Category: White Mountain

On our last day at White Mountain, we visited the Patriarch Grove, which hold the oldest trees on Earth. It was beautiful, and in the quiet morning, seemed very sacred, holy grounds. The trees were twisted around and the great great grandfather trees were the base of the new trees, forming a very weird visual landscape against the background of the White Mountains.

An excerpt from Gorp.com

Of the many scenic wonders found within the Inyo National Forest, one of the most amazing is the ANCIENT BRISTLECONE PINE FOREST, located between 10,000 and 11,000 ft. in the White Mountains, east of the Sierra Nevada. These trees (Pinus longaeva) are the oldest known living trees on earth. Here in the White Mountains, the ancient trees have survived more than 40 centuries, exceeding the age of the oldest Giant Sequoia by 1,500 yrs.

Each Bristlecone pine, from young seedling to ancient relic, has an individual character. Young trees are densely clad with glistening needle-covered branches that sway like foxtails in the wind. With their bristled cones dripping pine scented resin on a warm afternoon, they exude all the freshness of youth. As centuries pass and the trees are battered by the elements, they become sculpted into astonishingly beautiful shapes and forms. These”old age” gnarled Bristlecones command complete attention, for there is a definite emotional impact upon meeting a 4,000 year-old tree. The aged trees tenacity to maintain life is impressive. While most of its wood is dead, growth barely continues through a thin ribbon of bark. When all life finally ceases, the snags stand like elegant ghosts for a thousand years or more. They continue to be polished by wind driven ice and sand. The dense wood is slowly eroding away rather than decaying.

Thin clear air and crisp ultraviolet light drench the high altitude arid slopes where the Bristlecone Pine makes its home. At this high elevation, one has the impression of a lunar landscape. The trees manage to survive in the poorly nourished, alkaline soil with a minimum of moisture and a forty-five day growing season. In fact, the trees longevity is linked to these inhospitable conditions. The trees grow very slowly, adding as little as an inch in girth in a hundred years.

Those that grow the slowest produce dense, highly resinous wood that is resistant to rot and disease, are more likely to join the Fraternity of the 4,000 year old Ancients. Not all Bristlecones attain great age. Trees anchored to more moist slopes grow fat and tall, produce less dense wood, and succumb at an earlier age. Long life is then granted to trees that are able to cling to life under situations of severe duress.

If you want to learn more about the ecology of these beautiful trees, visit:

http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/intro.html

V

The aforementioned video. About 35 degree water, the result of snow-melt. For about 5 minutes my head wasn’t pounding. It was exhilarating! Daniel said… “There better not be any sharks!”.

Enjoy!

V

This morning David came in and woke us up at 8 or so. Breakfast was on and so we made our way down slowly.

Scott made us a delicious Caramel Sourdough Baguette French Toast, with FLAT bacon (amazing), roasted fresh peaches and some eggs. I swear, this guy’s a genius. While eating breakfast David and Zach suggest we jump into the pond. About 150m from the lab is a small-ish pond that is made up of pure snow-runoff from the mountain above. We decline, but more on this later.

We’ve found out that everything is more of an effort at altitude. Feeling extremely tired from just eating breakfast, we veg on the couch watching the Tour de France, until we doze off. At 12:30 I wake up and decide a shower is in order…Well, after some rousing with Daniel and Johnny we decide to check out this pond.

It’s further than we expected, but it’s pretty big, and deep. Anyone who knows me…. what did I do? Strip down to the skivvys and peer pressure Daniel into going in with me. Video Clip coming soon….. Luckily we were able to peer pressure Johnny into going in also. It was… say… a crystallizing experience. Dipping my finger into the water was a terrible idea, it was instantly numb. We hesitated for 5 minutes, making jokes, and then we just did it! I stepped in knee deep and then dove face first into the middle of the water, where it was deepest. My breath was instantly taken away, and replaced by cramping muscles and super-panic-survival mode. I saw Daniel in the corner of my eye and just terrified girl-screams coming from both of us, and Johnny rolling around laughing. We swam like we were being chased by sharks and found our towels. It was an amazing experience, and for 5 minutes I had forgotten about my AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) misery,

We ran back to the lab and made some gigantic sandwiches. I snagged the last cheesy-bagel (sorry Johnny) and we dug around the fridge for more snacks. We sat around chatting with Scott, who was warmed up in his puffy coat, and laughing at us for jumping into the pond, and even more so that we peer-pressured Johnny into following suit. It turns out that the pond is the excess from the well that supplies the drinking water from the lab. Oops! I think it gets filtered on down the line anyways.

What kind of science blog would this be without science content? After a real shower (which was amazing), Johnny sat us down and took some measurements of our breathing. The protocol was 15 minutes of quiet breathing of room air, at 12,500 ft, and then 15 minutes of sea level air at 0 ft, about 21% O2. It was a wonderful break from the headache, and it was amazing to experience how quickly the headache and AMS symptoms subsided. Daniel felt the same way. Pulse ox shot back up to 97, 98% about normal, but my HR never dropped below 100bpm. Interesting…

After another post-meal nap, we embarked on a short hike. There was no way we were going to try and summit the peak of White Mtn at 14,257ft, since none of us were acclimatized yet (except for Johnny who had been popping Excedrin Migranes all day, lucky bastard).

The amazing thing is that there is still snow, despite it being July 4th, and it being 65F out. I had no idea how I was going to react, seeing as my SpO2% was still in the low 70’s. The terrain around here is very rocky, with spotted grass vegetation, but no trees as we are well above the tree line. The hike itself was a bit challenging especially with the added insult of altitude. I soon realized that no matter how slow or fast I went, I was breathing the same, and my heart rate was about 160bpm.

We went up the longer less-steep route to get around this mini peak that afforded great views of the Owens Valley and of Barcroft Lab, as well as the rest of the Sierra Nevadas, and eventually we were able to get an amazing view of the Summit of White Mountain.

The snow was still melting, and we could hear and feel the streams of really fresh, pure water flowing below our feet, and it made for a very serene experience. There wasn’t much wind, and as you can see the weather was perfect.

The peak of White Mountain is really a staggering sight. At 14,257 it is the second highest peak in California. Admittedly it is the easiest “fourteener” as it is a 4 hour approach, but there is also an access road up to there because the Summit Lab has lots of equipment up there.

Anyways, evening festivities will be posted in the next entry! Hope you guys are enjoying these pictures and following along in my endeavors!

Vince

But last night, I got really sick. I’m sure the beer I had with dinner didn’t help much. My headache turned into a full on migraine, with extreme pressure behind my eyes, causing them to be bloodshot red.

Daniel offered me some Fruit Snacks, and for some reason we all agreed it might help with the pain. I ate 3 of them… loudly exclaimed UH-OH, and ran for the bathroom. Except I didn’t run, I stumbled, and fell, and Johnny ended up carrying me to the bathroom where I projectile vomited dinner.

Sue had recommended I drink some coffee – I asked David first if it might interfere with the measurements. I was pretty desperate at this point because I couldn’t take any medication to help the pain. I made myself a cup of coffee and sat in the kitchen in the dark as David searched for Tylenol. Time: 3:15am. Finally he found the only 2 tylenols on the mountain and I put my head down on the kitchen counter. 10 minutes late I had an extreme urge to pee… which turned out to be the 3rd theme of the night behind headache and insomnia. I finally went upstairs with an extra cup of green tea and laid down for 10 more min before having to go again. It was a rough night.

Waking up this morning felt ok, but as you can see in the pic below… not much better. Long day ahead of us!