I don't think the altitude will be an issue starting on the north end, since both passes are only about 10K.
Agree, but only because he says he has some altitude experience. There are plenty of newbies who find that 10,000 is plenty high and get Mountaineer's Foot (can't put one in front of the other)
PS: you might Google up some Dave Horton info. On his record-setting run of the PCT, he was averaging over 40 miles a day, but in a high snow year 2005 had slower pace than that going through the JMT sections/High Sierra. 2011 looks to have that factor, but your starting date should avoid most of that problem.
