September 22 to October 5, 2018

Death Valley and Mount Whitney, the lowest and highest spots in the continental US are surprising close, yet worlds apart. I would learn on this trek, they’re actually several worlds apart! No trail connects these places, but rather routes, some more frequently followed than others. This trek followed a unique route for the first time. After traversing Death Valley, our route went northwest, crossing three mountain ranges and other deserts before ascending the Sierra to summit Mount Whitney. This route demands (IMHO) a team to complete it. Unlike most backpacking trips where one can hike solo if one knows what they’re doing, this route requires water and supply caches (even when carrying a lot of water), excellent route selection, optimal pacing, and both knowledge of bailout options and periodic ground support. It’s more like an expedition. 

I was fortunate early in the year to connect with John Amorosano, one of the trip’s two guides, via the internet, where I first saw his many outstanding videos of treks in the Sierras, desert southwest and the L2H. He has partnered with Matt Pless, our trip’s second guide to set up L2H Adventures whose Facebook page led to our connecting and “meeting”. I’m grateful to have been invited along for their 2018 trek. Their commitment to supporting us in terms of extensive route preparation, thorough route knowledge, enormous time and effort in preparing caches,  literally securing the route in a slot canyon and regular historical antidotes from Matt, were all top notch. Their passion for sharing the route was infectious. And this passion was reflected by Mike Pless and their dad Travis, both of whom have done L2H, and took time away from their “regular lives”, to provide us ground support throughout the two weeks. The trip’s documentary film created by John will show and tell our story much better than this webpage, but if nothing else, this serves as a collection of a few of my many memories of the trek.

Besides our intrepid guides, I was joined by Steve Hansen, Urs Gruetter, and Brian Kroll; the four of us spanning early 30’s to early 60’s. And we were joined also by Hunter Cardin and Brayden Same, two teenagers led by Matt Pless who has a passion to take young men along as part of his related non-profit. We all first met the day before setting out, at the Las Vegas home of Matt and his wife Indy. We began to learn about each other, the plans for the trip, and did the requisite pre-trip pack shakedown to ensure we had what was needed, and no more. I was all set, and my pack weighed in at 50 pounds with 12 liters of water to start; a water capacity I had to carry a few more times over the course of the trek. By comparison, my max pack weight when carrying a week of food and 2 liters of water is about 35 pounds. At the urging of Matt and John, I’d trained with the heavier weight and met their mark of covering 8 miles in 2 hours with 50 pounds.

The route we took had not been done before from end-to-end. Though the L2H is not heavily trafficked due to a short weather window each year, sheer difficulty and logistical challenges, most who do the L2H follow a route that covers more road and climbs up the Sierra via Whitney Portal. Our route spent about ⅔ of the time off trail, and aptly climbed the eastern slope of the Sierra off trail. This also meant that daily mileage was less than what would typically be covered on a graded trail in normal temperatures.

L2H Adventures Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/L2HProject/

Photo Album:

https://phelps.smugmug.com/L2H-2018/n-B9ZxTS/

Photo Album from Urs Gruetter:

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/charly13/album/1202584