I live at sea level.
1st time on Whitney, I camped at Outpost (10K), then at Trail Camp (12K), then summited. I started feeling bad at Trail Crest (about 13,6K) and felt progressively worse to wanting to die by the time I summited. When I got back down to around 11K again, I felt like superman.
2nd time on Whitney, I was on Diamox this time and felt great, falsely believing that Diamox would fix my altitude issues. I blazed past Outpost with the idea that I would stay the night at Trail Camp. 100 yards away from Trail Camp or so, I got full blown altitude sickness (vomiting, seeing double vision, poor judgement, sluggish thoughts).
3d time on Whitney, I slept three Friday nights on Mt. Baldy (10,064) and then slept at Outpost the first night of the assent. I was on Diamox this trip as well, by the way. On day two, I hiked to around 13K and then slept at Trail Camp. On day three, we attempted the summit. I felt great, but my son was not doing so well. He started feeling sick and had a pounding headache that did not respond to rest or meds and so at around 13,800 or so, we headed back down. I'm convinced that I would not have experienced any altitude issues had I pushed on. My next time up on Whitney, I will again spend a couple of nights at altitude before heading up Whitney.
Brent N
