# @workingholidaystudio on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C74r-PrOEek
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/59944485-workingholidaystudio-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/3abe50663b.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-06-06T19:24:17.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** CARLOS NAUDE (@workingholidaystudio) — https://gondola.cc/workingholidaystudio

## Caption

Climbing the highest mountain in the US (excl Alaska) — I first learned about Mt. Whitney while driving through Lone Pine on our way to camp in Yosemite. I was like, "Holy shit, this mountain is epic, and it’s just a couple of hours from our house. How come I don’t hear more people talk about it?" I then learned it was the highest mountain in the contiguous US, standing at 14,505 feet. My buddies evanhayes and michaelwashh mentioned that they had climbed it and how amazing the experience was.

Lately, I’ve been into motivational stuff about the benefits of doing hard things in life yada yada... Since I turned 40 this year, I decided to go full midlife crisis and go on more adventures. I emailed my closest friends about climbing Mt. Whitney, but the response was underwhelming, to say the least. Climbing a mountain is a tall ask (see what I did there?) 🤡. carythestrange was the only one who said yes, but that doesn’t count because he says yes to everything (just kidding, Cary, I love you—thank you for joining; it meant a lot to me) 💗.

By then, I realized there were two main routes to climb Mt. Whitney: the trail and the mountaineers' route (first climbed by John Muir in 1873). I didn’t do much research on purpose to not spoil the adventure, but the mountaineers' route sounded more exciting. I found a guided trip through sws_guides and we booked it.

HOLLY HELL. That was nuts—way harder and more dangerous than I ever expected, but an amazing experience. Core memory downloaded. I'm glad we did it, but I don’t think we’ll be doing it again 😂.

SIDE NOTE
When we arrived at camp the first night, we saw a backpack sitting there by itself. The guide explained that it belonged to a climber who had died the previous week on the same route we were about to climb! He had recovered the gear and was planning on bringing it down. ☠️😳.

It didn’t dawn on us how different the trail and the mountaineers' route were until we came down and most people we ran into kept saying, "Oh wow—badass," each time we mentioned we did that route.

#bucketlist #thingstodonce.
#workingholiday #mountaineering #adventure #thislifemustbelived

## Stats

- **Views:** 1,260
- **Likes:** 138
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- **Comments:** 19

## Tags

bucketlist, thislifemustbelived, thingstodonce, adventure, workingholiday, mountaineering

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