By Sam Mauhay-Moore
SFGate
INYO COUNTY, Calif — Inyo County’s Search and Rescue team has once again taken to social media to scold a set of hikers who needed assistance after being unable to summit Mount Whitney on Saturday.
The two hikers began their trek on Friday evening with the intent to summit the mountain on Saturday, Inyo SAR posted on Facebook. Equipped with “150lbs of newly-purchased gear plus 5 gallons of water,” the pair made it 2.7 miles before stopping to camp on the trail at about 3 a.m. “They were exhausted, and one subject had two blisters and a bad headache,” Inyo SAR wrote. They later woke up to snowfall, with their shoes full of snow.
The “exhausted and ill-prepared” hikers then called the search and rescue team for assistance, Inyo SAR wrote. One hiker reportedly told responders that she has “a mass in her brain that is sensitive to barometric pressure.”
Rescue teams mobilized at 10 a.m. Saturday and reached the hikers at 1:40 p.m. Once the pair’s shoes had dried and they had rested in the sun, they were able to begin their hike back to the trailhead, accompanied by first responders and another hiker who helped carry some of their gear. The group reached the trailhead by 3:15 p.m.
Inyo SAR listed several things that went amiss before and during the incident, the first being the hikers “attempting Mt. Whitney without prior experience, proper preparation, or essential items such as a map, weather forecast, and bear canister.” Weather forecasts for that weekend predicted up to two feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada, and the U.S. Forest Service warns that fall conditions on the Mount Whitney trail often include hazardous pockets of snow and ice that require hiking with gear like crampons and ice picks. The Forest Service also recommends hikers train extensively before attempting to summit Whitney, as the 22-mile round trip hike is notoriously gnarly and includes over 6,000 feet of elevation gain.
The hikers also traveled with excess water weight instead of relying on filtered water from streams and rivers, and declined offers of help from other hikers, Inyo SAR wrote. However, the team did commend the hikers for not splitting up, stopping when they got too tired, bringing a two-way communication device and hiking down to the trailhead with rescuers after resting.
Hiking or climbing Mount Whitney involves a host of challenges, especially when snow or ice are present. Three people died on trails near the mountain last May, and Inyo SAR was called in to rescue multiple rock climbers who became stranded on the mountain in September.
“Summiting Mt. Whitney is a serious undertaking that requires research, training, proper gear, and experience,” Inyo SAR wrote. “Hikers must have the humility and self-awareness to turn around when weather, personal fitness, or other factors make summiting unwise.”
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