https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAPhxH5t_MA/?igsh=NHNuN3B4YXBxcHBn

Fishing shirt? On a mountain?

Nice job. With the weather that blew in, what, about a week ago - ice warnings and delayed park opening - I'm surprised you got a nice day to summit.

People hike it all the time in the dark. If you camp at pine springs, you can watch them climbing up before dawn or down after dark, as you can see their head lamps zig zagging down the blackness of the mountain side. They go up to catch the sunrise or stay for sunset at the peak. It helps if you've hiked it before in daylight I suppose.

I've caught some weird weather in the park, including one hike where it was 34F and sleeting and freezing mist when I left the pine springs campground and when I broke through the cloud layer at about 7800 feet on my way to the peak it was sunny and in the mid to upper 50's at altitude. The first park of the hike I had ice formed on my hair. Near the top of the mountain I had to stop to remove most of my clothing including my long underwear layer because I was sweating myself out.

On the way back down I had to layer up again as below the clouds the temp stayed on the low 30's with ice on everything.

I've also been caught by a lightning storm coming down from the peak, and by a freak "blizzard" while camped that the campground overnight with high winds and 2" of snow.

11-9-24. Beautiful day; windy and a bit chilly on the summit. My fourth trip to the top (first in 1986), my daughter's first. Took us a total of 10 hours (including time on the summit) because the old man is slooooow.

And some McKittrick Canyon on what I understand was the last weekend (11-10-24) before the leaves surrendered to the chilly winds.