Ran for my life out of the woods.

[Hooked on Fenix]

A long time ago when I was young I hiked to the top of Mt Whitney (14,505 feet tall) in California. It was a three day trip. The first day I and my friend Cathy drove from Alameda to Mt Whitney where we met up with friends and camped in the desert. Bright and early the following day we hiked up the mountain and set up basecamp and proceeded to summit the peak. All was well until that night. I got up in the middle of the night and noticed my friend had labored breathing, a high fever, and was gurgling. I remember reading about the warning signs of pulmonary edema when we were getting our permit at the Ranger station and the gurgling fit the profile. Our base camp was at 12,000 feet and I needed to get her below 10,000 feet or her lungs would continue to fill with fluid until she passed out and worse, died. We broke camp but by this time she was delirious. This was before I got into flashlights so all I had was a AA Maglight. I could not find the trail head, everything was covered in snow and ice. A mountain climber saw us and helped us hike down below 10,000 feet where we spent the night. I eventually got us down. I lived in Alameda at the time and Cathy resided in San Diego. She was a very fit woman and annually her and three friends did a relay swim from Catalina Island to LA. I got her on a flight back home and she called about a month later. She had contracted pneumonia and spent 1 week in intensive care. Running for your life or someone else's life sucks...

kelmo

I've been on Mt. Whitney several times though only managed to summit once as a solo overnight trip. You need to acclimatize. Camping in the desert beforehand was a mistake. Should have camped at Whitney Portal or Horseshoe Meadows (around 9,000+ feet) the first night. If you have time (and the permits) for multiple days on the trail, I'd suggest camping at Trail Camp the first night to acclimate further at 12,000 feet. Start your summit attempt the next morning and get up by or before lunch. Afternoon thunderstorms are common and will ruin your summit attempt. Leave your tent set up and most of your gear at Trail Camp and summit with just what you need (3+ liters of water, poncho, snacks, windbreaker, trekking poles, and Yaktrax or Microspikes, headlight, small oxygen bottle). Athletic friends tend to overdo it on Mt. Whitney making it easier to get altitude sickness. When I managed to summit, I had tendinitis in my knees and it slowed me down enough to where I was able to catch my breath the entire hike. If your heart is beating out of your chest or your brain is pulsing like your beating heart, take a break and decide if you can continue. Remember, it's better to not make it to the top than to not make it back.

 

[RedLED]

Mr. Woods Walker,

Since I never have camped out, except on the lounge poolside on hot mid-summer nights here in the desert, with our comfortable house just feet away, I would like to ask the following:

What would you have done, and had to do in order to survive in that storm, if for some reason you could not evacuate yourself out, and with the supplies, and gear you had with you - what would have been your plan of action?

Even though I don't, and never have camped out, I find that your stories are very interesting, enjoyable and entertaining to read.

looking forward to reading your ideas, and plans for remaining in that snowstorm if there were no other options, and you had to remain. Also, it could be useful information to others who camp, and to the less qualified, as well as, people new to camping in remote locations who could be in a bad situation such as that in the future.

Glad to hear you made You out in time. Even though I don't camp, I am not exempt from what bad weather can do.

As our main home is in one of the most hostile environments for heat in the world. All it takes is the power to go out, or our July 2017 failure of our air conditioning HVAC to go out, in less than 15 minutes it can be 90 degrees in the house, and rising quickly each minute thereafter. Two and a half days at a hotel and $20,000, for a new HVAC system later, we were back in business.

If you loose your A/C and your home warms up to the ambient temperature, like on that day it was, 110 F or close, it takes around 10 hours running the A/C non stop to cool the place back down once your A/C is working again, or the power comes back on. However, for us, it was as simple as loading up the cats, and checking in to a nice hotel, nothing like you were up against in the wilderness, that was very serious. But, if this valley ever had a major power outage on days like that in the Summer lasting a couple of days it would be a total disaster on a huge scale!

Thank you,

Best wishes,

RedLED