Goal for the day: Guitar Lake

This day’s goal was mostly to get as close to Whitney as possible. Where I stopped will depend on my progress, the weather, and where best I could start my summit attempt.

My plan was to avoid camping right at Guitar Lake since the last time I camped there, it was very crowded and I found that people didn’t quite understand the idea of using the bathroom 100 feet from water, trails, or campsites.

Crabtree Meadows, somewhere above Guitar Lake, or even the bivvy sites were options.

As I made the climb to Bighorn Plateau, I was treated to some beautiful sunrise colors across the mountain range to the west.

And I got my first look at Mt Whitney. It only took 196 miles to finally get a look at the goal. 🙂

But the route to that goal wasn’t direct, so I continued southward on the JMT to Crabtree Meadows where you had to hang a sharp left towards Mt Whitney.

It was still early in the day when I got to Crabtree Meadows, so I decided to go for Guitar Lake.

That’s when the weather started shifting with dark storm clouds moving in from the west with lots of thunder claps echoing down towards me. That is the kind of weather that you run from if you’re at the summit.

The western sky grey darker and more menacing with every step I took towards Guitar Lake.

I got a little hail and scattered rain as I hiked towards Guitar Lake, which kept me moving eastward. Yet again, my memory played tricks on me when I kept thinking that I was almost to Guitar Lake. But there were at least 3 (and maybe more) false ridge lines that I thought should be the last one before I actually saw Guitar Lake.

Guitar Lake had a gorgeous view of the area and of the western side of Mt Whitney. Instead of the multiple jagged vertical spires jutting into the sky that you saw from the eastern side, the western side was made up of a lot of smaller rock spires that made the western face near the summit almost impossible to climb (at least without mad climbing skills and a lot of gear).

That’s why the JMT veered further south and climbed up a less jagged part of the west side via a large bank of switchbacks. Fortunately, there were nowhere near the 99 switchbacks you had to climb when climbing up from the east side.

After taking way to long to take in the view from Guitar Lake, I remembered that a storm was chasing me up the trail when some more thunder echoed behind me and I was sprinkled with more light rain.

Looking around, I rethought my desire to not camp at Guitar Lake. There was one large group to the north side along Arctic Creek, a small group at the far end of the western side of the lake, and one tent on the north side across the creek. I don’t know if it was due to COVID-19, but there were nowhere near the huge crowd of backpackers that had soured me on staying at the lake the last time I stayed there.

Taking the chance that there wouldn’t be dozens of people showing up later that day, I decided that because of the fast approaching storm I should find a nice spot and enjoy the rest of the day there.

After considering my choices, I decided on a spot on the west side that was away from the others who were already there. I setup my tent, making sure to point the doorway directly at Mt Whitney. Room with a view. 🙂

And like the prior close calls with storms earlier in the trek, the storm hit pretty soon after the tent was in place. Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. Still, it wasn’t quite as bone chilling as the storms I had endured at Wanda Lake.

It passed quickly, but I kept an eye out for a second wave as I had dinner. After the clouds started to clear up, I briefly thought about taking a dip in the lake to freshen up. The clouds moved back in shortly after and nixed that idea in the bud. But they did clear up enough so I could enjoy the beautiful sunset.

A pretty straight forward hike that day, but still long and a little scary being chased by a storm like that.

That storm made up my mind about trying to stay overnight at the summit during this trek: The weather had been way too chaotic and unpredictable to entertain the idea of that. At best I might end up using the bivvy sites, but even that wasn’t a great option when starting the climb from Guitar Lake.

Based on how I felt, a very pre-dawn start to my trek also didn’t seem to be in the cards for me. I’d target a mid-morning arrival at the summit, which would require a start around sunrise. So, I didn’t set my alarm to a ungodly hour and went to sleep under the stars.

1 day to Whitney!

11 miles hiked, 7:45 hours, 2,000 feet climbed
205 total miles hiked on the JMT

Highlights:
• Nice sunrise colors hiking across Bighorn Plateau
• First sighting of Mt Whitney!
• Big storm chased me to Guitar Lake
• Sunset at Guitar Lake
• Daily Goal Achieved!