White Mountain, 14,276'

The rising sun was glistening through the frosty rearwindow asa I got up. It was cold, and Sadie had snuggled as closely to me as she could during the night. I had slept through, only noticing chilly feet when I got up. Mary was already walking around taking pictures, and I managed to capture the setting full moon over the Sierras.

I put Sadie in my white down jacket from last year's Mt Whitney summit. She seemed to appreciate the added warmth. Mary told me yesterday's stubbed toe still hurt enough for her not to want to summit with me. I ate a near-frozen banana. Sadie and I took off by ourselves at 6:11am. I had no idea if or how long it would take us for the hike. Mary said not to worry, she would enjoy the solitude reading.

We made it to the University of California-Barcroft science station at 7:09am, a small research facility composed of two sections, a higher and a lower station. Once we made it to the higher station 30 minutes later, we could see White Mountain, a copper-brown summit of multiple hues protruding from the rest of the ranger; it was no question where White Mountain was.

But there wasn't much "white." All the water on the trail was below Barcroft Station. Sadie didn't seem to mind, and I didn't see her drink from the ice-covered water. She seemed more interested in the marmots that popped up everywhere, chirping to their colonies to warn them of this weird-looking, down-jacket wearing animal.

The winds were icy but the sun was warm. I was in my fleece jacket and in the same pants from yesterday. My coolmax cap was all I had on my head, but my hands were covered in gloves.

We had to descend twice before actually reaching the base of the mountain. One man, Dave, who had started his hike at 1am to see the sunrise, was coming down at 8am. An hour later I met another woman, also solo, who watched us catch up to her up the switchbacks before she decided her pace wasn't fast enough to make a timely summit and then turned around. These two people were the only ones I met on the ascent, as the trail continued switching up the mountain.

Sadie spotted three bighorn sheep near the summit. I was too slow at getting my camera out. How can these animals survive at this elevation? No harder than the kestrels, ravens, ants, beetles and alpine flowers I encountered.

The views from all directions were spectacular. Green crop circles were to the east and west of me as I ascended. Mountains were in all directions, but the Sierras dominated the western horizon. What awaited me at the summit kept me going, and Sadie showed no elevation sickness whatsoever.

In fact, she beat me to the top by a few minutes! She made it to the weather station at 10:31am and I followed almost two minutes later. It was windy there, and an American flag blew in the gusts. I awarded Sadie with her beloved "Happy Hips" chicken jerkey as I sucked on some cold gummi bears. I drank some water not out of any thirst, but because I knew I had to.