Climbing Mt. Whitney

After our family trip to Yosemite and Lake Tahoe we drove to Reno, NV, where I met up with Kurt Mensch while Fran, Rick and Alex flew back to Denver. Kurt and I drove down the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada to Lone Pine, CA, which is the starting point for climbing Mt. Whitney, at 14,497’ the highest point in the “Lower 48” (it’s higher than Mt. Elbert in Colorado by all of 64’). There are several ways up Whitney, ranging from a strenuous but non-technical hiking trail to steep climbs on the East face. We opted for the classic East Buttress route, a 5.7 first climbed in 1937 with all of two pitons. Actually it’s mostly 4th class with only a few sections of 5.7 climbing, but the rock is excellent and the position is spectacular.