Hi,
I am planning on hiking up Mount Whitney via Mount Whitney Trail in end of May with one of my friends. We are both first-time Mount Whitney hiker (though we have both been to Half Dome in Yosemite) and we are planning on completing the 22-mile (15 hours) hike in one day. We plan on starting at Whitney Portal trailhead at 2am, summit at 10am, and be back at the trailhead at 5pm. Would someone please help me with the following questions?
- How hard is it to follow the trail in the dark? (We will be hiking in the dark for 4 hours from 2am to 6am until sunrise) A bright flashlight should be sufficient?
- Do we need snow axe? (I have never used one before. I am not sure if we need this due to the low level of snowfall this year, and we are going in late May which is almost summer time.)
- We will be driving from San Francisco, via 108 East toward Bridgepoint, then 398 South down to Lone Pine. We will be driving a Camry. Do you think we will need snow chain on the tires at any point?
- What is the chance that we will get high altitude sickness? Is there any medicine we should bring? (Both my friend and I hiked Half Dome before and didn't get sick. But again Half Dome is only 9000 feet, while Mount Whitney is 14000 feet.)
- What is the difficulty hiking Mount Whitney, comparing to Half Dome? (From what I heard: Half Dome is 17 miles / 10 hours with some climbing on steel cables at the end, while Mount Whitney is 22 miles / 15 hours class 1 no climbing... Does this sound about right?)
- We are planning on bringing 2-way radios so that we can talk to each other in case we get separated (though we try to stick together the whole time). Is that a good idea, or is there any other suggestion?
Thanks!
