If you are reading this article, and have not read parts 1, 2, and 3, please read those first, and then come back. Enjoy!
We finally made it to a spot where the side had a slight railing for us to hold onto, and our panic settled down a bit. We were just about at the bottom of that massive fall and felt as if we were safe now. We finally made it to the bottom, passed by some boulders, and continued along the trail, making it to a small lake with a small campground nearby. After the experience we just had, with the sky only turning darker above, we had to make a decision if we wanted to stay at the campground where the winds were still scarily strong or if we wanted to go down to a camp further along, much deeper in the valley. We decided, since we had come so far already, why not just get out completely? So, we continued on. However, one of us started to experience extreme elevation sickness, though all we could do was help her get through this insane day. It was now pretty much dark, so we quickly stopped to get off our headlamps, and from a distance away, we heard a cry for help…
We eventually got to this man who was crying out for help. Let’s call him Marty. Marty was not the brightest fellow. He attempted to go up and down Whitney in one day, starting from Whitney Portal. The main problems he had were that he had far too few layers, brought little water, had no sense of direction, did not bring a tent or sleeping bag, and was completely disoriented, no idea where he was or where he was going. He was trying to get to the Whitney portal because he was worried about the fact that his car rental would go over. The one major problem we had now was that he was so very, very slow. The only choice we had was to take this guy along. Otherwise, he would’ve died from the lack of equipment and preparation he had. It was dark, cold, and windy, and now we had this guy along for the ride as well.
By the time we even made it to the camp, it was already midnight. We decided to stay at this camp instead of going down to Whitney Portal and leaving, as we still had four miles to go and a couple thousand feet of elevation to descend. Marty, on the other hand, was keen on getting down the mountain as soon as possible. We told him that his wife would much rather have him alive than have his car rental be paid off on time. He decided to go anyway, so my dad told him where to go. It was now a straightforward path, and we wished him the best of luck.
We started setting up our tents, and you can imagine our deep, deep shock when 5 minutes later he came back, claiming that he couldn’t find the path. The Pipkins family had two tents so they fit three people in one, and Marty in the other. We thought that we had finally had enough of the day, yet there was one more surprise. Before being able to put our stuff down in our tent, the wind was so strong that it ripped the stakes out of the ground, and watched our tent go flying. Luckily there was a tree in the way, so we were able to retrieve our tent. We then spent the next 30 minutes finding massive rocks around the campsite to hold our stakes in the ground. Finally, we got ourselves to bed…
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