This past Sunday (7/8/12) I did a variation on Fiddler & Moynier's Whitney Basin Traverse in a single day. In the process I tagged 13 peaks. Basically I just wanted to see if I could do it. I had done Whitney loops in the past but this was the biggest.

Peaks/Features:

Carillon 13552,
Russell 14086,
Whitney 14494,
Keeler 14240+,
Crooks 14080+,
Muir 14015,
Discovery Pinnacle 13680,
Marsh 13550,
McAdie 13680+,
Mallory 13850,
LeConte 13960+,
Peak 3985m 13016,
Lone Pine Peak 12944.

It took 23 hrs and 15 mins.

I posted up a trip report: http://www.summitpost.org/whitney-basin ... day/800052

Log:

03:01a - Left car (approx)
03:05a - Portal TH
03:22a - North Fork trail junction
03:49a - E Ledges
04:11a - LBSL
05:58a - Topped out on the upper plateau
06:35a - Summit Carillon
07:27a - Russell East summit
07:36a - Russell West summit
08:21a - Snow patch between Whitney & Russell
10:00a - Summit Whitney
10:26a - Summit Keeler
10:42a - Summit Crooks Peak
11:19a - Summit Muir
11:36a - JMT junction
11:41a - Trail Crest
11:50a - Summit Discovery Pinnacle
12:50p - Summit Mount Marsh
02:08p - Crabtree Pass
03:24p - Summit McAdie
04:12p - Arc Pass
05:44p - Summit Mount Mallory
06:37p - Summit Mount LeConte
07:34p - Starting up ridge to Peak 3985m
08:32p - Summit Peak 3985m
09:10p - Off the ridge and onto the plateau
09:56p - Summit Lone Pine Peak
01:54a - Start of the Meysan Lakes trail
02:16a - Back to the car

-Rick

You seem to have recovered from your broken ankle

fedak wrote:You seem to have recovered from your broken ankle

+1

Wow, super impressive!

You forgot the Cleaver, Tunnabora, and Gamblers Special. Please include these on your next tour.

Yep. Now Tunnabora is a bit out of the way, but I did at least consider the Cleaver and Gamblers Special. I had pretty much convinced myself this would be the last time I'd ever do this ... but then again that's the same thing I did the very first time I ever dayhiked Mount Whitney. Dang, don't make me go back!

Rick Kent wrote: I had pretty much convinced myself this would be the last time I'd ever do this ... but then again that's the same thing I did the very first time I ever dayhiked Mount Whitney. Dang, don't make me go back!

Pussy.

Get it done now while you are young cus it really hurts to do stuff like this when you get to my age.

Not saying you can't do it then. I am saying that it is gonna really huuuuuuuuuuuurt!

Good job.


I think you need to come up a little north and do the Split to Agassiz Traverse in the same time frame. Under 24 hours. No hair...

Hey Rick,

Amazing work! I don't know how you can move that fast! You ever wear a heart-rate monitor? I'd be curious to see your average heart rate over a 24 hour period like that. On top of Whitney AFTER doing Carillon and Russel in under 7 hours.... Holy S**T!

Anyhow, I was reading over your report and was curious about the end on Lone Pine Peak where you got slightly off-route. Do you ever pre-load your "route" on your GPS so you could follow it in the dark? Don't know if your GPS allows that, but I've done it a couple of times on longer hikes where I know there's a chance I might have to end up hiking in the dark. I was thinking if you had that descent pre-loaded if could have saved you some frustration towards the end...

Glad to see everything worked out!

Gusto

Your endurance is hard to fathom. Just two questions:

1.) Your GPS track looks like you may have considered Mt. Irvine. Was this in the plan? (Answered in your trip report)

2.) How many tablespoons of water did you take on this one?

Congratulations,

John

P.S. - 3Deserts check this Socal loop he pulled off: http://www.summitpost.org/san-gorgonio-17-peaks/348156

Also an impressive Iron Mountain Baldy Traverse.

Gusto, I figured I knew the area well enough that I didn't need to load an older gps track or waypoints, but yes I'll load waypoints sometimes when I think I might need them. I've never worn a heart rate monitor.

Desert, I've been tagging Sierra Peaks every weekend for the last 3 months or so I'm in pretty good shape. And I've been tagging Sierra peaks for about the last 10 years. A lot of the peaks I've done lately have had some pretty hellish terrain too so I'm kinda used to it. Having prior knowledge of the terrain also helps save time.

John, I did start to go for Irvine, but when I estimated the time I thought it would take to tag it and get back to the Irvine/Mallory saddle I didn't feel that would leave enough time to get over peak 3985 before dark. As it turned out this was a very critical decision. If I'd gone for it I would have run out of light on 3985 well before clearing the difficult sections. So in all likelyhood I would have had to have spent the night up there and I would have failed. Seems like it's always the same old story. If I had just started an hour earlier ...

The last water I obtained for the day was at the small pond between Russell and Whitney. I filled up a liter and a half and also had an energy drink. The next water I came across was down at Grass Lake and silly me I forgot to grab any before heading down the Meysan trail.

3Deserts wrote: Just...how...?

Because: he's Rick Kent.

Great to see you back up to speed, Rickers. Congratulations.

MooseTracks wrote:Because: he's Rick Kent.

Only until he drives to the TH, finds a phone booth, and changes into his true identity ...