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Standing on Badwater, CA America’s lowest point. The drive through Death Valley was spectacular. 45MPH winds here, dramatic cloudy sky. Next stop Vegas

Blaine just had his biggest slip of the climb, in the icy trailhead parking lot. Made it back with a few blisters & lots of memories

We have a 6.5 mile 4,000′ drop descent, today but we both feel good & are ready for some civilities. Heading down soon, won’t blog much, serious stuff ahead.

We were only two on mountain yesterday, today we saw 15 going up. Many of them have turned around at the switchbacks. Most don’t have the proper equipment.

Enjoying perfect mountain morning as we reluctantly prepare to leave this wonderful place. It’s clear & cool, be a nice hike down.

Back at camp, cooking. Crampons all day, snow conditions varied from deep powder, to firm. Temp varied from sweat to freeze. There really are 99 switchbacks.

Missed our target of Sunset by 45 minutes. Long break at a very dark summit, the we descend back down by the light of our headlamps

I now stand with my new friend Blaine Yates on the 14,505′ summit of Mt Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states.

We wound our way through the ridge along some very dicey stuff with lots of exposure & little margin for error. Not blogging much, need to stay very focused

We just left Whitney Trail for the awesome 210 mile John Muir which I hope to hike end to end at some point. Read about the JMT here goo.gl/yBFrbK

Just crossed some steep exposed ice. Made it safely across. Hard work here, but all is well.

We are geared up and moving out now, headed for summit. It’s a cold clear beautiful day in the mountains. A good day to be alive.