Did you know that a new case of kidney cancer is diagnosed every ~1.5 minutes somewhere in the world?  That means in the time it takes you to look through this web page and read about our climb of Mt. Whitney, and read Lyle’s story, another persons life will forever be changed by the diagnosis of kidney cancer.  To put that in perspective, if we gathered together all these people diagnosed during the entire year, we would have a city of Kidney Cancer Patients the size of New Orleans!  And that number keeps going up!  So we can’t waste another minute (because that is another life affected by Kidney Cancer). We decided to attempt to climb the highest peak in the continental United States, Mt. Whitney at 14,500 during the spring of 2016.

Abundant snowfall this year made for beautiful pictures, but also made the climb more interesting.  We chose to ascend the Mountaineer’s route, which requires a mix of technical rock and snow climbing and to help get ready for the visit to the Alps summer 2016.  This climb we dedicate to Lyle who has been dealing with metastatic kidney cancer for the past 12 years. You are and inspiration and give us hope that even those with advanced kidney cancer can keep on living!  Make a difference and donate today.

Staring up from the valley nearly 11,000 feet below the highest point in the lower 48 states, it almost seems impossible that anyone could ever stand atop that imposing mountain, let alone us!

We started off all smiles, not exactly sure how hard this was going to be

The weather was fine and we could see our goal in the distance

After hours of hiking and lugging up our packs with all our gear, we arrived at Upper Boy Scout Lake

We pitched our tent and had a spectacular view of the stars in an open cathedral of soaring granite and ice, with a view of Lone Pine far away in the valley below

We rose at 4:15 am and started hiking by 5:00 am. The early morning sun bathed the east facing mountain creating a glowing effect called Alpenglow. It also created a stillness and long shadows that felt lonely

We felt small and insignificant as we marched towards the upper portion of the mountain

With the summit in full view, we traversed the slope up and into the basin were Iceberg lake rests

The granite was so light the sky almost looks black in the early morning. We point to our goal, now almost within reach

We start up the infamous couloir. This interminable run of snow rises for nearly 1700 feet

At first we were upright

Then we had to use all fours!

Towards the end as exhaustion from the sheer physical effort, the altitude and the fitful sleep, we ended up in this position every 15-20 steps

We made it to the notch and got a burst of energy when we could finally see the summit above the last 400 feet

Once on top, the view was spectacular! It was hard to believe we were in Lone Pine, just over 24 hours ago

We pulled out the Climb 4 Kidney Cancer shirt on the summit to celebrate with Lyle, 12 years fighting Kidney Cancer, Way to go Lyle!