First, let me thank the hiking commnity. Y'all are aweseome.
To answer the question about my first two experiences,
Trip 1: Day 1: sea level to Outpost--made camp at 3 pm or so, and slept there. No AMS symptoms.
Day 2: Outpost to Trail Crest--made camp at noon or so and slept overnight. If I had any symptoms, they weren't acute enough for me to recognize them.
Day 3: rose at 3 am or so to begin summit. Started pounding headache at Trail Crest. No appetite, but ate anyway to refuel at regular intervals along the trip. Foolishly pushed on and made it to the summit. Within minutes of arriving, vomited everything I had eaten since childbirth and feebly made it down the mountain. At around 10,500 feet, felt like superman after kryptonite was removed. I bounded down the mountain. No diamox on this trip.
Trip 2: Started Diamox 1 day before the trip. 125 MG (I'm fuzzy on the frequency, but it was either twice or three times per day). No side effects (still wondering if maybe I got a panacea). Day 1: The plan was Sea Level to Trail Camp, hike to 13000, and come back down and sleep at Trail Crest and summit the next day. I was hoping that the Diamox would help more than it did. In actuality, we went from sea level to 12000, just shy of Trail Camp. At about 11,000 feet, I started really slowing down significantly and began to be easily confused, once losing the very easy to find trail. After resting for a while and feeling like I could make it to Trail Camp, we trudged on to 12,000 feet, just shy of Trail Camp when when I vomited everything I had eaten since my last great purge on the Summit two years earlier. It was then that I noticed that I had double vision. (The brain does funny things when when swelling.)
We quickly descended the mountain. My vision and apetite were in perfect tact when we got down to Lone Pine.
I did Summit Baldy the week before with no problem, but didn't stay up there long. I really like the suggestion of trying to camp on Baldy for the two weekends before. My threshhold seems to be 10,000 feet or so. On the day or two before the summit, finding a place to hike a little above 10K and then the second day a little above 12K and then sleeping at 12K might do the trick.
