The five of us geared up for our annual Fourth of July backing trip knowing that it would be a difficult weekend. For the first time we would be going off trail for a section of our journey. We felt confident in Matt's leadership since he put in hours of preparation studying the route and getting advice from hikers who had gone before us. He had even printed out pictures of when we'd be off trail just to be reassured that we were going in the right direction. However, it goes to show that no matter how prepared you are, once on the mountain circumstances can change in an instant. Our thoughtfully planned adventure would turn into a precarious afternoon caught in a white out on the side of Discovery Pinnacle, off trail with no flat land in sight.

Laura, Gaven, Joe, Matt and I woke up on our second day of the hike ready to go over Crabtree Pass, be off trail to hike the dreaded sand hill to make it up and over Discovery Pinnacle. Then meet up again with the Whitney Trail to summit the beckoning Mount Whitney. The day looked long but not impossible. Our morning started off well enough with a few clouds in the sky but being the seasoned backpackers that we are, we knew it could start to rain at any moment and we'd have to take our rain gear out. We mentally began preparing ourselves to hike on slippery rocks in the rain.

We made it over Crabtree Pass! When we got to the top all I could hear was the sound of Matt and Joe laughing. As I approached them I realized they are laughing at how absurd our next climb would be. Matt studied the off trail route very thoroughly but the photos we saw did not due the mountain standing before us justice. We started making our way over and down towards the lake to get to the dreaded sand hill of Discovery Pinnacle when the rain began...

It was a light drizzle at first which we did not mind too much but the wind was relentless. I remember praying for the rain to stop, I was getting cold fast and moving up the mountain was not warming me up as much as I would have hoped. With thunder close by we tried to go quickly as we did not want to risk getting struck by lightening in the bowl we currently found ourselves in. Halfway up my prayer was answered, the rain did stop but we were now trudging along in a hail storm. Laura who was hiking in shorts came to a stop and sat down, she said ,"I have never felt this defeated I do not think I can move on". The hail storm had made Laura's muscles freeze up and left her legs numb. In hindsight she reflected that, "having grown up an hour from the Sierra Nevada and encountering countless surprises on backpacking trips I always imagined that in a tough situation I would find some inner strength to survive. But here I was, slumped over on the side of the mountain in a pair of running shorts". As much as I wanted to stay with her I couldn't, I knew if I stopped I would not want to move so I pressed on leaving her in the very capable hands of Gaven and Joe.

Before I started hiking again Search and Rescue was thrown out as a suggestion to get us out of the mess we were in but with no cell service, other hikers, trail or ranger station in sight we knew that was not an option. As I made my way up from where Laura was it began to snow, I don't think I made it more than 20ft when I too collapsed. I quickly took my pack off and found my emergency blanket to wrap around me. I started shaking uncontrollably and began to whimper as I realized I was "alone" on the mountain. I wasn't sure if Laura, Gav and Joe knew I had stopped and I did not know how high Matt was on the mountain. He had gone ahead to try and blaze a trail. After what felt like an eternity Matt appeared soaking wet without his pack trying to encourage me to keep going. I was so cold I was not able to move, Matt rummaged through my pack and found my down jacket that he proceeded to put on me. My hands were so numb I was not able to get this out myself after I had gotten the emergency blanket. Matt tried to warm me up but to no avail. I felt terrible because I knew the longer he stayed with me the colder he was getting. He too was hiking in shorts and had a bad rain jacket on that was not keeping his core dry. He lovingly let me know that he was going to go down and talk with the rest of our group and he would be right back. Alone again I began to sob and pray; it was not very long when Matt came back up and said Laura is ready to keep going, all you need to do is make it up this mountain, down 99 switchbacks and into trail camp. As soon as he finished I saw Laura (who had changed into pants), Gaven and Joe come out from behind their refuge from the snow and make their way up. Everyone was digging deep and I would not let them down.

Laura made her way a few feet past me, I was so proud of her and felt the adrenalin start to pump through my veins. That feeling was quickly smashed as Laura collapsed to the ground, "Guys what's our plan?" she said. There was no way that in this storm we were going to make our previously mentioned goal of trail camp. The new objective was to find the flattest piece of land on the side of the mountain. Matt like a superhero took my pack and ran ahead to try and find a place to set up camp. Quickly we heard his voice from above that he found "flat" land. One by one we began making our way up, I tied the four ends of my emergency blanket and clung tight to it as I crawled up. Matt had left the flat land to try and find his pack which was somewhere up the mountain. Joe was the first to reach the area and was quick to point out that it was not as flat as we would have hoped but with no other options and the wind and snow pummeling us the guys began to put up Laura & Gaven's 2 person plus tent. As we waited for the tent to be put up Laura and I huddled closely on a rock, the guys were doing great and really working as a team to build our shelter. We all grabbed water and food to take into the tent as well as some sleeping pads, sleeping bags and whatever dry clothes we had left.

I entered first and changed out of my wet pants as fast as I could, my amazing rain jacket had managed to keep my shirt and down jacket dry. Once dressed everyone started throwing their items into the tent and I scrambled to organize them. Laura came in next and changed out of her wet clothes, one by one we entered and threw our clothes out into the storm. No one really cared where it landed all we cared about was getting warm and dry. It was 6:15pm by the time we were all in the tent. Joe was suffering from altitude sickness and Matt who had kept it together to get us up the mountain safely was beginning to shake violently. We needed to get organized in the small space we had because we did not know how long the storm would last and the sun would be setting in a couple of hours. We had 3 sleeping pads, all of our sleeping bags, a couple of headlamps, the Heim's bear canister and a few liters of water. We began blowing up the pads and finding the best configuration for the most ground coverage. We packed in like sardines all laying on our sides to fit. The wind was relentless and kept blowing the rain fly off. Thankfully by 7pm the snow had stopped. We decided to all get back out and fix our collapsing tent and get the other 2 sleeping pads, the tent was to be our home until the morning. Joe suggested putting up another tent but there was no place to put it where we were and the two in the extra tent would be freezing without the added body heat; plus, none of us really wanted to be bothered with putting up another tent.

Needless to say we had a miserable night, our legs kept cramping since we couldn't stretch out, the tent would collapse since we were on a slope, there was condensation so those on the side would have water dripping on their faces, and it was cold. We mainly took naps during the night, I don't think any of us really slept.

We were all up at first sunlight, super cheerful as you may have noticed. We knew we'd have to find our clothes on the rocks outside and decided that we should lay them out for an hour to try and get them as dry as possible. The morning sun had melted most of the snow from the prior day's storm leaving a lot of our items soaked. But none the less the worst was over. We endured 12.5 hours in a tent together creating a bond that would last a lifetime.

The Heim's wonderful REI tent on the flat ground leaning downward.

While we waited for our clothes to dry we laid out in our sleeping bags allowing the sun to warm us up.  Even though everyone's clothes were still damp after an hour we decided to start moving, the clouds were beginning to roll in from a distance and we did not want a reprieve of last night.

The view as we left was breath taking. We definitely earned it!

Us back on the Whitney trail, I don't think you could have found 5 more excited people to see a trail. Hikers asked us about the storm as we went down, apparently it was a huge rainstorm at the lower elevation. We were all to happy to share our story and give some cautionary advice. We were fortunate that we had all the gear to get us through the night, had we been day hikers caught in that storm the outcome could have been very different. The experience was very humbling, we would have never expected to be in a whiteout snow storm on the 4th of July in the middle of a 3 year drought but there we were. We left the mountain more experienced as backpackers and even closer as friends. 

Till we meet again Sierras for this will not be the last time we seek adventure in your wilderness.