Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
vites marauding animals to chew through your pack. While it's just shy of 2 miles to
the top, with only about 1,000 feet of climbing at a moderate to gentle grade, the thin
air makes the journey quite taxing. Be sure to bring food, water, and extra layers.
And, of course, your camera!
Begin walking the rocky ridgeline, enjoying westward views to Mounts Hale
and Young and beyond, and the pointed spire of Mount Muir to the east. Look for the
unnamed lake in Bighorn Plateau that you passed nearly 12 miles ago. Rocky spires
and narrow ledges provide endless photo opportunities. The climb can be a bit
vertigo-inducing for some, so take it easy and admire the jagged landscape of stony
outcroppings, narrow windows with views to Owens Valley, and asymmetrical rocks
balanced in a seemingly precarious fashion on impossible ledges.
Round the corner around Keeler Needle, and begin the final ascent to the top of
Mount Whitney (14,497 feet). Approaching the summit's broad plateau, it can be
easy to lose the trail among the rocks. Watch for cairns until the tin-roofed shelter at
the top comes into view. The shelter is a welcome spot during high winds, but do not
seek protection here during a storm, as the tin roof is a lightning conductor. Hikers
have died here in the past.
For JMT thru-hikers, this marks the completion of their task, as oddly enough
the top of Whitney also marks the official end of the John Muir Trail. Even purists,
however, manage to descend the trail eventually.
The mountain was christened Whitney in 1864 to honor Josiah Whitney, one of
the chief surveyors of California and the author of a travel guide to Yosemite pub-
lished in 1869. Whitney was a known advocate for creating a national park to protect
Yosemite. Ironically, Whitney and John Muir engaged in a public battle as to the
evolutionary origins of Yosemite Valley. Whitney scoffed at Muir's theory of glacial
activity and derided Muir for being an uneducated sheepherder. Ironic, considering
scientific data now supports Muir's hypothesis. And more ironic still that the
bookend to the trail honoring John Muir is named after one of his rivals.
Either way, there's a palpable sense of victorious accomplishment in the air
from all who reach the summit. There's a book to sign, housed in a steel box outside
the shelter, that reveals the international flavor of all those who climb to Whitney's
top. There is also a USGS survey marker to the east of the shelter among the big
boulder rocks.
Flanked by neighboring 14,000 footers, Mounts Muir and Russell, Mount Whit-
ney is a benign ruler towering above the Owens Valley. To the east, enjoy views of
the Inyo Mountains and the Alabama Hills. To the south, Mount Hitchcock and
Mount Langley greet the eye. To the west, admire the Sawtooth Peak, Kaweah
Peaks, and the Great Western Divide. To the north lie Junction Peak, Mount Tyndall,
