Too high, Too far, Too fast

TOP: View downvalley towards Mineral King

MIDDLE: Franklin Lake from south (lower) flank

BOTTOM: Franklin Lake from Franklin Pass

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We started off from Mineral King midday, hours later than planned, with packs way heavier than hoped for. But, we had pepperoni and cheese!

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The hike up to Franklin Lake was not difficult technically, but the altitude, lateness of the start (read: heat, even at this altitude), pack weight, and lack of vertical acclimation combined to kick our butts. We got up to stark but beautiful Franklin lake (~ 10,500 ft) just before nightfall. We were tuckered out, bob had a significant migrane underway (maybe altitude induced), and we still had to make camp and eat. Also, I think we were all very dehydrated courtesy of the heat and altitude. We setup tents, and bob immediately crashed out for the evening. Tony and I made some dinner, and then likewise totally crashed out.

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Nighttime at this altitude in this mountain crevice was unexpectantly tough. It got down into the low 30's (or maybe high 20's). Our water bottles froze up solid in our tents, and it was a very restless night. On top of that, was concern about all the fresh bear scat we had seen on the hike up, and the imposing clouds. Not one of the best nights I've ever had out in the wilderness.

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We awoke the next morning frozen and stiff, still dehydrated, and low on energy. We just could not get over how much the first day had totalled us. Some other hikers had setup a camp nearby, and we chatted with them for a bit. Turns out that our mileage workup was off, and that the 4 miles we had planned on was actually 6 miles. This is not a good thing, as our workplan for the trip was tough as it was, and if we were off mileage, then we were not going to make it.

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We ate breakfast, packed up, and headed up the long, sweeping switchbacks towards Franklin Pass. This was another 2,000 feet of vertical, and we had it calculated at ~ 2 miles. After several hours of hiking through excruciating pea gravel terrain, we finally summited, and ran into some experienced local hikers. They informed us that it was ~ 3.5 miles we had just climbed, and that the 7 miles of downhill that we had planned for the rest of the day was really more like 10 miles. And, there was little chance that we would get there before nightfall; not the news you want to hear when you're totally demoralized already.

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We had a good lunch and discussed out options. Given that the routing was so far off (a long story, but it is what it is), we decided that we could not take a chance trying to get to our planned evening stopover. And, that was the only water source for the rest of the day, so we had to make it there or have water risk. We also reviewed the remainder of the Whitney assault plan; given the new, accurate distances, we no longer felt that we could make the mountain, summit, and return in the remaining 6 days that we had available. We discussed just doing some day hikes from Franklin Lake, but, frankly, we just didn't have the heart anymore.

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The one thing that did interest us however was margaritas. So, we packed back to Franklin Lake for another cold evening, a massive buffet breakfast to reload our energy (and take down some pack weight) and then back to Mineral King the next day. Along the way we saw even more piles of fresh bear scat, and came upon a herd of mule deer who were not the least bit spooked by us. We were able to walk up to within 10 yards of the deer, and probably could have even petted them if we want to (bad form to touch wild animals, so we deferred). We made it down the hill, did yet another long, brutal drive down to visalia, and spent the rest of the evening with burritos and margaritas. Ah, life is good.

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Although we're relatively experienced hikers, for whatever reason this trip we did mostly everything wrong. Maybe it was because we were cocky after last year's adventure; maybe because it was at the end of a great season of outdoors adventures. In any case, much like "you don't beat the river", "you don't beat the mountain". For posterity, some things we did wrong:

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- too much vertical too fast (100 feet to 8,000 feet driving in 4 hours, then hiking another 2,500 feet over the next 4 hours, then another 2,000 feet 8 hours later)

- no acclimation days. Flatlanders can't go to 12k+ feet at full speed. And if your try, a diamox the first day or two probably wouldn't be a bad idea.

- too much packweight. We wanted to go in under 50lbs, but probably went in closer to 70lbs

- too complicated a menu. Need to be able to make most everything with just water added, and just a jetboil stove to minimize weight

- Have to find a way to reduce cycle time for dining and cleanup. One person has to go fill water containers immediately upon arrival...time consuming, and it holds up meals waiting on water. Plus, want to accelerate drinking to minimize dehydration.

- we used a 4-5 litre water platypus instead of small bags for our water pumps. Worked great, and I'd definitely take a couple in the future. Much less effort, easier to carry.

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"You don't beat the mountain" Lumpy out