My Journey to Freedom and Ultralight Backpacking by Carol Wellman Page A
Authors: Carol Wellman
Tags: sport
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including shredded coconut, freeze dried strawberries, corn and peas. Included, but not limited to, may be Captain Crunch, Kandy Korn, peanuts, bacon crackers, and corn nuts. It is not a matter of imagination. It is a matter of not enough zip locks. Well, that and convenience. At snack time, one just hauls out The Bag and munches. If holes develop, as in even the best of Bags, a duct tape patch is used. If the zip refuses to lock, a hiker may chose to double bag. Crumbs are not thrown away, but eaten, regardless of salt or sugar concentration. A note of caution however, eating from zip lock bags containing food of such origin is like playing Russian roulette with your stomach.
From Kennedy Meadows to Crab Tree Meadows it is 63 trail miles. There, many PCT hikers camp, hike 7.5 miles on a side trail to summit Mt. Whitney the next day and return to camp that night. There are bear boxes (metal food storage lockers), which are fully utilized. Hikers stash anything they don't need for their hikes to Mt. Whitney, with an elevation of 14,492 feet, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. At a campsite so remote from roads, there was no fear of theft. Only long distance hikers use such a place and the honesty among our peers was a given. Someone was more likely to leave something behind than to steal anything.
On June 10 th , I cooked breakfast, and was on the trail at 7 a.m. with Ben. It was quite overcast, with a line of blue to the west. We planned to summit, if at all possible. Mt. Whitney is the southern terminus of the John Muir Trail. The Pacific Crest Trail joins the JMT for nearly 170 miles, then they split at Tuolumne Meadows. Without a summit of Whitney, there would be no point in finishing the JMT in Yosemite Valley. We stripped our packs down to essentials, placing gear and extra food in the bear box. My external frame, now equipped with just one stuff sack, carried clothes, snacks, one full water bottle, ice ax and rain gear. It weighed about 5 pounds total and felt like nothing. This was my first taste of a seriously ultralight pack weight.
There was ice on the log when we forded Rock Creek. An hour later, we came to Guitar Lake. The dark clouds moving eastward gave us hope the weather would clear. Snowfields began to appear. Key rocks used for climbing were covered with thick ice. “Just follow the footsteps, don’t worry about the trail,” Ben called back to me as I approached a set of 3 switchbacks. He waited at the top of that section, and cautioned me not to touch the icy rocks. On hands and knees, I pulled myself up and over the snow bank. We gained 4,500 ft. of elevation in 7.5 miles. It was mentally exhausting watching for ice, snow and loose tread with every footstep so near the edge and just inches away from eternity.
Since it was Sunday, many day hikers appeared on the Whitney Portal Trail, which joined ours just 1.7 miles from the summit. Some carried crampons, ice axes and packs. They seemed winded, theirs being a longer and steeper trail. Near the summit, ice mounds taller than me covered the trail, requiring axing-in and pulling myself over and onto a narrow ledge. Picking our way to the top, much of the trail obscured with snow or boulders, we gained the summit at 12:15 and stayed until 2:00 p.m. Going down was easier because the snow became soft and mushy. There was dangerous post holing, where one breaks though the snow crust and becomes lodged up to the groin. Climbing out of such a hole, hopefully on solid snow near by, took extra time. I learned to watch for the bluish tint just beneath the snow's surface that warned of such danger.
Near Guitar Lake there was so much snowmelt that I lost the trail and bushwhacked straight down, seeing the PCT/JMT winding around the lake below. Ben had gone ahead and I took a little extra time.
I had just a few problems with the altitude. During the night, I would fall asleep just fine, then I’d wake feeling breathless. Once
From Kennedy Meadows to Crab Tree Meadows it is 63 trail miles. There, many PCT hikers camp, hike 7.5 miles on a side trail to summit Mt. Whitney the next day and return to camp that night. There are bear boxes (metal food storage lockers), which are fully utilized. Hikers stash anything they don't need for their hikes to Mt. Whitney, with an elevation of 14,492 feet, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. At a campsite so remote from roads, there was no fear of theft. Only long distance hikers use such a place and the honesty among our peers was a given. Someone was more likely to leave something behind than to steal anything.
On June 10 th , I cooked breakfast, and was on the trail at 7 a.m. with Ben. It was quite overcast, with a line of blue to the west. We planned to summit, if at all possible. Mt. Whitney is the southern terminus of the John Muir Trail. The Pacific Crest Trail joins the JMT for nearly 170 miles, then they split at Tuolumne Meadows. Without a summit of Whitney, there would be no point in finishing the JMT in Yosemite Valley. We stripped our packs down to essentials, placing gear and extra food in the bear box. My external frame, now equipped with just one stuff sack, carried clothes, snacks, one full water bottle, ice ax and rain gear. It weighed about 5 pounds total and felt like nothing. This was my first taste of a seriously ultralight pack weight.
There was ice on the log when we forded Rock Creek. An hour later, we came to Guitar Lake. The dark clouds moving eastward gave us hope the weather would clear. Snowfields began to appear. Key rocks used for climbing were covered with thick ice. “Just follow the footsteps, don’t worry about the trail,” Ben called back to me as I approached a set of 3 switchbacks. He waited at the top of that section, and cautioned me not to touch the icy rocks. On hands and knees, I pulled myself up and over the snow bank. We gained 4,500 ft. of elevation in 7.5 miles. It was mentally exhausting watching for ice, snow and loose tread with every footstep so near the edge and just inches away from eternity.
Since it was Sunday, many day hikers appeared on the Whitney Portal Trail, which joined ours just 1.7 miles from the summit. Some carried crampons, ice axes and packs. They seemed winded, theirs being a longer and steeper trail. Near the summit, ice mounds taller than me covered the trail, requiring axing-in and pulling myself over and onto a narrow ledge. Picking our way to the top, much of the trail obscured with snow or boulders, we gained the summit at 12:15 and stayed until 2:00 p.m. Going down was easier because the snow became soft and mushy. There was dangerous post holing, where one breaks though the snow crust and becomes lodged up to the groin. Climbing out of such a hole, hopefully on solid snow near by, took extra time. I learned to watch for the bluish tint just beneath the snow's surface that warned of such danger.
Near Guitar Lake there was so much snowmelt that I lost the trail and bushwhacked straight down, seeing the PCT/JMT winding around the lake below. Ben had gone ahead and I took a little extra time.
I had just a few problems with the altitude. During the night, I would fall asleep just fine, then I’d wake feeling breathless. Once
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