Trail Camp on the way to Whitney

This was the scene up at Trail Camp on the way to Mount Whitney. It's from the 1995 trip.

I didn't bring a tent. Crazy. I wound up bunking with one of my friends in his Boy Scout pup tent, which flapped wildly in the wind at night. Never really slept.

Trail Camp was an abomination. People were everywhere. The tarns were terribly polluted. You can't imagine what I saw on huge mounds of ancient ice. It was like a sewer in one place. That was 13 years ago. I hear it's worse now.

I remember seeing a lone woman who was probably in her mid-50s. Tough lady. Camped and climbed by herself. I'm in my mid-50s now. I wouldn't think of doing that trip alone.