Cottonwood Pass to Mt. Whitney

We are Mike and Janelle (aka Team MJ) and this is our 5 day hiking trip summiting Mt. Whitney! We started Cottonwood Pass Trailhead 6-18, Summited Mt. Whitney 6-21, Exiting Mt Whitney Portal 6-22. What an amazing 5 day hike! We really enjoyed coming in from the back side of Mt. Whitney and would totally recommend it! We stayed at Cottonwood campground/horseshoe meadows on Thursday night to acclimate before starting our hike. A fire had started by lightening Thursday night and we didn’t know until Sat when found out by some PCT hikers. he PCT hikers wear little GPS satellites so they can get some messages. We stopped and talked to ranger at Crabtree ranger station. She said they had fire under control so we kept going. Unfortunately Monday night when we stayed at Outpost camp the wind came up and the fire got worse. We did make it out at Whitney portal but had to call the sheriff and they sent up the forest service to get us out since the road was closed. Crazy experience and we are lucky that we could get out since we brought food for only 5 days. What a hike to remember! (Night 1 Soldier Lake 10.05 miles, Night 2 Crabtree Ranger Station 21.02 miles, Night 3 top camp up by Whitney junction 26.38 miles, Night 4 Outpost camp 36.30 miles, Day 5 Exit Whitney Portal) Enjoy our adventure!
~ Team MJ (Mike and Janelle)