David Michael Bruno

Mount Whitney Trip Report

With tears in my eyes at three in the morning I stood fifty feet from our tent peeing on million-year-old granite rocks. My eyes always get watery when it’s twenty degrees outside. But some of the tears this night ran down my cheeks on account of the view. The storm that had shredded tents with fifty mile per hour gusts and heavy sleet the night before had blown away. (The people we met hiking down the trail on June 12 looked like they had been beaten silly by a banshee. According to their tales of the horrific night, most of them thought they actually had been roughed up by a really mean ghost. Best I could gather only six or seven people summited that day.)

But now in the early morning of June 13, I stood beneath a new moon and a clear sky peacefully relieving myself. The Milky Way stretched from beyond the east of the Owens Valley past the west over 13,500 foot Trail Crest. As if pointing the way, the galaxy lit the snow chute we’d climb the next morning. I took this as a good omen; God was going to give us ideal conditions to climb.

One Step At A Time

Last weekend I climbed Mount Whitney with some friends. It was a superb time. Almost indescribable, though of course I'll attempt to recount it since I just love to jabber away on a keyboard. A full trip report will come soon.

This morning I only want to make one small point full of cliche. The only way to get up a mountain is one step at a time.

(Standing at Trail Camp the night before our summit. That's the snow chute we had to climb behind me. If you look really hard, there are people scattered around the rocks.) 

I had heard that when you drive up to Whitney Portal and look up at the mountain you think, "There's no way. How on earth am I going to climb up there?" Pretty much from day one I gave myself a 40% chance of making the summit. It's amazing, though, how far you can go one step at a time.

Achievement is not so much about standing on mountains as it is about being steady on your feet and strong in your soul.

Mount Whitney Minimalism

So I have plans to hike Mount Whitney in early June. That's right, the very Mount Whitney that is experiencing an unusually cold spring. (Notice, that's weather conditions for 12,200 feet, not 14,494 feet. Brrrrrr!)

When I went to REI a few weeks ago to buy some hiking boots, I chatted with a helpful sales woman who reminded me that, "Whitney's been hiked in bikinis and flip flops." My flip flops are kind of old and bikinis don't flatter my body type, so I got some Salomon Quest 4D boots, which I'm seriously impressed with thus far. And I've picked up a few other things to complement the adventure gear I already own.

Let's assume that the weather stays about the same: highs in the 30s at 12,000 feet and lows in the single digits. Here's my gear list. What I need to know is this: Do you think I'll survive?

Clothing

1. Mountain Hardware down jacket
2. Marmot rain jacket
3. Patagonia rain pants
4. Capeline 1 LS shirt
5. Capeline 3 LS shirt
6. SS wicking shirt
7. Capeline 3 long skivvies
8. REI running shorts with liner
9. Smartwool socks x 3
10. Wool hat
11. Mittens
12. Salomon Quest 4D boots
13. Sunglasses

Gear

1. Osprey Backpack (35 liters - worried this is too small)
2. Marmot Helium 15 degree sleeping bag
3. Therm-a-rest z-light sleeping pad
4. Headlamp
5. Pocket knife
6. Black Diamond trekking poles
7. Kahtoola MICROspikes
8. MSR Pocket Rocket stove
9. One fuel canister
10. Spork
11. One cook pot
12. Bear canister
13. Small camera

Obviously, we'll also have tents that we'll share. (It's a group of around 8-9 guys.) And food. And first aid kit. Etc.

Will around 30 adventure gear items get me up to Whitney? Alive?

Surf Update - Brrrr and Bigggg

Recently guynameddave has been a bit heavy, all this talk of consumerism and national debt.

You know what else has been heavy this week? Waves. Waves all over the world. Did you see Waimea the last couple of days? Unreal. Even here in San Diego the waves have been picking up, with expectations that it will get bigger in the next day or two. Except here in Southern California the water has gotten cold again.

Still being new to surfing, I avoid brrr and biggg. Hope to get out again soon. For now, it's been fun to watch.

U2

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I'll be joining about 100,000 other people at the U2 concert at the Rose Bowl. It is quite possible that this will be a historic rock concert, being filmed for DVD release and also streamed live on YouTube for the first time ever. I'll be wearing a red t-shirt with a guitar on it, in case you watch ;-)

Full review some time next week.