As you drive south along 395 from the intersection where 120 comes down from Tuolomne Meadows to Lee Vining, you can just spot Mt. Ritter and Banner Peak through a gap, just before you get to the Shell station on the right. Mt. Ritter is about 200' taller than Banner, but hides behind his shorter brother from this angle.

As the proverbial crow flies, Glass Mountain is only 17 or 18 miles east-northeast from Mammoth Lakes. However, road access to the trailhead is two or three times that long, as you wander around the north end of Lake Crowley and then up highway 120 for a short distance to the Forest Service roads which lead to Sawmill Meadows. The trailhead is off the last stub of a road to the right just before you get to the Sawmill Meadows campground, and the first time you drive there, you'll almost certainly have to drive a quarter-mile past and backtrack to find the right road. A copy of the 1:100,000 "Benton Range" 30x60-minute topo map will come in very handy to follow the roads to the trailhead, and then the 1:25,000 7.5-minute "Glass Mountain" quad will show you the details once you get there.

The trail is not maintained, but there is a clear use trail to follow once the jeep trail peters out. Since we got a late start, we opted out of climbing all the way to the summit and scrambled up the pumice and obsidian to the top of a subsidiary peak from which we could see the summit of Glass Mountain.

Looking east from the trail up Glass Mountain, you can see across to Boundary Peak and Mount Montgomery. They are both part of the same ridge complex, with Montgomery being the taller by a couple of hundred feet. The California / Nevada state line runs through the saddle between the two, leaving Boundary Peak the highest point in the state of Nevada. The west face is obviously quite steep and intimidating. The usual approaches are either up a long scree climb(?slog?) on the east side of the ridge or from the northeast by following the ridgeline from the saddle just below Kennedy Point and contouring around the several bumps on the ridge between there and Boundary Peak.

From our vantage point atop a hummock not far below the summit, we could watch other hikers make their way up the final slope to the summit of Glass Mountain. Running short on both time and energy, we wimped out and called this "good enough" for our warmup hike.

I suppose someday I'll have to become more of a botanist. I have no idea what these flowers are, but considering they grow in a mixture of pumice and obsidian, they must certainly have impressive root systems to survive in an area where any rain that falls drains quickly away.

Hiking up the main Mt. Whitney trail, you can see the Alabama Hills and the Owens Valley as you look over your shoulder.

The skies may have been clear out over the valley, but as is evident from the shadows on the surrounding slopes, we were headed into worsening weather as we walked west toward Mt. Whitney.

Sunrise was not particularly promising, with clouds already gathering. Fortunately, the weather ahead of us over the Whitney ridge looked a bit better.

From just above Trail Camp, the ridge is spectacularly jagged, with the Needles to the south (left) of Mt. Whitney. Whitney iteslf is the prominent hump in the right quarter of the shot above, with a gradual slope up from the left and a sheer drop on its right before the jagged ridge continues farther north.

The hikers visible in the lower left corner of the frame are about to reach the infamous "98 Switchbacks" section of the trail, where you climb from just over 12,000' to 13,700' via a brutal set of switchbacks. Whether the number 98 is correct will be left as an exercise in concentration for other climbers.

The cables protect the one rather exposed stretch of the 98 switchbacks. It is a spot where acrophobes get their first real scare of the hike, but is nothing in comparison to the exposure at the "windows" beyond Trail Crest, nor from the edge of the summit plateau, where 2,500' of air greets anyone willing to "hang 10" over the boulders at the edge.

As you continue up the switchbacks, the view of the east face of Mt. Whitney appears to the north. When you realize that it represents 2,000' of nearly-vertical rock, you gain an appreciation for the assessment that was made early on that it would never be climbed. Fortunately, the western side is not nearly as steep and presents a more reasonable approach.

The view west from Trail Crest is impressive, with much of the Sierra spread out in front of you. Interestingly, the weather which would threaten us shortly wasn't blowing in from the west, but more from the south, as became apparent as we approached the summit.

Turning 180 degrees and looking back east down the valley, you can see all the way back to Lone Pine, although the Whitney Portal area is hidden behind the break between the relatively shallow slopes above Outpost Camp and the steep switchback area between there and Whitney Portal.

As you continue up the switchbacks, the view of the east face of Mt. Whitney appears to the north. When you realize that it represents 2,000' of nearly-vertical rock, you gain an appreciation for the assessment that was made early on that it would never be climbed. Fortunately, the western side is not nearly as steep and presents a more reasonable approach.

The sign at Trail Crest marks a good spot to stop for a few minutes and catch whatever oxygen is available at 13,677'. Our acclimation hike up Glass Mountain and the two nights spent at Mammoth Lakes, plus our night at 12,000' at Trail Camp had prepared us fairly well, but we were both a bit winded by the time we finished the switchbacks.

The summit hut begins to be visible about halfway between Trail Crest and the summit, although it disappears again for a time as you get onto the final gradual slope up to the summit. The summit log is at the back (west) side of the hut. Despite its lightning rods and ground wires, it is not the place to be during an electrical storm.

Will the real Mt. Whitney summit please stand up? The topo map says 14,494'. This sign says 14,496.811'. The information at the Whitney Portal Store (and their shirts) say 14,497.61'. Either Mt. Whitney is growing, or there is a consistent upward bias in more recent triangulation of the altitude of California's highest point.

With our heads very nearly (literally) in the clouds, we stood atop the highest point in the lower 48 states. A new personal high for both of us, if we believe either of the two higher measurements of the exact altitude, our heads have now been above 14,500'. At least to become 48-state completers, everything is downhill from here!

With the weather rapidly worsening, we beat a hasty retreat back to Trail Camp. The afternoon's rain, hail and lightning blew over for long enough to cook dinner and batten things down for the night. This spot was typical of the Trail Camp tent sites, with a rock wall providing some shelter from the wind and a layer of sand and gravel hiding the worst of the underlying rocks. Don't count on getting more than a couple of tent stakes firmly set, though -- there weren't more than a few inches of sand on top of those rocks, so the tent was held in place by rocks piled on top of the stakes, instead.