Some fascinating history here. Bob R: The White Tower, movie and book, was not only my first inspiration to climb, but the later work by its author James Ramsey Ullman - Americans on Everest - was published the year of my first Whitney attempt and inspired me to go back three years later. That first 1964 attempt ended at Trail Camp not as cold as yours at the hut but wet and with 6" of new snow in the morning, so every bit as miserable. In 1967, I summitted with my parents and in the summer of 1969 I made another ascent and witnessed an event somewhat akin to your view of the fox detonation. At Trail Camp, on July 20 1969, at 20:18 UTC, it was just after midnight (0018 July 21 local time), under a full moon as directly overhead as the moon can get, my girlfriend and I may have been the nearest people on the planet to Neill Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. I am sure one of us was looking up at them.
