our experience a couple of days ago on our hike to Sam Mack Meadow, Karen had decided that I would make this hike alone (at least she wasn’t coming along). Today was one of two days a year when the UC White Mountain Research Lab opens the gate and lets people park at the lab—two miles closer to the summit than usual.

There is a school of thought that spending the night at the gate is a good altitude acclimation technique. I decided I wanted a good night’s sleep, so I stayed in Bishop. It worked for me. I thought I might see traffic on the drive to the gate, but I don’t remember seeing another vehicle until I stopped at Schulman Grove for a potty break. It was another story when I got to the gate—dozens of cars, and many had already driven up to the lab. Clearly I wasn’t going to hike alone.

The summit weather had been a concern to me. The research lab maintains weather instruments on the summit, and on Aug 28, the average wind speed reached 80 mph and the temperature was between 30° and 35°F. On Aug 29, the high temperature was 25°F. Luckily the weather stabilized and for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd the high temperature was about 50°F and the wind was 10 to 15 mph average. Then the summit weather station failed, but I believe today’s weather was about the same. When I started hiking at about 7:30 am, I guess the temperature was in the high 30’s. When I got out on the trail on a more exposed ridge, I had to pull on another long sleeve shirt.

The lab sits at 12,470 ft (that’s the highest I’ve ever driven my truck) and the trail immediately climbs a short hill. Oh my! It took a while to find the right walking pace to not drive me into oxygen debt. After this first 250 ft climb, the trail descends nearly back to the lab elevation. I was thinking about how difficult the return trip might be climbing up that last hill with 10 miles of hiking under my belt. There was another steep descent at 3.5 miles to 13,000 ft and then just a steady climb to the summit at 14,252 ft.

White Mountain is the third highest California peak and is my third fourteener. I’ve been on Whitney twice and Shasta once. This means I’ve been on the first, third, and fifth highest peaks in California.

After a short break on the summit for photos and lunch, I started back down. It took me 4.5 hours to go up and 3 hours to come back down. I started to see folks suffering from the altitude. I stopped to see if I could give any energy bars to one guy who was really hurting, but he had essentially the same stuff I had.

There is no water on the trail. I carried 130 oz., and used 100 oz. I also carried more Clif Bars than I needed, but I don’t regret carrying the extra water or the extra food.

White Mountain Summit — 11.2 miles

by EveryTrail


Links
—White Mountain summit photo gallery