Last night was pretty cold even though the wind died down. The morning seemed a bit milder but I still decided to get a late start where I did not get out of my quilt till 0530.
Generally the hiking was pretty easy during the day and we made good time to Rock Creek Camp where we stopped for a morning break with water.
Before the camp we had to cross Rock Creek which was made easy by a nice wide log crossing the creek.
Before lunch we crossed Whitney Creek and stopped on the other side for lunch. Sensei dropped his phone in the creek while crossing and we spent some time looking for it. Sadly we did not find it.
After lunch we made our way to the days destination which is Guitar Lake from where we will start our summit of Mt Whitney. We plan to start at 0100 so we will start getting ready at 0000. I expect a very cold ascent so I will be wearing most of my clothes. We hope to make it to the summit in time to catch the sunrise.
After we arrived at Guitar Lake we spoke with another hiker who had heard that the accent was very difficult and that a couple had spent 11 hours. I cannot believe the we will spend that long to do the ascent. Regardless I am very excited to do the ascent tonight and believe we will do fine although I am sure it will be very cold.
Overall it feels like the terrain is getting more rugged and snow patches are more frequent. I like the more rugged terrain so I am happy.