Mt. Whitney, part 3

This is the post in which my mom finally gets to the top! After 2 nights on the trail of bumming food and water off other hikers and hiking in the dark, she made it to the top. She ran into some guy with a nice camera, made conversation with him, and got him to take photos of her at the summit. She then forwarded me the email he had sent her with her photos.

The photos were named ASIAN155-ASIAN165.

I have to say that I was super impressed at the fact that my mom managed to summit Mt. Whitney. She kept telling us stories about how people were trying to climb too quickly and ended up getting altitude sickness so she'd see them charging up, and then coming back down. Slow and steady wins the race, she said. Slow and steady... and not having the appropriate permits for a multi-night hike up Mt. Whitney, but pooh on the rules- as I would say!

So she summited, came back down and picked up my dad where he was further down the trail, and sent me these photos a few weeks later, after the random stranger who had taken them had uploaded them onto his computer.

The end. Now onto the next saga...

Mt. Whitney, part 2

I did get these two videos, which hinted that my mom was indeed still alive.

Speaking of water... my mom told me afterwards that she didn't have enough water for the hike. So she ended up taking water from some other hikers on the trail. Fortunately, the trail is very well traveled, so she was able to bum water off plenty of other people. (And also food, because she didn't bring enough food either...)

I was confused, because my parents had told me before they left on the hike that they had gone to Sport Chalet and spent several hundred dollars on hiking supplies- including a water purification system. Didn't she bring that along?

Yes, apparently she had. But she had neglected to bring an appropriate container to use the water purification system in. D'oh!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, Mommy. No matter how many times you get lost while skiing, we will always go pick you up.