Mt Whitney and Yosemite Valley, September 2005

by Christian Mason

This last trip out west made it harder than ever to come back. I didn't get what I wanted, but I did get something very fulfilling.

Whitney

I'll spare you the technical details, but Whitney got about two feet of snow a few days before we arrived. The descent gully was iced up and we hadn't come prepared for full on winter climbing. Mikey Brown and I thought maybe we could still make a go at it, and either rappel the route, or rappel around the iced section. We ran a recon up to the base of the route at 12,500 feet. I'd just flown into LA and drive to low camp (8K) yesterday. I popped an extra diamox and prepared to suffer.

Our plan was to go out and scout things out, then return to 8K, get our partners and get up at 12am the next day, do the approach again, climb and descend all in one day. It would hurt...so much that I wasn't sure I could do it..but I also knew that I would do it when I had no other choice. That's what I had come looking for - to suffer, to "bite off more than I can chew, so I get more than I need, or want" and strip away the unessential and leave me facing things bare. Rainier left me alternating between shaking sobs and elation for days.. but a peace settled over me from it, that's what I came to find.