Mount Muir via the Mount Whitney Trail

awesome 14ner and very minimal effort required if your already doing whitney and extra 20 or 30 minutes should be good for a round trip up muir. the scramble was very easy, if you know the route. i brought climbing shoes since my boots have bad grip and they worked like a charm especially on the summit block but easily doable in boots as long as they arent trash like mine.

We started hiking at 2am and the smoke was atrocious. It was literally raining ash. The Mountaineers Route was a lot of fun, but there were definitely some spots with nasty scree that you couldn’t avoid. Couldn’t see much from the summit. Muir was lots of fun as well! The summit block took me a minute to work out, but I eventually got it.

Smoky due to fires but always worth it

EPIC!!

Amazing. The best trail I have ever hiked.

Brutal hike, the number of miles and altitude should not be taken as a measure of difficulty, the terrain makes a lot of difference. The last patch from trail crest to the summit is actually mountain climbing not a hike.

ok first thing first. it's not your leisure hike or trail. you need to come fully prepared for it. not just altitude sickness is real but also the hike after trail camp is just brutal. I saw so many people struggling there and so many returning from trail crest. They say from trail camp it is around 4.2 miles but not sure how is it measured because for sure it is more than 5 miles. My whole trip was 24 miles and I took no detour. and it took me 26 hours total with 16 hours moving time. surprised? keep reading to know more.  I am pretty fit and have climbed few mountains in the past, ran many marathons. I finished brutal hike with just 3.5 litre of water with IV in it and some smoothie, Clif bars, sandiwch so I was prepared and confident for myself but not what the unpredictability this climb had. we started at midnight at midnight in moonlight and initially it was fine but after few miles some of team members in my group started feeling lack of energy so we slowed down alot. as a person who got them into it, it was my responsibility to help them out. 5 out of 6 of us sumitted. But we took too long as it was mostly helpings other team members. Hope they think it was worth it. 97 switchbacks are crazy but last 2.5 miles to summit are not only bad but it is also dangerous. it's vary narrow trail with just rocks and cliff on one side. one misstep and u r gone. one guy behind fell on his front and started bleeding badly and we stopped for 45 minute to help him out. We tagged him along as he was on his own. Please don't go alone on this hike unless you are super prepared. We met a pro hiker women who cried the moment she saw us due to such a bad part in the end. She was devasted due to AMS and how bad the last part was. I helped and gave a person AMS medicines who was throwing up like anything.  When we started climbing down with one injured person, one of our person hit the fatigue and it was dark so we took our own time to come down. Climbing down in dark is also dangerous. I had to make sure that everyone reach down safely which we did at 2 AM. Ofcourse view and valley is great and beautiful but this hike is to test limit of your mind and body and not for leisure. Come prepared for unpredictability. 97 switchbacks are killer. If you are confident with your group timing then 3-4 AM is good time to start. Don't walk too fast and take ur time. Don't take rest for long. Keep walking slowly and you will make it. I am happy that we got to do the summit but wouldn't recommend unless you know what you are signing up for. 

Tough but rewarding.

Incredible!!! Not as difficult as you may think if you did it in two days.

Awesome! MT WHITNEY ROCKS!