(Originally posted in Current Conditions thread, but better on its own.)

My sons are 17 (he'll be going off to college in September) and 14 (he'll be starting high school in August). The younger one got altitude sickness about 1/2 mile from the summit last time (in October) and the rest of the boy scouts (3 older teens and 2 Dads) left us behind to fend for ourselves.

My son had been complaining about not having any feeling in his fingers and toes plus he kept saying that he just wanted to go to sleep. The others were determined to make the summit so the went ahead and my son and I tried to follow but he started to not walk in a straight line and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. The others had taken the emergency radio and my blackberry had no reception so I didn't know if I should force him to go to the summit and then I could summon a helicopter to pick him up, or if I should turn back. When his eyes rolled back, I made the decision to go back...and as you know, it is not all downhill at that point. I held on to the back of his jacket and carried both sets of hiking poles and both backpacks. I'm only 5'5" and my son was almost 6' tall, lean and muscular but still weighing more then me. He slipped twice but both times I held on since I was not going to let him fall off the cliff. It had started to snow and there was lots of packed snow so it was slippery. Obviously, we made it down but the "windows" part I was really scared since my son kept telling me that he couldn't do it...but I forced him to walk in front of me while I held on to him for dear life. I have never forgiven the boy scouts and "men" for leaving me on the side of a 3 foot ledge with a 13 year old who was obviously in bad shape.

With all this said, my older son who is an Eagle Scout, is coming with us this time. Last time he had some exams in school that he couldn't miss or else, had he been there, he would have made sure that everyone stayed together (and he would have never left me and his younger brother on a 3 foot ledge while it was snowing, with an icy trail and an obviously sick hiker). Therefore, this trip is to make up for not reaching the summit the last time and we are NEVER going with the boy scout troop again. And this time we are going to do it in a day. I know we are strong enough but we will take it a little slower on the switchbacks....my son ran up like a jackrabbit and I think that contributed to his subsequent illness.

Very long story to give you some idea of my motivation/experience.....

I thought 1:00 AM would be good since we probably won't sleep all that much the night before. We were all going to take a light sleeping pill around 6 or 7 PM so that we could get up and feel refreshed. If you think 1 is too early, what would you suggest? I want to make sure that we make it up and down in one day and I would like to get back while it is still daylight. Maybe if we get up at 2:30 and start hiking around 3 AM that might be better. I just want enough time to get this done. Last time we carried 30 - 40 lb back packs since we stayed at Trail Camp. This time we only need very light day packs so our time should be much better if we keep a slow and steady pace.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

Last edited by Steve C; 06/25/11 12:55 PM. Reason: topic change