Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Team Kedge Whitney Adventure & 4 mo. training plan

Hi Steve,

Yes, another group had posted their seven-hour-pace times and I just did the calculations to create this pace card. Here's the value of this chart. First time day hikers may feel that they are behind schedule and push the pace too hard to trail camp. Then they may experience trouble on the switchbacks because they went too hard in the beginning. My group of 10, Team Kedge, started out way too fast. According to the pace card, we were on a 6-7 hour pace, so I instructed them to slow the pace to an 8-9 hour pace. This awareness helped the team greatly. We started at 3am from the Portal with the goal of getting the slowest team member to the summit by noon. The last team member reached the summit by 12:30pm. So even if the pace card is off by and hour or two, it still keeps you on a predetermined pace and keeps hikers from becoming overanxious. The pace card is a great tool to maintain some sort of certainty along the trail. Hope this helps.