I'm interested in combining Mt. Whitney and Mt. Muir into a single day hike. For those who are familiar with it, how much extra time and difficulty would you estimate it requires to add Mt. Muir to a Whitney hike? Am I crazy to consider it?
My plan is to tackle Muir on the way back down from Whitney summit, only if I'm still feeling good and have enough time.
I'll be doing the hike in mid-July, and it'll be my first time at Whitney. My hiking buddy and I have pretty decent hiking experience at altitude, but we're not technical climbers - we walk up trails and do some boulder scrambling, but have little experience with mountaineering equipment. My first try at Mt. Shasta eight years ago, I had to turn around exhausted at around 12500 ft. Since then I've hiked the majority of the JMT, and successfully climbed Shasta, Langley, and White Mountain, and I'm also climbing Split Mountain in June as a pre-Whitney hike. My buddy has climbed Mt. Rainier and been to 17000 ft in the Himalayas.
All the other fourteeners I've done have been two-day affairs, camping overnight part way up the mountain, so doing Whitney (and Muir) as a day hike will be a new experience.
