Angels cry, kittens are brought back to life, and Elvis reveals himself alive events happen as often as when a human does such stupendous achievement… a solo, unaided, unsupported, self-contained 146 miles crossing of Death Valley from Badwater Basin (the lowest elevation in the US at 282 ft below sea level) and to the summit of Mt. Whitney (the highest elevation in the contiguous US at 14, 494 feet). There are 135 miles of paved roads through the desert and mountain passes, with additional 11 miles of trails to the summit. But Dr. Lisa Bliss effort is in its own league, first female athlete and second athlete ever. Again, it was solo, unaided and self-contained effort – carrying all supplies, including water and food, accepting no outside help or gear of any kind and without any refueling along the way. So 95 pound Lisa Bliss had to push and pull 250 pound cart loaded with frozen water, food and clothes. Marshall Ulrich made first similar successful crossing in 1999.
Of course, there is an official Badwater Ultramarathon race on the 135 miles of the paved route. But those athletes “only” run the murderous race… 
Since we are on Badwater topic, this year we are very proud of Brittany Climowitz, one of the TriLifers from Coach Dennis Ball Trail Racing Team, with 45:31:11 finishing time in her first Badwater attempt! (Smiling Brittany is on the left.)
Now back to Dr. Lisa Bliss – here is a fresh summary from her right after the successful crossing:
Let’s see… how can I keep this brief and just give a quick summary. How about: That. Was. Hard. And it was.
A few additional facts:
- I started at 6:19 am Monday, July 25.
- No crew, totally unaided.
- Witnessed by the SPOT tracker and many others. Will detail later.
- Not sure if part of the official rules because I never asked Marshall (Ed.: Ulrich, the first athlete to survive self-supported Badwater) specifically, but I made it a rule to accept no advice about anything either.
- My official elapsed time from Badwater to the summit of Mt. Whitney was 89 hours, 48 mins, 38 secs.
-Traffic was a bit scary. Tim and Willy worked nearly non-stop to make sure cars were alerted that I was on the road.
– People are allowed to summit with me, but everything I needed for the summit had to be carried from the start. Nothing accepted. I summited with Tim, Willy, and Danny Westergaard (who also helped with traffic on the portal road – many, many hours).
- The cart weighed about 240 pounds, 180 pounds of that was frozen water (brought to start line by Jeff Sauter, who also helped with traffic for the first two days through the climb to Father Crowley)
- My biggest challenge by far was Towne Pass, the 18 mile climb starting at about mile 42. It took Marshall 16 hours to make this climb. It took me almost 21. It was incredibly difficult and yes, I thought many times that I couldn’t do it. I broke down mentally at the last stretch. I could see the top but I couldn’t pull up that grade with the fierce head wind. I had to cut “switchbacks” on the road in order to do it. I thought of Carl L’s message during Vol State about runners moving at 3 hours per mile. That was me. I thought it would never end. But baby steps, while painfully slow, still got me to where I needed to go…eventually.
- In retrospect, I should have dropped the cart in Lone Pine (there is a choice of LP or at the Portal Trail) because the Portal road climb was nearly as bad a Towne Pass. The cart was still heavy.
- I started the 11-mile summit at about 11:30 am. At about 3/4 the way up, Tim and I went ahead and Willy and Danny moved a little slower. It was bitterly cold. I was prepared for anything, carried all emergency and all weather supplies from Badwater, but it was still very cold and windy. I fought hypothermia the last few miles. Tim and I hit the summit around midnight. (Details later.) I was done. We took a couple of pictures with our frozen hands and the cigar had to wait until morning. I signed the book and then went straight into the survival hut to get out of the wind. Two hours later, Danny and Willy joined us. We spent the night in there and when I turned the SPOT device over to stop the blinking, it lost the GPS signal.
-We put on every piece of clothing we had (at this point, I was done and could accept help) and we slept. Well, sort of. At least we were out of the wind.
-We were up at 5 am, and we started our descent around 7:10 am. The weather got progressively worse over the next few hours and most of the descent was made in rain, hail, thunder and lightening, complete with seeing 2 rocky avalanches.
-We were soaked to the bone back at the portal but that didn’t stop me from getting a cheeseburger at the Portal Store, and yes, I was stuffing my face when Marcia came over to the car to congratulate me!
-The first day was “cool” and overcast. I was lucky.
-I slept about 1/2 hour the first night, a total of about 1-1/2 hours the second, and none the third.
-I had enough water, even dumped about 2.5 gallons.
-I had enough food, about 20,000 calories.
-I started with wrist tendinitis (from training with the cart) but that seemed to resolve by the last day. I had trouble with anterior tibialis and achilles tendinitis but it was manageable. I had some pretty bad plantar fasciitis too, and thank goodness I was able to manage it. That is painful. These were new problems for me, certainly due to pulling the cart. I am surprised I had no back pain whatsoever.
-Denise pre-taped the balls of my feet and I had only one small blister that was easily treated.
-This was a record for me for the most days without a shower.
-It was an adventure of a lifetime!
-I will never do it again. 
I hope I have time to write a report. I really want to.
Lisa Bliss
