Bivy on summit?

On the very first time that I did Whitney, I was leaving the summit and starting down around 4 p.m. There was a Sequoia National Park ranger coming up the trail who stopped me to check my permit. He said that he was headed up to the summit to chase off anybody who looked like they intended to stay on the summit overnight. There have been too many people killed from lightning up there.

–B.G.–

"a summit is not really a place a climber wants to spend the night unless he has to. descents are often tricky, so escape from bad weather can be an issue."

+1 big time!! OTOH, there are summits and, then, there are SUMMITS…..

Sleep your own sleep but remember, bivvying is optional, waking up is mandatory. Usually.

I would not even consider trying to spend a night on the Whitney summit, due to the risk of lightning. I know that it does not have much lightning during the night, but I like to avoid becoming a crispy critter statistic.

Now, if I went down 500' or 1000' vertically, there would not be so much risk. I could still dash back up to the summit if I needed to make a special photograph. That's a pretty bad pile of boulders up there, and there is a vicious marmot snarling from behind each rock.

–B.G.–