Mt Whitney - August 10-12, 2019

[lizolas]

Mt Whitney

August 10-12, 2019

Shadow - Whitney Mountaineer’s Route 3-Day with Neil
Clients: 2 perfectly agreeable guys and the most unagreeable woman I’ve ever been on a trip with.
Summitted with 2 clients; one stayed around camp

Received angry letter indicating I should be reprimanded for having intermittent friendly conversations with Neil, although in her opinion “literally 99% of the time” I was talking to Neil, and he and I were pointedly excluding everyone else from conversation - nevermind that when we did have climbing-related conversations, we answered numerous questions from the 3 clients. Additionally, 99% of the time we were hiking I was in the back with the guy who could barely even walk on a trail while she and the other guy were with Neil.

The Mountaineery part of the Mountaineer’s Route

I did feel that if it had been me leading, I would have been a little more friendly if for no reason other than to get better tips at the end. I think part of guiding is acknowledging that not everyone is at the same stage you’re at, and if a client is scared - even if it’s on “just...walk” territory, coaching and encouraging would do more than ignoring their distress and hoping they learn. That said, I really don’t blame Neil at all for how done with her he was. She was irritating at best and infuriating at worst. Some of her complaints were totally unreasonable or indicated a lack of understanding about how things worked. For instance, there really is no way to help people across certain stream crossings that actually makes it safer for them. She claimed that the food was terrible, and on every other trip she’d paid a lot for, she’d “been served gourmet food.” I don’t know if she noticed, but it was just Neil guiding. There was no porter who hauled a kitchen tent up to make pancakes at 1 am before everyone else got up. Oatmeal is a perfectly reasonable breakfast for what we were doing. She also complained that when she tried to demand that the slow group member be forced to stay back and not be allowed to ruin her summit attempt, stating, “I paid $900 for this trip!” I replied “Well, he did, too.” It was possibly not the most polite thing to say, but I was stunned at the audacity she had, assuming she was guaranteed a summit because of the price she paid.

On the summit I think we could have been more cheerful about taking photos with them. I sort of regret following Neil’s lead in being extremely reticent to pose for pictures with the Clients, if mostly for the other guy’s sake. On the way down, I tried to be as helpful as possible, although it was pretty tiring to be working with someone who apparently had no mental capacity for processing how to climb without having someone tell her, for every single move, where to put each limb. That might be partly the fault of the website description though. In fact, one of the other clients wrote a feedback letter stating that he could not recommend this trip to his friends, due to the fact that the SWS website description is so misleading. That I do agree with. The website makes it sound like easy terrain for “beginner to intermediate hikers,” and if someone had just read the website description and not looked into the route further, I think it would be quite an unpleasant surprise to learn how much 3rd class is involved.

Mt Whitney summit hut

Lessons Learned:

• Sometimes clients might be more sensitive than I expect to things they perceive as rude. I don’t believe I was actually being rude in having some personal conversations with Neil, but maybe that’s something to actively avoid doing at all in the future with a more fussy client
• Patiently meeting people where they are is probably a big part of guiding. I think the woman especially would have been much happier if someone had put on a bit of a show of coddling her even though she was being ridiculous, and the two guys might also have benefitted from some extra encouragement
• I still suck at descending snow in approach shoes, and I do not want to guide this route in the winter
• Carry a sewing kit just in case someone is a mess and rips their pants into oblivion like 2 miles into the hike