My wife and I hiked the Mt. Whitney trail last week (10/22). We managed the crux (finding the postage-stamp sized trail sign at 5:45 am) and found ourselves switchbacking up an amazingly urbane trail. Urbane as in your governator could probably take a wheel chair up most of it if he set his mind to it. Above the second camp we donned microspikes (recommended). We also had a whippet with us but didn't use and I wouldn't take one again. The snow was firm and we didn't have to do any post-holing. We topped out under sunny skies and enjoyed a couple of bottles of Sierra Nevada at the top of the Sierra Nevada, seems appropriate (however if anyone tells you a beer helps with an altitude headache, it doesn't). With half a dozen stops (including about 45 minutes at the summit) the round trip took us about 12:45.
Some observations:
The average size of the pack people take on this trail seems to be about 120 liters. The first time I passed by someone with a one of these monsters I assumed they were Gideons packing two dozen bibles up to the summit shelter. After seeing that everyone had packs that big, I realized that's just how people roll around here. (Our packs, together, were less than 30 liters).
Also, Californians like to where there puffy coats. Even when it's 65, and they're hiking uphill, with a pack.
