I guess I was around 22 when a friend of mine and I were setting around one night with nothing to do and one of us came up with the idea to go climb Mt. Whitney. Hey it was only a 5 hour drive to get there and I was tired of backpacking in the desert.

I spent three years just a little south of Mt. Whitney when my dad was stationed at China Lake Naval Weapons Test Center. During that time we made many trips to the portal on Mt. Whitney, a campground with a small lake full of Rainbow trout. I never did catch a fish in that lake, however I did spend lots of time wondering what it would be like to stand on the top and look out over the Owens Valley.

So over the next few weeks we planned our trip and purchased the cold weather gear we would need. This was going to be a new adventure for me as I had never backpacked in the mountains before. We finally had assembled everything we needed so we loaded up my van and hit the road.

We got to the ranger station at the base of Mt. Whitney about one in the morning and it was 35 degrees so we just unrolled our sleeping bags in the back of the van and called it a night. The next morning bright and early we went over to the ranger station to check in and get our permit. Yep that’s right you have to have a permit to climb the mountain. Anyway when we got there we found out all the permits for that week were already issued and no one else was allowed to camp on the mountain. You could day hike if you wanted, but the likely hood of hiking to the top of a fourteen thousand foot mountain and back without spending the night somewhere along the trail was not an option. One option that we decided to take was to go to the top of the mountain next to Mt. Whitney. While it wasn’t quite as tall we figured it was better than nothing. We secured our permit, purchased a few topo maps and headed back to the van.

We found a suitable place to park the van, loaded up and headed out across the desert. This was high desert and where we started from was about 3,500 feet in elevation according to the map. After walking an hour or so we came across the “jeep” trail we saw on the map that went up the valley between the mountains. We planned on following this till it ended and then from there looking at the landscape and the map to chart a course from there.

As we studied the map to find the best route we noticed the symbol for a building at about the 9,000 foot level. We decided we would head toward that and with any luck would be there in time for dinner and we would spend the night there as well. As the day went on and we steadily increased our altitude it was becoming cloudier and starting to mist. As we looked up the mountain you could see clouds starting to cover the tops. Later in the afternoon we arrived at the building which turned out to be a very well built stone cabin with very battered roof. It appeared to be used by climbers as a bivouac point when they were up here climbing. It had a sort of kitchen cabinet by one of the windows that we used to fix our dinner on. It was an incredible view looking out that window and one I would love to have all the time.

We ate our dinner as we enjoyed the view and then did some exploring around the area. As it started to get dark we tried to pick what looked like the best part of the roof to sleep under just in case it rained. The next morning we got up and it was freezing so we made some hot chocolate, ate breakfast, and discussed the our plan of attack.

The clouds that had been moving in the day before hadn’t gone anywhere, in fact they had gotten thicker and a little lower. With the cloud cover being thicker and lower, the temperatures dropping and the fact that we had grown up and done all our hiking and camping as "desert rats" and had no high altitude experience we decided to abandon the climb and return to the van. Although it was not what we wanted to do we both had enough wilderness experience to know it was the right thing to do.

OK, let's get the show on the road.

The mountain next to Mt. Whitney.

A waterfall on one of the many creeks along the way.

This is the valley we were hiking up, you can see the clouds somming in.

Our first view of the cabin.

My friend cooking dinner at the "kitchen sink.

The view from the kitchen window.

The area around the cabin.

The clouds moving in.