Alta Peak

I know this is going to sound like hyperbole, but Saturday's hike to Alta Peak in Sequoia National Park was the hardest I had ever undertaken. Of course, before B and I set out for it, I had dismissed it as just another hike up just another mountain. One might say I was in a state of denial - disregarding the facts in front of me, the physical realities described to me, and the warnings coming from various mental quarters in my head. Denial is a good way to get in a bad situation. Thankfully, I didn't have a famous Washington Post editor/reporter present to chronicle it all.

As most hiking guides describe it, the hike to Alta Peak is a 13.8-mile trek with an elevation gain of 4,000 feet. Well, that wasn't enough for us. Instead of driving to Wolverton, the described starting point, we started from our campsite in Lodgepole, which added 3.2 miles and 500 feet of elevation to our journey.

We started out around 7:30 in the morning from Lodgepole, which has an elevation of 6,700 feet. It was still chilly outside and the sun had barely risen. For the first four miles of the hike, we were in shade; the giant forest protected us from direct light.

The ascent along the trail to Wolverton was gentle and steady. At Wolverton, we picked up the Lakes Trail, a popular backpacking trail, that crossed a number of dry or trickling creeks and passed a few small, ragged meadows.

At the next trail junction, we turned right onto the Panther Gap Trail. (I keep calling it Jaguar Gap and I don't know why.) We soon reached Panther Gap, which offered the first real view of an amazing tree-covered canyon that stretched to the horizon.

We turned left along the Alta Trail and followed it along the canyon edge. The terrain became rockier and steeper. At the next junction, where the High Sierra Trail branched, we turned left and passed Mehrten Meadow.

We soon reached the final trail junction. The trail to the right led to Alta Meadow; the one to the left led up to Alta Peak. There were only two miles left, but about 2,000 feet left to climb. This is where my troubles began.

Up to that point, I had been keeping hydrated and feeling no ill effects from the elevation. We had been making good time. It was eleven o'clock and I was almost certain we could be at the top of Alta Peak by noon. But a half-mile past the Alta Meadow junction, I wasn't feeling so well. B got out ahead of me and he was soon out of sight.

Over the next series of switchbacks, various symptoms began to appear. Breathing became more difficult, my throat felt dry only moments after drinking water and my head began to throb to the beat of my heart. At one point, I just stopped and rested, hoping to recover a bit.

The further up I went, the slower my progress became. The distance I could cover without taking a break began to shorten. The trail finally entered an area where I could see the top of Alta Peak. I could also see B or a speck that I assumed was B. Judging from the steepness of the trail, I figured I had fallen at least twenty minutes behind him.

Thanks to the power of denial, the thought of giving up never crossed my mind. Turning back wasn't an option. It was just a matter of how long it was going to take to reach the summit. To fight the urge to keep stopping, I started bargaining with myself. "You can stop and drink some water after another hundred steps," I'd say. I would count a hundred steps, stop, drink water, wait for the throbbing to abate and then take another hundred steps.

After an eternity and a bit of boulder climbing, I was standing atop Alta Peak. The view was spectacular. To the south was the green canyon disappearing into mist. To the west, north and east, there seemed to be mountain ranges as far as the eye could see. To the east, where Mt. Whitney supposedly stood (though I couldn't see it), mountain peaks looked like ocean waves.

There wasn't a whole lot of room atop Alta Peak, which stands 11,204 feet above sea level. If you doubled the size of your office cubicle, tilted it at a fifteen-degree angle and imagined it a few thousand feet off the ground, you would have Alta Peak.

In a depression atop the peak, somebody had placed a metal box. I opened it to discover a lime green register and two or three pens. I made an entry in it to record I had been there. Of course, when I initially took the register from the box, the box tipped backwards and nearly went over the sheer side of the peak. That gave me a fright.

After about thirty minutes up there (or an hour in B's case), we began our descent. It was just after one in the afternoon. I took some Tylenol to help with the head throbbing and later used some moleskin on my left foot where I felt a blister coming on.

We returned essentially the way we came until we reached Panther Gap. From there, instead of returning down Panther Gap Trail, we continued along the Alta Trail and took the Long Meadow Trail back to Wolverton. The alternate path added at least a mile to our planned hike.

We got ourselves a bit turned around at Wolverton, but soon rediscovered the Lakes Trail and reached Lodgepole around 5:25 in the afternoon, which gave us twenty minutes to grab what we needed from camp and race over to the market center to take a hot shower before they closed for the day.

I will write about the lessons learned from this hike in another entry, but let me say that I would recommend this hike for experienced hikers, especially those who want to be equally challenged and rewarded and want to avoid the crowds. We saw a total of twelve people (and three dogs) the entire time we were out there.

More photos from the hike can be found on Flickr.