Just did my first hike up Whitney on Tuesday - 8 hours to the summit (maybe 45-60 minutes slower than I had figured, but I didn't really care about my time once I was at the top). Saw a pretty massive rockslide on the way up, and spoke to some people on the way down who had to take cover when it looked like it was coming right for them. Had to be a little scary!
I have a chance to climb Mt. Charleston next weekend around a Vegas trip, but am about 50-50 to do it. For one thing, the South Loop is closed from last year's fire so it would be the longer north loop up and back (alas, the South Loop would allow for a shorter hike to Griffith Peak, if plans changed and we didn't feel like an all day hike). For another, I'm still recovering a bit from Whitney - physically and mentally. Whitney was the big goal this summer, so doing another mega day hike so soon isn't stirring my excitement up yet, but we'll see how I feel later in the week (Charleston doesn't require permits).
Anyway, just seeing if anyone has done the Charleston climb and how they would compare it to Whitney - it's only roughly 8200 to 11500 trailhead to summit, but it seems like more up and down and up and down instead of a steady climb, so there's surely a lot more than just 3000 feet of climbing. And if anyone has done it this summer with only the north loop open, was there still a fair amount of traffic or was the trail mostly empty.
Thanks!
