Atop the Lower 48: Mt. Whitney's East Buttress

The wait is finally over! After being shut down on Mt. Whitney during an attempt on the Mountaineer's Route that was thwarted by a fierce wind storm in January 2011, I vowed that I would come back to the mountain better trained and better prepared to take on the highest peak in the Lower 48. This time, I was teamed up with a backcountry veteran partner, Ryan, of Desk-to-Dirtbag fame (check out his site: www.desktodirtbag.com).

We decided to take on the classic East Buttress with the direct variation start, an alpine classic that dates back to the late 1930s when climber Glenn Dawson, who also put up the alpine classic East Face route nearby on Whitney, led 5 climbers up what seemed an impossible buttress system adjacent to the Mountaineer's Route gully. This route turned out to be an alpine classic: sustained, steep, and well-positioned. The line follows what seems to be strategic weaknesses in the otherwise imposing East Buttress. 

The route is committing, first requiring an overland trek up 5000' to high camp at Iceberg Lake before beginning the route proper, which is about 1200' of exposed technical climbing.Even coming from sea level to 14.5k feet in 2 days, I handled the altitude fairly well, keeping dinners down and functioning competently in the technical environment as we climbed up to and past the 14000' mark. An exhausting push put us on the summit on Sunday afternoon, as we joyously took in the view and ran into a National Park Service ranger who offered each of us a can of surplus beer from his backpack!

Ultimately, the success of this trip was one that came directly out of the humbling experiences of failure. Climbing and alpinism are sports in which there are no shortcuts to a successful summits; you must put in the time and be willing to fail repeatedly before you have the privilege to stand atop any summit. I suppose that Whitney had decided I needed plenty of time to practice and ponder before I could stand atop her lofty summit. 2.5 years of waiting were finally laid to rest only after countless other small trips to improve not just my technical proficiency, but to improve my reverence for the difficulties of high alpine mountains. 

Thank you, Mt. Whitney, for granting me safe passage.