Mt Whitney - May 6, 2008

We've been wanting to visit Mt Whitney for years. This is the highest mountain in continental USA. Striders had an expedition here a couple of years ago. However Ali and I were in England to visit Holly and attend Neil and Natalie's Wedding. So we didn't make that weekend.

The Badwater 130 mile endurance race from Death Valley to Whitney Portal finishes here. After running 120 miles through the furnace of Death Valley (daytime temperatures typically 125 - 130F in July), the race finishes with a brutal 4500 foot ascent over the last 10 miles or so from Lone Pine to the campgrounds at Whitney Portal. What an event. It's incredible what some folk can achieve.

We were going to walk on the mountain. However when we arrived at Whitney Portal we changed our mind. Nobody else appeared to be walking there. And it's early in the season. Hungry Bears are waking up and looking for food. We decided that it was unwise to walk there with so few folks around. So we had a chat to the owner of the shop and took some photos. We'll be back to climb this one day.

On the way back to Lone Pine, we visited 'Movie Road' - this is where they used to shoot low budget black and white movies about cowboys killing Indians and other random acts of violence. I used to watch all this stuff as a boy at the Viking Cinema in Largs. I had to say to Ali "Am I alive? Are we really here? I'm not dreaming, am I?".

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