Day 70 summiting Mount Whitney!

We woke up at 12:30 AM and prepared to hike to the top of Mount Whitney. We began hiking at 1 AM using headlamps to see.

I wasn’t able to do any videos or pictures until the sun came up around 430.

When I arrived to our camping area yesterday, I bumped into Mario and Drill Bit. They are pictured here with me as we stopped to appreciate the sunrise in the background. Ryan and I had hiked with them a little bit in our first two weeks before everybody started flipping all over the trail. Attempting to summit today are four different groups. We all ended up in one big line as we went up to mountain.

Magpie is another hiker in a group that I have hiked with a little. He was part of Tough's group. we met up with them yesterday as we were packing up our campsite.

On the upper portion of Trail we did have some dry stretches.

 As we continue up towards the summit, it is more and more breathtaking.

Much of the trail was covered in snow. At some points we went straight up, at other points we had to cross side slope.

We made it the summit of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the lower contiguous United States! As I record a video, I found myself somewhat emotional at both the accomplishment and the astonishing beauty that God has created on this planet.

As we descended some clouds rolled in to where the sunrise was previously photographed.

I continue to take pictures of the views on the way back down, now with different lighting. I noticed the cloud rising up from behind the rock pillar, it almost appears like a smokestack.

Down below us are snow melt rivers and lakes that are an incredible shade of blue.

With the sun up I can now get pictures of the slopes we ascended as we go down. Normally the trial moves back and fourth on switchbacks slowly climbing, but with all the snow, we went straight up and are coming straight down much of the mountainside.

With the better lighting I continue to photograph the beautiful landscape.

I captured a couple photos of these Yellow Bellied Marmots hanging out on this rock.

On the way down, we continued to pass snow melt lakes and streams along with continuing incredible views.

This video is a stitch of all the above videos for today.

Today’s miles 14.2, all non-PCT trail miles.

Total PCT trail miles remain at 766.3