Mt. Whitney From Cottonwood Lakes

Yet another grand view of Guitar Lake below Mt. Young and the Great Western Divide.

On A Clear Day...

Mt. Whitney Trip from Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead. June 2000.

As the day progressed and the lighting changed it seemed I was returning by a different route. In full daylight features seemed to morph into something different and lose or change their texture and form. No longer shown in relief by early morning shadows, craggy cliffs rough features blend into surrounding rock, their details lost in distance and the human inability to see three dimensionally at distances over a few hundred yards.

The score of the trail over the rocky landscape can be seen here.

Sunglasses became a must as strong sunlight glares strongly off the white and tan rocks and soil. Wind turned the early morning mirrors of lakes into rippling pools of blue and occasionally cooled my progressively warming descent. All long the descent I admired the flowers that emerged after the sun had warmed things up a bit. The mountaineer favorite Sky Pilot was everywhere, a splash of color on the endless moonscape, companions to other low colorful mysterious flowers in sheltered places.

Just a typical section of trail.

A minor mystery to me is just how did people like the three fisherman (First Ascent of Whitney) and later parties with John Muir get to the top of Whitney form the West? Perhaps the answer lies in some forgotten text, but I suspect the answer was just above me as I snacked and chatted on my warm rock. I saw some easy talus leading to several rocky chutes or gullies, and I would bet money one of them would grant fairly easy Class 2 access to the top of the cliffs just above, and thereafter it would just be a slog to the top. I will have to research this.